If You Can Dodge a Wrench...

While some PEA students buckled down in the comfort of their dorm rooms last Friday night drinking Earl Grey tea and catching up the latest episode of “The Walking Dead”, a large group of athletes ventured out into the below-freezing darkness to compete in the Student Council (StuCo) sponsored dodgeball tournament.The concept of a dodgeball tournament has been tried and tested before, with student tournaments showing great success in bringing fun competition to campus. Upper Rebecca Ju, one of the tournament’s orchestrators, said, “We’ve had plenty of success with class dodgeball events, and it’s such a popular event we wanted to bring it to an all-school level.” The Recreational Committee of Student Council created the school-wide dodgeball tournament consisting of nearly a dozen teams composed of ten to twelve members.Initially, the event was scheduled to be held in the Love Gym, but because of a scheduling conflict between StuCo and the wrestling team, it was moved to the Thompson Gym, a smaller venue.The night started out slowly, with people wandering in through the doors searching their teams, but quickly gained energy as the first referee call of “Dodgeball!” rang across the basketball court. After the first round of single-elimination, only four teams remained standing. While many players on the losing teams immediately left, others stayed and joined the teams that remained.StuCo President Benj Cohen did not approve of the “team-hoppers” and said that in the future, StuCo would structure the tournament in such a way so that it would become impossible to switch teams.

“I think that in any Stuco event, the goal is to make kids happy, and we took on that goal tonight.”

“Next time we need to stress that kids can’t change teams,” Cohen said. “I think that any event like this is hard, you want to make sure kids are having fun, and so as the ref or as the organizer, you don’t want to be draconian about the way you handle things. But I think this tournament we could have done a better job of being more strict about who is on what team and getting more consistent reffing.” Many students voiced similar concerns. Prep Vishaak Narayan said that the cramped venue made the tournament feel less structured. “I feel it was really cluttered and there wasn’t much organization,” Narayan said.

Even members of the winning team, the “Wrench-Dodgers” (named after a line from the comedy movie “Dodgeball”, “If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball!”), felt that the tournament was too hectic. Upper JT Thompson said, “My only critique is that the tournament was a little chaotic and I think it would have benefitted to have some adult refs to watch over the game.”Even though the night was disorderly, students enjoyed themselves and anticipate the next Stuco-hosted event. Prep Tanner McGowen said, “This tournament was very fun and I would look forward to another event of the same type.”Cohen also believes that the goal of creating a fun event for students was achieved. “I think that in any Stuco event, the goal is to make kids happy, and we took on that goal tonight.”Upper Katya Scocimara agreed, saying that the tournament was successful in distracting Exonians from their busy schedules by providing an outlet for the over-worked students. “Being in a very low competitive, low pressure situation that is very different from the high-pressure situations we’re put in when assigned homework or in the classroom was really great.”Senior Brendan Rosseau, also a member of the “Wrench Dodgers,” enjoyed the tournament immensely. “Winning this dodgeball tournament has been a lifelong dream of mine, and we’ve been training almost every day for months, so it was good to see all that hard work pay off,” he said. “All of my childhood heroes are dodgeball players, so it's been incredible to count myself in that elite rank of athlete. My parents called me right after they got the news to say that they were proud of me, so that was a special moment.”