
Matt Wallace, senior business major, competes in the intramural dodgeball tournament held Thursday night at the Emporia State Student Recreation Center. Wallace and his team, Thunder from Down Under finished second in the men’s bracket. PHOTO BY KELLEN JENKINS
The Emporia State Student Recreation Center held an intramural dodgeball tournament Feb. 5, which consisted of 23 teams. There were 11 teams on the men’s side, five on the women’s and eight coed teams.
Ballz Deep finished on top, placing first in the men’s bracket. Thunder from Down Under placed second and Str8 Homicide placed third.
In the women’s division, Chi Omega placed first, Sigma Sigma Sigma placed second and The Bullets placed third.
In the Coed Division, Average Joes placed first, the Beavers placed second and Off Consistently placed third.
Men’s and women’s teams could consist of up to 10 players, but six players could be on the field at any time.
Coed teams could consist of up to 12 members but could still only have six players on the field at any time. Coed teams were also required to have at least three females playing throughout the game.
The game is played on a standard volleyball court 60’ x 30’ and all players must remain in the court with the exception of retrieving stray balls. To retrieve a stray ball, players must leave through the end line, or the end of the court.
Six balls are placed parallel to each other across the center line of the court, leaving three balls for each team to retrieve. After the balls are placed on the center line, the six players on each team line up on their end line to prepare to race toward the center line to retrieve the balls for their team.
Each game is played best out of two. In the instance that each team wins one game, a third game is played to determine the winner. To win a game, one team must eliminate all players on the opposing team, either by hitting them with a live thrown ball or catching a live thrown ball before it touches the ground.
In the instance that one team is in possession of all the balls, there is a five second violation in order to keep the games moving.
“There is a five second violation but we pretty much tell them ten seconds,” said Andrew Tabor, the intramural supervisor at the Recreation Center. “If you have all the balls, we do not want you to hold all the balls from stalling the game, so if you hold it for more than ten seconds then we tell them one other player has to come out just to try and keep the games moving at a decent pace.”
This year’s turnout was different than in past years.
“This year is the first time they combined all the divisions, usually they have enough teams that they do Greeks and independent man, but they only have eleven teams so they just combined everybody this year,” said Seville Ko, senior physical education major. “It is pretty consistent, there are more girls teams than usual.”
Ko has played for Str8 Homicide for the past five years in the men’s division. Str8 Homicide won the men’s division each year for the past three years.
“We are just having a good time,” Ko said. “We’re just out here to have fun just like everybody else.”
In intramural athletics, teams compete against friends and students alike.
“It is more about having fun and just providing activities for people to get out there,” Tabor said. “We try to have a competitive environment, but still we promote sportsmanship.”
However, several students were expelled from the tournament for unsportsmanlike like conduct. Such conduct is not tolerated during intramural athletics.
“Sportsmanship is always one thing we try to preach… but when certain activities do get out of hand we normally try to tell the participants they need to leave,” Tabor said.
During the semi-finals, Str8 Homicide was eliminated by Ballz Deep, ending their three year reign.
Nick Carlson, a senior physical education major and team captain for Ballz Deep, aided in the defeat of Str8 Homicide early in the semi-finals.
“We were trying to have fun out there,” Carlson said. “It was a fun time and it was good to get a win. That is what intramural sports are all about-go out and have fun and luckily we came out on top.”
Although the dodgeball season is over, play will continue with the upcoming intramural basketball competition. The dodgeball tournament is held once a year and students will be able to compete again in the spring of 2010.
Cody Grauberger/The Bulletin
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