By Drew Williams/sports editor
SE Campus hosted its dodgeball tournament on March 4 with eight teams competing.
What seemed like a tournament meant just for fun with team names like the Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies, the Baby Punchers, Balls Deep and the Thin Mints, actually turned into a competitive tournament.
The tournament was single-elimination with the winners of a seven-game series advancing, and each team featured four boys and one girl.
Balls Deep, the returning champs, beat I Wurk in the first round of the tournament 4-2 to set up a semifinal series with Firesquad, who beat the Free Agents 4-0.
Firesquad won the series in seven games in what was the best series of the day thanks in large part to SE student Jessica Bosire. In two of the four games her team won, she was the last player standing on her team and made all of her outs by catching the other player’s dodgeballs.
In one of the games her team lost, she was the last player standing on her team while Balls Deep had all five players remaining. She then got four players out but eventually got hit by the last Balls Deep player remaining when she couldn’t catch his throw.
“It feels good – really good, to be a girl and be the best player on the team,” she said.
In the finals, Firesquad met the Baby Punchers, who advanced to the finals by beating the Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies in seven games and the Thin Mints in six games.
Firesquad won the series in a four-game sweep, partly because Bosire continued her dominance on the court and partly because the Baby Punchers played with only four people since the tournament lasted longer than expected.
“One guy had to work,” said Jonathan Herrera, one of the Baby Punchers. “It’s hard to win with one less player than the other team.”
While the Baby Punchers walked off the court, Firesquad celebrated its championship and started yelling chants of “MVP” while pointing at Bosire.
“I’m so happy,” she said. “I did better than I expected, and we had good players, so I figured we would do good.”
Professional dodgeball players Troy Eggeling and Chris Allbright refereed the games. The two play for the Dallas team that is part of the National Dodgeball League.
Photos by Justin Gladney/The Collegian
“We started playing dodgeball with about 30 guys on Saturdays at the tennis courts of our school,” Allbright said. “Then we heard about a local tournament and got our 10 best players together to play in it. We ended up winning. They flew us out to Las Vegas to compete in the national tournament, and we’ve been playing professionally ever since.”
Dodgeball has developed an international following, Eggeling said.
“We played teams from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Hawaii, Alaska, you name it,” he said.
Eggeling and Allbright encouraged all of the players in the tournament and at TCC to visit www.thendl.com if interested in competing professionally.
“It’s really not that hard,” Eggeling said. “If you’re athletic enough, once you get the strategy and the teamwork down, it becomes a game everybody can play. But that’s the hardest part.”
