By: Carter Vosters
So far, this year the UWP Dodgeball team has competed in the most tournaments in a single semester in its history to date (On track to play the most games ever in a single season as well). We have competed in four away tournaments and held one home tournament. The tournaments we travelled to included: The Nebraska Cornhusker Clash, DePaul DUI, The Chicago Dodgeball Open, and The Whitewater Winter Basher. The home tournament held was the Blue and Orange Ball Chucking Bonanza, the first 6v6 tournament in the NCDA.
Cornhusker Clash (9-24-16)
This was our first tournament of the year. It was held by the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. At this tournament, we faced off against DePaul Dodgeball Society and against the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Our first game we played against DePaul. We won the game in Overtime 4-3. This was our first game of the year and it showed in how we played. It took some time to get back to the basics of the sport. DePaul took 3 points in the last half tying up the game and forcing the overtime. We faced off in a 6v6 for the overtime and managed to take the point. Our second game was against Nebraska and we lost 3-1. Nebraska came ready to play in this game, using better techniques and strategies. We simple got out to fast at the start and down to many players to keep competing. A lack of communication also played a role in the loss.
Results:
UWP def. DePaul 4-3 O.T.
UNL def. UWP 3-1.
DePaul University Invite (DUI) (10-16-16)
DePaul hosted this tournament with Northern Illinois University (NIU) and us (UWP) in attendance. For NIU this would be their introduction match into the NCDA. This would be the second time we played against DePaul already in the season. We played DePaul right away in order to give NIU a look at the style of gameplay and to give them a look at some of the new rules. Against DePaul we won 5-0. Contrary to our typical style of not doing well for our first game in a tournament, we all did well. We played together, and used our heads. Our second game was against NIU, where we went 8-1. For an introductory tournament NIU did an excellent job. They have a team full of athletic players and mostly all have a great catching ability, which is why they were able to take a point on us. Overall, I would say we did well at this tournament and it was something that we could build on.
Results:
UWP def. DePaul 5-0.
UWP def. NIU 8-1.
Blue and Orange Ball Chucking Bonanza (6v6) (9-29-16)
This was the home tournament held by us with DePaul, University of Wisconsin-Eau Clair, and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in attendance. This was the first trial of the 6v6 style game play in the NCDA. The games started with a round-robin style gameplay to rank the teams. Every team was divided into two sub-teams. So, we had UWP-A and UWP-B because of the number of players in attendance. UWP-A went 6-0 in the round-robin, while UWP-B went 5-1. In the championship bracket both UWP-A and UWP-B were eliminated in round two and faced each other in the consolidation bracket where UWP-A won. All of the UWP players played very well in the round-robin but failed to perform in the actual bracket. Overall, the new 6v6 style is something I would expect to see in the future, as it helped some of the smaller teams debut.
Whitewater Winter Basher (12-4-16)
Hosted by University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (UWW), this was their first home tournament. DePaul and UWP were in attendance. This would-be Whitewater’s first full game (15v15) and induction match, they had attended the (6v6). The first game played was us vs. DePaul, were we won 2-0. The game started out slow and took all the first half to score the first point. DePaul made numerous catches nearing them to the point, but with the help of many players on our team we came out victorious. This game was a lot closer than the previous game where we won 5-0. The second game we played was against UWW. We came out with the victory with a 6-0 lead. The game was tougher than the score suggests. UWW is a very up and coming team that has a lot of potential. Many of the players (Including recently graduate Matt Bautch’s brother) have a lot of skill at catching and could have in the near future an arm as strong as his brothers.
Results:
UWP def. DePaul 2-0.
UWP def. UWW 6-0.
Chicago Dodgeball Open (1-14-17)
Well, this tournament was over our break and we just had enough guys to send to the CDO. We played three teams there: Bowling Green State University, Saginaw Valley State University, and DePaul University. We had a very young squad there which was okay because it turned into a good learning experience for them. It helped them figure out how to play the game and strategize. We played more as a team, pushed, called out throws, and had each other’s back. For the first time this season we played teams that were at our skill level or above. The scores don’t show it, but the team played really well and it carried over to the first practice. Let’s hope it continues on to the rest of the season because if we are going to play well at nationals it needs to happen.
Results:
SVSU def. UWP 8-0
BGSU def. UWP 5-0
DePaul def. UWP 4-0
End Results: UWP 5-4 so far this season.
Upcoming Tournaments
Upcoming tournaments: Zanderthon-Throwdown (possible teams in attendance: UWW, NIU, Nebraska, DePaul, UWEC, and UWP), possibly the War at Akron (sort of a mini nationals), and Nationals in Kentucky (where all the teams gather for the potential to become national champions).
Final Thoughts
Overall we have competed in more games in a single semester than any previous year. More experience with all of the games has shown impact on the teams skill. In the season so far we have faced many of the same teams, which could be a surprise come nationals, but I believe doing so has also helped us focus on how to play better, allowing us to focus on techniques and catching. I would expect us to do better at nationals this year than the previous year, as long as we can continue to get in games.
End of the Year Recap (2015-2016)
Posted on Saturday, May 14
Dodgeball Club
By: Carter Vosters
The Platteville Dodgeball Club would like to personally thank our President, Erik Zander for the effort he put in this year for us to be able to have a full team. The Club has welcomed many new freshman this year after only having 7 returning varsity players. The 2015-2016 season started off with our annual welcome weekend pickup game. The welcome weekend game is a way to help recruit players and get people interested in the sport. We had only a handful of practices before our first real game at the Pioneer Classic against DePaul.
Pioneer Classic (September 19th)
Here we faced off against DePaul, with many new players not knowing what to expect, including myself. Our team started off with fairly poor communication, leaving many players to get out on easy plays. After playing a few points many new players were able to understand how we worked as a team, helping us score the needed points against DePaul. Our team ended up playing quite well for the first game together, but to be a serious team in the upcoming tournaments we needed to work harder. It was a real learning experience for the team, to help us prepare for upcoming tournaments that we would face.
Grand Valley State University Tournament (Grand Valley Gauntlet #1) (September 26th)
The tournament Grand Valley State University (GVSU) held first semester of the year was our first tournament this season. All the nerves of the new players were high, knowing that we had to play well since we travelled so far to get there. Only four varsity players were in attendance for our team along with 7 freshmen. In this tournament we were to play Grand Valley State University and Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU). During the game against GVSU, before any points were scored, our team was losing players from getting hit in the feet. We couldn’t get the concept down to block our feet. Also, some players stayed in the back instead of pushing up, which made us have to throw across court instead of up on the line. During the second point we were using great communication and making key blocks, but still getting hit below the knee. The third point our team was scrambling around, playing everyone for themselves making it a fairly quick point to take on us. The second game was against SVSU, and saw the same results for our team. Over all, we may have not had the best rounds of dodgeball but it was a great learning experience for our team, to learn how to face the Michigan style of play to help at Nationals.
Central Michigan University Tournament (King of the Mountain)
(February 6th)
Our next tournament took place at Central Michigan University (CMU), where we played Saginaw Valley State University, Ohio University, and CMU. Our first game was against Saginaw, where we had complete lack of communication, and therefore ended up losing 0-6. The second game was against Ohio, where we had better communication, but yet still lacked strategy. We ended up winning 6-0, but we didn’t play to our full potential. Our last game we played CMU, where we played exceptionally well. At the beginning many of us seemed scared because they threw hard, but thanks to a 5 catch streak from Brandon Dane we were able to keep up and give them a really hard earned first point that took nearly 15 minutes to win. The next couple points also took a while for them to earn on us thanks to great communication, but it wasn’t until the very end where we played our hearts out. We had them down to 1 player, about 6 left on our team, and only seconds left on the clock. Unfortunately, we were unable to secure the point before the game ended. The CMU tournament helped our team understand the need for us to always be pushing up to the line, otherwise we get trapped at the back and can easily be taken out. It also showed us the potential that we had, as long as we work hard and prepare for future tournaments.
Zanderthon Throw-Down (February 20th)
The “Zanderthon Throw-Down” was the first tournament held by us for the year. The teams in attendance include the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, DePaul Dodgeball Society, and the Platteville Pioneers (of course). The day started out with our JV squad facing up against Nebraska. This was the first time playing them in the year, and their first game. It was a tough match playing without any of our veteran players, because they are the voices on the court usually. They scored the first point on us, while we were still figuring out how to communicate with the loss of key players. We came back and managed to score 2 points on them with the help of Brandon McCullough and his great catching ability. In the end Nebraska ended up taking the win 3-2 against us, because of the lack of communication from having lost vital players. The second game had us playing against DePaul, with all varsity players back in the game. The communication definitely improved helping us take the win 4-1. For the last game of the tournament it was Nebraska versus Platteville, with our varsity players also in for this game. It was easy to tell how different we play when we have players with years of experience because we played like we actually knew what we were doing again, having us take the win over Nebraska 5-0. The Zanderthon tournament helped the new players by allowing us to be able to think on our own, and try to fully understand and develop the game by ourselves.
Nationals at Bowling Green State University (April 15th – 17th)
This year Nationals was held at Bowling Green State University with 18 teams in attendance. The tournament was a pool style nationals with the start being on Saturday where we played Kent State, Ohio State University, and Baldwin Wallace. The day started off with us facing Ohio State University (OSU), where we were scrambling around. OSU took a quick point on us in the beginning, which sort of killed the mood for our players. We didn’t give up though, and managed to snag a point off of them tying it up 1-1. During the second half we once again fell apart leaving them to win 2-1. The next game we played a new team in the league, Baldwin Wallace. Our team went into this match with the wrong mindset, thinking that since they were a new team it should have been an easy win, we found out we were dead wrong. We managed to take a slow first point on them, taking nearly the whole first half. At the start of the second half they managed to take a point on us, because we were messing up on very mediocre things, i.e. not seeing someone kneel in the corner of the court with a ball. Baldwin Wallace ended up winning 2-1, very devastating for our teams’ mood. The last game on Saturday had us playing against Kent State. We played like we did in the second half of the Baldwin Wallace game because we let the losses get to our head. Our communication through this game was average at best and everyone was getting tired since it was our third game of the day. Kent ended up winning 3-0 against us. From the losses suffered on Saturday we had to play Ohio for the ability to gain entry into the bracket. We had played Ohio previously in the year at the CMU tournament so we knew how they played. The points dragged out long against Ohio, they had definitely improved since we played them earlier in the semester. There were a few times they had us down to only a few players but we managed to make essential catches, giving us the win 3-0. The win meant we would be placed at the 16 seed, losing 4 places from our 12 seeding on the beginning of Saturday. It was the number 1 seed Grand Valley against us for the first bracket game. This was easily our best game of the season, we worked together like we were 1 person, had great blocks especially from D’andre Johnson, and were throwing on target. Many times throughout the game we had them down to only a few people, which you could tell they weren’t expecting from us. In fact, we were playing so well that they had to play their best player, the MVP of the league. During the entire game our team had a fire under us that couldn’t be stopped. We did end up losing but that is one game that showed us how great of a team we have. GVSU went on to win later that day, saying that we were easily better than a 16 seed, and that we were one of the toughest games they had played at Nationals.
The season went by very quick, from the very first practice to Nationals. The new players have come a long way in only one season, with a thanks to all of the varsity players who pushed us to be our best. Next season is going to be great for our team, and we all are looking forward to seeing how far we’ve come. The club will be saying goodbye to President Erik Zander and Vice President Drew Van Asten. We will also be saying goodbye to Captain Matt Bautch at the end of the upcoming fall semester.
A side note from some of our senior players Erik, Drew, and Matt.
“We are excited to see how the team does now with experience under their belt and we know that we left the club in the capable hands of the new board members. We know that they will help the club make some noise in the league next year.”
An outlook of the board for the 2016-2017 Platteville dodgeball club includes welcoming,
President- Nick Harding
Vice President- Jeremy Oney
Captain- Brian Hargrove
Co-Captain- Dominic Cypher
Athletic Trainers- Matt Bautch and Jeremy Oney
Treasurer- Will Martin
Secretary- Dave Ruegsegger
Content Writer- Carter Vosters
Upcoming Tournaments for the Platteville dodgeball club in the 2016-2017 season
University of Nebraska- Lincoln (September 24th)
DePaul (October 8th)
University of Wisconsin- Platteville (October 22nd)
And Lastly, Always remember the 5 D’s of Dodgeball. Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive, and Dodge!
