2008 Woodie Awards
Students dive and dodge in dodgeball tourney
Corinne Schuler
Issue date: 11/21/07 Section: News
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UCF's Recreation and Wellness Center was the site of some fierce competition Saturday. The teams of players weren't there to play conventional intramural sports like basketball, football or baseball. They were there to hurl small neon, orange and green balls at each other as hard a possible.
They were there for dodgeball.
Twenty-two all-male and four co-ed teams competed in the event, said Gary Cahen, the RWC's assistant director for intramural sports.
Dodgeball is normally a spring sport, but UCF participated in the event to give "[students] a taste of dodgeball in the fall," Cahen said.
Stride Gum, which sponsored the tournament as part of its Stride On Campus promotion, has sponsored similar tournaments at schools such as Ohio State University and the University of South Florida. Stride gave away T-shirts, wrist sweatbands and gum samples to all tournament participants.
For more than four hours, teams of four ducked, dived, dodged and threw their way through the ranks. The sounds of grunts from eliminated participants and cheers from victors filled the three courts on which the tournament was played.
When the final games were over, the six-member all-male team Vice won the male competition, and the four-member group Team Demolition won the co-ed. Demolition won four $50 Best Buy gift cards and Vice won four $75 gift cards.
The prizes had a lot to do with why Demolition came out to play, team captain Nick Grande said.
"I'm sure people want to come here on a Saturday morning for prizes," said Grande, a senior computer engineering and business finance major.
Tournament organizers said they opted for dodgeball as their sport of choice because of its growing popularity after the release of the 2004 movie Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, the Ben Stiller comedy that took dodgeball from the playground to campus grounds.
"Dodgeball is huge right now," said Kenny Kalinowski, the assistant of the Stride on Campus Dodgeball Tournament. "[And] this is the only game where you can throw an object at somebody else's head."
They were there for dodgeball.
Twenty-two all-male and four co-ed teams competed in the event, said Gary Cahen, the RWC's assistant director for intramural sports.
Dodgeball is normally a spring sport, but UCF participated in the event to give "[students] a taste of dodgeball in the fall," Cahen said.
Stride Gum, which sponsored the tournament as part of its Stride On Campus promotion, has sponsored similar tournaments at schools such as Ohio State University and the University of South Florida. Stride gave away T-shirts, wrist sweatbands and gum samples to all tournament participants.
For more than four hours, teams of four ducked, dived, dodged and threw their way through the ranks. The sounds of grunts from eliminated participants and cheers from victors filled the three courts on which the tournament was played.
When the final games were over, the six-member all-male team Vice won the male competition, and the four-member group Team Demolition won the co-ed. Demolition won four $50 Best Buy gift cards and Vice won four $75 gift cards.
The prizes had a lot to do with why Demolition came out to play, team captain Nick Grande said.
"I'm sure people want to come here on a Saturday morning for prizes," said Grande, a senior computer engineering and business finance major.
Tournament organizers said they opted for dodgeball as their sport of choice because of its growing popularity after the release of the 2004 movie Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, the Ben Stiller comedy that took dodgeball from the playground to campus grounds.
"Dodgeball is huge right now," said Kenny Kalinowski, the assistant of the Stride on Campus Dodgeball Tournament. "[And] this is the only game where you can throw an object at somebody else's head."