Hey fellow dodgeballers, Van Meter here! Check out the Depaul Dodgeball podcast which was done for nationals! All shanangins included, it is somewhat long but definitely worth the time! If you get a chance, give it a listen while you're doing homework or some other unnecessary things!

http://ncdadodgeball.com/ajp/averagejoes_2012-04-05.mp3

Yours always,

Van Meter

Before the End of the Quarter

Nationals:

• Register drivers for drivers certification. Officialness has the links, the form input info is located in the emails with Carrie Don.
• $300 event fee, due by March 20 to SVSU. Check (payable to SVSU Dodgeball) should be mailed ASAP so we can be refunded by DePaul before the travel (at least six weeks).
  Address: Aaron Mowen C/O SVSU Dodgeball, Saginaw Valley State University, 7400 Bay Road, University Center, MI 48710 - Zig
• Turn in event fee reimbursement form to Carrie Don when check is cashed by SVSU. Contact Jardine if check is not cashed, get check image receipt from PNC as a receipt to turn in to Carrie.
• Decide how many people will go. Maybe a 20 person roster, or bring more so more people can play and have fun. We brought 23 to 2011 Nationals at WKU. - Troy
• Reserve Vans. Ace out of O'hare may be the only company to supply us with 15 or 12 person vans. The email has past conversations with Jim Sheridan, search jsheridan@acerentacar.com in the email thread. ($327 last year, per van, for three days). 3 minivans would be expensive as well (1098 original SAF-B estimate). I believe we have to pay out of pocket regardless, as we receive only $549 from SAF-B. Carrie Don can directly charge this to DePaul's credit card.
• James Guyton has offered to drive. Contact him and see if he wants to go and still drive, and he may prove useful in bringing more people.
• Reserve rooms: We received 633 from SAF-B. About 5 rooms i think.  Northgate Inn, Knights Inn, Super 8, Bay City Plaza given by SVSU. Carrie Don can directly charge this to DePaul's credit card. - Spencer
• Adjust trip fee to a rough amount to cover expenses (I expect $40 without fundraising prior)
• Make roster, turn in by March 15 ish. Should be a press sheet and should include stuff SVSU asked for. Also include separate sheet for shirt sizes and gender (don't know if there are female cuts on the shirts)
• Adjust entry fee to match amount of attendees.
• Contact SVSU to reserve extra tshirts if necessary.
• Contact SVSU to tell them how many lady DePaul Dodgeball players are attending, for the lady dodgeball match &&|| shirt styles.
• There are plenty of nuances that I haven't expressed here, i just wanted to cover all the major ones (like financial ones) so the trip fee is kept as low as needed.

Dodgeballs:

• We currently have about 13 dodgeballs. Over the past few weeks i've directly asked individuals that haven't previously donated anything to donate at least one dodgeball to the Club. Nobody wanted to help. Options may include cajoling people for loose change, a dollar here and there, and buying some emergency balls from dominick's, jewel, walgreens, or sports stores. Or using fundraiser remainders to purchase a bulk order of Champion PG8.5 playground balls. Or asking for direct dodgeball donations.
• People that donate dodgeballs should be named on the site under the donation page. I've included some of the past benefactors, its a small thank you but regardless it should be put up there.
• DO NOT ask for SAF-B funding for this. While initially convenient although taking forever, balls bought using SAF-B allocation remain the property of DePaul University, not the property of the Society. This means that the Ray can use and take our dodgeballs at anytime and for any reason. This increases wear and the Ray has popped at least 5 balls in the past two years, which is why I whined to Lisa and we now have a sign that directs the Ray away from our equipment.
• Note: Family Ball does not travel anymore. Personal request. I'm not going to steal it and take it home like other people might have, I will let it enjoy play and a natural death. Just don't let it see the grubby hands of NCDA people that would seek to injure it.

Website:

• Update Memberlist. - Van Meter

MSU Invite Report

For all those interested, here is the official report from the tournament. Enjoy!

DePaul Dodgeball enjoyed another uproariously successful tournament over the weekend. Though finals are fast approaching, and, for some of us, have already arrived, twenty DePaul Dodgeballers took a trip to East Lansing, Michigan to battle it out at MSU. The first match against Ohio State resulted in a final score of 4-3, with OSU taking the win. A Mere ten minutes after nearly overtaking the Buckeyes, DePaul lined up to face the generous host: Michigan State. Though the Blue Demons took another loss (this time 8-1), they showed MSU that victory is not in points, but in attitude. To prove this, the Blue Demons employed one of their most beloved shenanigans—the dead fish. At the start of the third game instead of rushing to the line to compete with the Spartans for balls all fifteen of DePaul’s participants fell to the ground and spasmodically flopped around. While the MSU fans that overpopulated the stands laughed and cheered for DePaul’s demonstration of childish deviance, the Spartan team took pot-shots at the Blue Demon’s heads—thus demonstrating their unwavering competitiveness. After taking another loss with an even bigger smile, DePaul geared up against Eastern Michigan University in a match to decide possession of the famed Mustache Ball. At the University of Kentucky’s tournament last year EMU quite literally stole the Mustache Ball (simply a dodgeball sporting a face with a gratuitous mustache—originally belonging to DePaul). DePaul steamrolled EMU in a 4-2 victory, thus liberating the Mustache Ball and returning it to its rightful owner. Shortly thereafter, the exhausted, tired, and ragged Blue Demons faced their friendly rival, Kent State. After two lazy games (in which Kent took 2 points), the captains of both teams met and decided to forgo the formal match, divvy up the teams, and open the floor to open play. Some Spartan fans came out of the stands to join and members of the other dodgeball teams in attendance stepped in as well, thus concluding the tournament in true DePaul fashion.
The tournament was a great success, and the freshmen Blue Demons got their first taste of what dodgeball is all about, thus ensuring the future of the club and the preservation of the attitude that keeps them always and forever undefeated.

The official NCDA results for the tournament are as follows:

MSU 3 OSU 1
Kent St 2 EMU 0
MSU 4 Kent St 2
OSU 4 Depaul 3
MSU 8 Depaul 1
OSU 4 EMU 1
Kent St 2 OSU 1
Depaul 4 EMU 2
MSU 3 EMU 0
Kent St 2 Depaul 0

Auspiciously,

- Weinert #24

MSU Invite

Attention ye Dodgeballers,

The MSU invite is upon us! We leave tomorrow at approximately 12 noon from the baby crusher on campus. The schedule is as follows:

Saturday 11/5

11:15p - Meet at Baby Crusher
12:00p - Departure for MSU (or sooner if everyone is on time)
7:00p - Arrive at the Flynn residents (eastern time zone, meaning we will loose an hour) taking us about 6 hours with stops etc.
9-10p - Going to Red Roof Inn (3615 DUNCKEL ROAD LANSING, MI 48910 US)

Sunday 11/6

10-10:30a - Wake up call
11:00a - Leave fro breakfast, then making our way over to MSU's Gym
12:00p - Matches Start – MSU vs OSU (Sports Arena, main floor gym), EMU vs Kent State (Gym #3, upstairs gym)
1:15- MSU vs Kent State (Sports Arena), OSU vs Depaul (Gym #3)
2:30- MSU vs Depaul (Sports Arena), OSU vs EMU (Gym #3)
3:45- OSU vs Kent State (Sports Arena), EMU vs Depaul (Gym #3)
5:00- MSU vs EMU (Sports Arena), Kent State vs Depaul (Gym #3)
6-6:30p - We will leave right when the last match is over
11-12a - Will arrive (at the latest) back in Chicago (we gain an hour going back to central time zone)

For all you newcomers, this is the first of many tournaments we have scheduled for this year. It's going to be a blast as long as you remember these essential items:

- DePaul Dodgeball apparel
- Deodorant!
- Painkillers
- Snacks
- Underwear
- Money for food and beverages

Pack light! We will see you all tomorrow morning!

Auspiciously,

- Weinert #24

All Hallows’ Eve

Attention ye dodgeballers:

We have four more guest nights to use up before the end of the quarter, and since today is the beginning of week 8, we need to get on that. So, both tomorrow and monday will be guest nights. Let us know the names of anyone who needs on the guest list by 4pm tomorrow. The sooner the better, though.

Also! As you all well know, one of the most debaucherous occasions of the college experience is upon us: Halloween. You will be expected to arrive to dodgeball in costume tomorrow and monday. Those who resist will be headshotted on sight. We will also hold a sort of rudimentary costume contest on monday.

Auspiciously,

-Weinert #24

Moooooooooody

Congratulations are in order for Moody Bible Institute.  Not only did they host a great match, which will hopefully bring DePaul to their end of the Brown Line more often, but they also surprised the Demons with polished game-play that we all got a glimpse of at the last Nationals tournament.  They've been working hard, and even with a lot of new faces on the court, pulled off a great, hard-earned win.  Congratulations Moody.

P.S. Your fans are awesome.  Can we borrow them for the Chicago Dodgeball Open in January?

- Weinert #24

2012 Season Preview

From the NCDA's season preview article, Brian Weinert #24 previews DePaul's NCDA performance for the upcoming 2011-2012 season.

DePaul's tournament showings last season found the Court Jesters contending with the league giants.  While maintaining undisputed Jesterdom, DePaul also showed that their antics and goofy shenanigans are not compensation for lack of skill, but rather the result of apathy towards their own more serious abilities.  In short, we saw that when the gloves come off DePaul holds their ground. Although the club lost many adored senior veterans, the new lineup of officers who took up the torch exemplify a bright future for the club, or at least one consistent with what is expected.  The new officers: President- Mick Cielesz; Vice to the President- Brian Weinert; Secretary-Troy Dixon; Treasurer- Brandon Polaskey.  The opening night turnout was good, and freshmen recruitment seems more promising than it has been in years.

Goals for the year are few but attainable.  DePaul plans to attend as many tournaments as logistically and financially possible, and to shape our Freshmen into dodgeball-wielding machines of inflated rubber death before the advent of the first tournament.  DePaul’s other goals remain congruous with their attitude: have more fun than anyone else in the league (all challengers welcome), remain undefeated (piece of cake), and regain possession of the fabled “Moustache Ball”.  EMU, we will have our Moustache Ball, make no mistake.  DePaul has the heavy task of making up for lost senior talent with freshmen recruits.  But, already judging by the new talent, which can only improve, the Court Jesters are looking forward to a great season of showing the rest of the league how to really play dodgeball.

With all due respect and friendly competitiveness,

- Brian Weinert, V.P. #24

End of the Year

I'll leave it up to the others if they want to do their own letters, but:

To the members of DePaul Dodgeball,

It's been an honor playing with you all.

I have heard many players over the years say that dodgeball is a definitive part of their college careers: believe it. The people that make up DePaul Dodgeball have made the experience a worthwhile one. Without it, I'd probably be in a much darker place. Probably with healthier knees, possibly a little extra cash.

As far as my experience goes, I would have no regrets. There's a few things I might have refined as a brief administrator, but that's a largely unimportant rant. It's been a great year. Moody: What a pleasant surprise. If your new to DePaul Dodgeball, don't underappreciate the massive amount of stuff we've done this year.

And now i'm going to type a word just because i can: Equidistant.

One night, our Captain Jack expressed he "approved" of what the Club's done this year. While he was concerned that DePaul Dodgeball would experience social entropy after his graduation, he isn't worried about that today. I'm not worried either. The best thing I could do for this year and for the continued operation... was what's been done this year. With the help of Mick, Champ, Heisman, everyone who's spent the money and traveled, and everyone that has continually shown up to dodgeball nights.

So I'm not worried about DePaul Dodgeball with such a group of people. I'll still be around next year, and I'm always willing to help. But like good Cincinnatus, I'll step away from this interim call. As i inherit the Bomis Mantle for the NCDA's operations, we leave the DePaul Mantle responsibility to the officers of next year: Mick, Weinert, Polaskey, and Troy. Should you like to play more dodgeball, please whine to them. Whining is what DePaul Dodgeball does best, a strong tradition of these past eleven years.

I could give you a lengthy discussion about the cliche advice I've witnessed given to the Youth of Tomorrow. I won't because I consider you all to be intelligent and clever enough to figure it out yourselves. You're so crafty. I'll still leave you with this: When we conform to society, we loose part of ourselves. The part that leaves our hearts pounding and everyone else guessing, the part that defines who we are. We must not forget that we're more than our obligations, more than our jobs. DeFaz said it best on the way back from Nationals, we are a tribe. We're much better than any other club sport, fraternity, or sorority at DePaul. We certainly have more balls than any other club at DePaul.

Be inclusive to new people and enjoy. DePaul Dodgeball could be indescribable if but for one thing: Monday and Thursday Dodgeball nights are forever engrained on Court 4.

Just one of your Anarchs & Tribal Cheiftans,

Zigmas Maloni
DePaul Dodgeball #68

Updates – end of 2011

Hey Dodgeballers, just some points for the preparation for the end of the year.

* There are only three? nights left this quarter. Other than that, there's the Midwest Dodgeball Cup that's the only thing coming up. June 18.

* There won't be dodgeball on Monday as the Ray Meyer is closed for Memorial Day. Instead, meet up in the Quad for some outside action.

- DePaul Dodgeball Advisor:
We need an advisor by the end of the year. This is different than our "liason" Lisa for some reason. It can be any faculty at DePaul, my personal opinion would be to get someone that would come and play once and a while. As playing is fun. But in any case we need one for I'll settle for anyone that's willing to put up with us. IF you have anyone, you should probably just take the initiative & ask them.

# New Constitution
I'm writing up an updated Constitution, as the last one was written by Magoo and Co. While still legitimate, the "Fresh Grille" is three names back so... We'll put a vote to the new soon.

% Join the FB group if you haven't, if you like that kind of thing. For those guests and alumni, we also use the group to set up events and guest nights, so jump in as you please.

Ok, what the else...

I wrote a fundraiser letter as per 'popular' request... only problem is that it's typewritten so I have to digitize the thing. When I can get around to it.

We Know Your Excuses: A post on all the excuses and consequential rebuttals I've, and the rest of us promoters have heard over the years.

Other things coming up on the site:
- Club Administration stuff: a graphic style guideline, just because I can. Some media uploads to the gallery. Updates to the Rules. Update the Budget. Write up a club manager guideline, showing what I've done this year and advice for the next. But it's only advice. The Club is ingrained as such a tradition, that it can't be stopped no matter what any particular soul. No individual body can really screw it over for any great duration.

- Zig

Site Release

I decided the site is ready enough to release - I don't like releasing unfinished things. I will be not publicizing it until I change the header or someone stumbles their way onto the homepage.

There will be some new content coming up over the weeks too, but I realize this won't get the greatest amount of hits. It will act as a repository and archive for the group emails and rosters and other stuff that doesn't change so fluidly.

I was going to make a custom theme, and I still might. But people were yelling at me to put out a site, so here's a simple template.

IF YOU SEE ANYTHING WRONG, FIND ANY BUGS please EMAIL & Whine or else I will never fix it.

Also, stop yelling at me.

- Zigmister

Love Dodgeball

Join us for some Love dodgeball tonight, on account of everyone's favorite dodgeball related holiday. What, you didn't know? Valentine himself dodged all sorts of things until one headshot took it to far. And what do you think those Chicago guys were trying to do back in 1929? Bullets are must faster than CMU's cannons, we'll admit.

Dodging balls is much safer, kiddos. 9:15p at the Ray.

Also, some Moody guys will be stopping by!

2010 Season Preview

WIU's Tim Wohead

1. How many players are returning for your team?
We are only losing two players- Tina Miller and Any Janota- due to graduation. Also for Nationals this year one of our last year's captains, Paul V., will be studying abroad and possibly won't attend.

2. What strengths/weaknesses do you anticipate going into the season?
A big strength we have is that we are attracting a lot of incoming freshman and recruiting big arms who have heard of our club now. Our only weakness is financial and being able to travel to all the schools we want to this year. But if there's a will, there's a way.

3. What are the areas you'll look to improve when scouting new players?
You can never have too many big arms on your team but we would also like a couple players that can catch just about anything. And good footwork and agility is a must.

4. What are you goals for this season?
National Champions

5. Why should other teams be scared to play you?
We went to Nationals with one match under our belt. We didn't start pinching or being strategic until a week before Nationals and we still held the 4th seed after the first day of tournament play. Needless to say with most of our players returning and bringing in better athletes, we are going to be more dangerous.

6. Which teams would you like to play?
We get along well with SVSU so that would be one of them. We would also like to face Michigan State just because we got knocked out by them and I feel that we played like crap and would enjoy a little revenge along with BGSU. Lastly, we would be interested in taking on CMU.

KSU's co-captain Kyle FitzPatrick

1. How many players are returning for your team?
Definitely lost 2 of our Vets (catchers at that). But overall were a really young team. We just need people to have the time / money to travel.

2. What strengths/weaknesses do you anticipate going into the season?
Strength: Our teams is no longer 70% rookies, and I believe we will be underestimated. Also I have a better grasp of how to manage a team.

Weakness: Money, we may lack some raw athleticism unlike other teams (cough cough GVSU, CMU)

3. What are the areas you'll look to improve when scouting new players?
We hope to be more active in the scouting procedure. We might try scouting out some middle school dodgeball games for a feeder program.

4. What are you goals for this season?
Having fun, getting new players and improving current players, getting something in the win column. Hopefully attend more tournaments. (Maybe even try to host one.)

5. Why should other teams be scared to play you?
Because you might have fun doing it. Also, we have a unique strategy since even we don't know what were doing most ofthe time.

6. Which teams would you like to play?
Hopefully we play as many teams as possible. I would like to see more of the native Ohio teams this year since we only played BG, OSU and half of Miami once last year. WIU & NSU were fun, competitive new teams I would like to play again. I personally have never played WPU, EMU, CMU and DePaul. Saginaw (meaning Stein) has already issued a challenge to Kent on the forum. GVSU as long as I don't fracture me wrist again. Finally, MSU and WKU are always welcomed opponents.

DePaul's Zigmas Maloni

DePaul Dodgeball will be returning for the start of the dodgeball season with its usual vengeance, and by vengeance we mean beating up on the random freshmen who don't know how to keep their eyes open.

We've lost a handful of our "competitive" roster, but one of the most notable losses has been the graduation of Jack Young. As the face of the team in the league's eyes, "Jack Attack" has become a herald and guardian of that DePaul Dodgeball decorum. So I'm sure he will be missed.

DePaul’s plans for this season include our normal thing - playing as much dodgeball as our bodies can handle. We have hour and a half practices twice a week, but we invite anyone to play without commitment. We play the game as our childish forbearers did. Our games are a juvenile program of delinquency, where the headshot hug rule substantiates our collegiate goals and ambitions.

In other news, DePaul also plans to do more this season than just throw balls at its own team. We are looking to host matches against other teams, as well as travelling to play nice at other schools.

We are kicking off this commitment by hosting our own tournament on October 2nd, 2010. The Chicago Hat Invitational will mix up the teams and hopefully foster some good times to be had. Any teams looking to participate should check out the NCDA forum and/or aggravate their respective captains.

At the last, we would like to keep up our reputation of playing a really fun game of dodgeball. If there is anything to be said about DePaul Dodgeball, it is that we will always be able to entertain ourselves.

Tournament Season + Updates

So, to get the big piece of news out of the way first, we were awarded a good sum of money by SAF-B last week that will cover most of our tournament trip, new balls and jerseys. I’ve already purchased the balls, as we desperately need new ones, so they should be here within the week. Jerseys are going to be ordered very soon, so get your information to Tony if you haven’t.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Invisible Children is holding a 5 v. 5 dodgeball tournament on February 26th at the Ray from 5:45-9:00. The dudes from that club will be having sign-up tables in the LP Student Center tomorrow, February 17th (from 2:00-7:00 PM), and Thursday, Feb. 18th (from 12:00-4:00 PM). The fee is $3.00 per person and all the proceeds will go to various charities.

The NCDA tournament season is in full swing, and believe it or not, the mighty Grand Valley team fell this last weekend to Central Michigan at the Michigan Dodgeball Cup, and CMU ended up taking the hardware home. Western Kentucky also hosted a tournament, in which Ohio State ended up winning. What this means for DePaul is simple… parity is being achieved in this league, and our team this year will help contribute to this growing trend of parity.

Speaking of the tournament… Tony, Kevin and myself have finalized the roster for the National Tournament trip. This is always a painstaking process, but we think we have put together a great roster and are very excited about it. I’m sending out the invite as we speak, but here is the roster…

1. Bryan Simpson (Sr.) #: 21
2. Tony Valdivieso (Sr.) #: 2
3. Ziggy Maloni (Sr.) #: 36
4. Vegim Begolli (Sr.) #: 94
5. Brian Newar (Sr.) #: 35
6. Jack Young (Sr.) #: 77
7. Alec Synakowski (Sr.) #: 16
8. Mike Defazio (Jr.) #: 31
9. Luke Mockaitis (Jr.) #:54
10. Kevin Lange (Jr.) #: 1
11. Jimmy Campton (Jr.) #: 9
12. Andrew Messer (Jr.) #: 7
13. Colin Thomas (Jr.) #: 3
14. Kevin Hill (Jr.) #: 42
15. Mick Cielesz (So.) #: 50
16. Brian Ziebart (So.) #: 14
17. Spencer Steevensz (So.) #: 45
18. Brian Weinert (So.) #: 24
19. Troy Dixon (Fr.) #: 25
20. Tyler Mastracchio (Fr.) #: 8

Again, this roster was based off attendance, attitude/sportsmanship and cohesion. While competitiveness and skill weren’t taken into account, I really think this is a sick roster that will really be able to compete.

See ya’ll on Thursday night.

- Jack

Still Alive… Winter Quarter Update

I apologize about this being the first post in nearly three months, everybody. I hope the quarter is going well for all of you and that your holiday break was good as well.

- Heisman, Tony V. and myself will be turning in the funding application to Student Life tomorrow. We’re asking for a lot to be allocated, but we’re confident we’ll get awarded what we’re asking for… this includes new balls, a portion of the jersey cost paid for, and all of the miscellaneous travel expenses to the National Tournament trip to Bowling Green, OH.

- Speaking of which… the NCDA National Tournament is at Bowling Green State University this year. It will be taking place on April 10th and 11th, which is the second weekend of Spring term. I’ve already spoken to many of you about the tournament trip, but again, keep that weekend open if you’re interested in coming.

- Depaul’s Invisible Children chapter is holding a charity dodgeball tournament on Friday, February 26th at 6:30 up on courts 3 and 4 at the Ray. I’ll start taking down names and teams on Monday. The cost per team is $15, and the tournament is 5 on 5. All funds will be going to children in need in Uganda.

Keep it real everyone… see you tomorrow night.

(Oh… the “Trash Talk” box has been removed due to some tool misusing it.)

Happy Belated Halloween + News

Hey everyone,

I hope you all had a good Halloween. DePaul Dodgeball’s annual Halloween costume night took place last night, and by all accounts it was a great time. Expect more insanity to insue throughout the year, costumes or not.

First and foremost, I would like to apologize for not being around much recently. I’ve had to focus on some personal stuff, mostly school/academic things, that have forced me to miss dodgeball nights more than I would like. Expect more of me next term though!!!

Some big news on Nationals… due to pressure from the NCDA head honchos and not much movement on the planning front, it has been determined by myself and other team captains that we won’t be able to host the National Tournament this year. As much fun as it would be, it’s just too big of a headache for the club, especially considering that it would likely have to be held at another site off campus. That would be lame. So, in all likelihood, GVSU will again be hosting this year.

However, that is not to say that we will not be having any other matches or tournaments here. There is a high probability that we will end up hosting a few matches or a small tournament sometime in the winter, but plans need to be hashed out. Keep posted on that.

Currently, Tony V. is really starting to get jersey stuff in the works. We have it pretty much pinned down what company we’re going to work through, and we’re likely going to be buying basketball… yes,basketball… style jerseys (shorts and tops). They are gonna look pretty B.A. when it’s all said and done, and we’re likely going to have sponsorship emblems on them as well. Look forward to that stuff, and once more news is in about prices and sizes, I’ll let ya’ll know.

With finals just around the corner, I would like to wish all of you happy studying. The last dodgeball of the quarter will take place on Thursday, November 19th. Until them, business as usual.

- Jack Attack

Aaaah, We’re Back…

DePaul Dodgeball is now in full swing. Familiar faces, lots of solid action, and as always, tons of headshots. We play all year long (when not on break or during finals) on Mondays and Thursdays @ 9:30. Come join us.

We’re likely to hold a campus wide recreational tournament in mid-October. It will probably fall on the week of October 19th, and take place over the following three dodgeball nights. We are likely to have Student Government Association, the Inter-Fraternity Council and Pan-Hellenistic Society help promote the event with us, and send all proceeds of the tournament to a charity. More info to come as we know it.

- Jack Attack

GET EXCITED

The first night of dodgeball was a successful one… but there’s even more where that came from. We’re expecting an amazing turnout tomorrow night due to great promotion at the Involvement Fair and Real Life Recess this weekend. You are not gonna want to miss Monday night dodgeball… there will easily be over 100 people.

Again, tomorrow night, Monday, Sept. 14th, @ 9:30 PM at the Ray Meyer Fitness Center on Court 4. Try to show up a little early to sign a waiver/release form.

Thanks to all who visited us this weekend. See you there.

- Jack Attack

DODGEBALL STARTS TOMORROW + We’re in TimeOut Chicago!

Keep your pants on, kids. We have less than a day to go until the inaugural DePaul Dodgeball night for the 2009-2010 academic year. Again, for you newcomers and those of you who forgot, we start tomorrow, Thursday, Sept. 10th, @ 9:30 PM at the Ray. However, please show up early and sign the mandatory waiver form downstairs (Please bring/remember your insurance policy provider and number if you have it handy!!!). Again, you can fill out the waiver form early to save us and yourself time tomorrow night here.

Additionally, we are featured this year’s edition of TimeOut Chicago Student Edition. You can find this around campus for the next few weeks. Look for a small section on dodgeball clubs from around the town. We’re getting citywide recognition!

- Jack Attack

FIRST NIGHT OF DODGEBALL FOR 09-10

Welcome back, everybody.

The first dodgeball night of the year kicks off this Thursday, Sept. 10th, @ 9:30 PM at the Ray Meyer Fitness Center on Court 4. This year is sure to be a memorable one, so make sure you come and join in on the fun.

NOTE: If you could show up roughly 15-20 minutes early to sign waiver forms for this year, that would be wonderful. Myself and several other regulars will be downstairs near The Bean handing out these forms, so keep an eye out for us. You can save us a lot of time by printing out the form and filling it out at home and then giving it to us… you can find that form here.

Also, regulars, check your email/facebook tonight for a notice about meeting prior to Thursday to discuss some stuff.

- Jack Attack

Sometimes known as “That Cult”

Story by Ben Rusch

Most teams in the NCDA instantly recognize DePaul as the team who cares only about fun... and we wouldn't have it any other way. The DePaul Dodgeball club was founded with the intention to allow students to cut loose from their stresses in life, whatever those may be. It initially attracted a wide variety of students from all different backgrounds, and this club diversity became a mainstay in the culture of the club.

Today, our club consists of everything from finance students to musicians and aspiring filmmakers to philosophy majors. Some of us our metalheads, some of us are hippies. There are girls, and there and guys, but we're all dudes. Essentially, we come together despite our differences in lifestyle, career paths and interests because we all have on commonality; we love this freaking sport. You will never find a more cohesive group of people with more differences in personality, and that's all because dodgeball has brought us together to hone our aggresive energy into something that makes us feel like kids again. We're often referred to by lame, isolated DePaul students as "The Cult", because of our ridiculous antics and overt hilarity. These are all huge reasons why we play the way that we do.

Instead of holding practices, we just play. Everyone is invited, and you're numbered off into two games like it's a pick-up game. Non-stop play for 2 hours, thats how we roll. And we have never forgotten the dodgeball, so in the spirit of gym classes all around the country, we attempt to be deviant and goofy as much as possible. Remember that time your gym teacher told you that you were being too aggresive and energetic during dodgeball play??? We burn that teacher in effigy at DePaul. We refuse to put a cap or filter on the fun we have... and this is the exact reason for the phenomenon of "Baby Shark", trick shots like "The Awesome" and "The Shotgun" and our contradictory moniker "undefeated". We will never be defeated because we will always have fun. Plain and simple.

Come join us on Monday and Thursday nights and experience the DePaul mantra for yourself. I promise, you'll never wanna go back to running wind sprints or practicing strategy in your practices again ;-).

Blue Demons Focus on Fun

Story by: Ben Rusch

DePaul University, located in scenic Chicago, is a unique team within the NCDA. Whereas many teams focus on the competitive aspect of the sport, the Blue Demons tend to focus on the fun and ridiculous nature of a bunch of undergraduates playing a child’s game.

Several players take a keen interest on inventing complicated (and usually impractical) trick throws, including The Awesome, The Amazing, and The Mexican Flying Coffin Filler. The spectacular failures and the shocking successes of throws like these are equally entertaining.

In terms of tournament play, DePaul is in a rebuilding phase.

Last season’s National team sported two seniors and 14 players with no prior tournament experience. While numeric successes from Ohio State were limited, we were able to hang out with our good buddies at Michigan State, and our new friend “Chris” from GVSU.

DePaul-style dodgeball has significant differences in game play than most schools in an effort to increase the pace and intensity of the game.

For example, a catch does not eliminate the thrower (though one person from the catching team’s jail returns to the court), and boundary lines (excluding the neutral zone) tend to be fluid.

The basic core belief of Blue Demon Dodgeball is that it’s a game, and while no game should be taken too seriously, dodgeball should probably be taken even less seriously.

When it stops being fun, the reason for grown men and women to throw rubber kickballs at each other ceases to be.

Chronicling the NCDA’s Rise

Story by: Nick Wright & Aleks Bomis

The following is an excerpt from a message board post recounting the league's history. A more detailed account will be available on Mike Youngs's website in the near future. Published on NCDAdodgeball.com, Posted for posterity.

From Wright:

First exhibition match in college dodgeball history (as far as we know): Ohio State at Kent State. Ohio State won, although the rules were much different, the atmosphere much more of a friendly game to have fun than an actual match. The first real game in the league with two teams and set rules was Delta v MSU, where MSU won. Bomis obviously got the ball rolling on that one as the captain for MSU and as far as I can recall, Ben Murphy acted as such for Delta. This match was the first "Michigan Dodgeball Cup."

That was the only "regular season" game that year (2004-2005). The then titled "Spartan Dodgeball Invitational (SDI)" acted as the inaugural MDC championship tournament and featured 5 teams: MSU, Delta, Ohio State, Kent State and DePaul, with Nebraska being invited but not showing.

I believe the Saturday round robin portion went as follows:

OSU 6-0 (def Kent St twice, def Delta twice, def MSU, def DePaul)
Kent St 4-2 (def MSU twice, def DePaul, def Delta, loss OSU twice)
DePaul 3-3 (def MSU twice, def Delta, loss Kent St, loss OSU)
MSU 1-4-1 (def Delta, tie Delta, loss Kent twice, loss OSU, loss DePaul twice)
Delta 0-5-1 (loss OSU twice, loss MSU, loss Kent St, loss DePaul, tie MSU)

The Sunday portion of the tournament featured the top 4 teams (Delta did not play because at the time they were not an official organization/club within their school yet, so were deemed ineligible. I imagine part of it also had to do with the uneven number of teams and the amount of times that we were able to use the facilities that we were in.)

Semi Finals:

Kent St def DePaul
OSU def MSU

Finals:

OSU def Kent St 4-2 (OSU trailed 2-1 at halftime)

The next year was the first full year of the league where there was a regular season. Oakland University, Kentucky and of course, GVSU, made their debuts this season. I wish I had the full regular season standings (maybe I can dig them up in another place that I wrote them down, but most of my record keeping of this time period was on the old OSU dodgeball website which was through the now defunct Geocities hosting site).

The only thing I can state for sure is that this year featured the first Ohio State Invitational, which was supposed to be Ohio State, Kentucky and Kent State. Kent State ended up not being able to make it, so it was just OSU welcoming Kentucky into the league by winning 16-4 (The regulation time score was something like 8-2 and we just kept playing for another hour or two since we had the gym space rented.)

I know GVSU stormed onto the scene and dispatched of Delta and MSU in a few individual matches, and then again in the Michigan Dodgeball Cup, so they ended the regular season ranked #1. Both GVSU and OSU were the only undefeated teams that season, but GVSU had played several more regular season games than OSU.

If I'm not mistaken, DePaul hosted their first tournament that year too, which consisted of themselves, MSU, Kentucky and Kansas State, who actually had a team. I think I'm forgetting another team that participated in this one (Delta, maybe), but I know it wasnt GVSU, Kent or OSU. I remember hearing that this tournament was pretty evenly matched and every team had at least one win and at least one loss in the round robin portion. I'm 99% sure MSU won this tournament because I remember Bomis being all excited and telling me all about it in an AIM conversation, adding that the talk of the tournament was "How good GVSU was," "The Matrix guy has a cannon for an arm" and "Everyone is afraid of OSU's Big Jon."

Delta was also vastly improved during the regular season. I remember being really surprised at the number of matches they ended up playing that year (something like 12 or 16 games) and won roughly half of them--they mostly played vs MSU, Oakland and GVSU. I cant remember if Henry Ford Community College, Alma, or Wayne State had a team this year that they played against. Either those colleges had a team and played once or twice, or they were rumored to be starting teams and they didnt quite get off the ground in time for this season. I wanna say they went to the DePaul tournament as well...so they had pretty much played every team in the league at least once except for the two Ohio teams by the time the National Tournament came around.

We went into the 2006 NCDA championship tournament with 8 teams:

GVSU, OSU, Kent St, MSU, Delta, DePaul, Oakland and Kentucky (Kentucky ended up not coming due to financial reasons). They were replaced by a "JV" team (I believe from GVSU, or possibly MSU) to even out the number of games each team would play in the round robin. Because of the increased number of teams, the round robin portion of the tournament was divided into two pools based on regular season rankings/winning percentage/whatever

Pool A: GVSU, Kent St, MSU, GVSU JV
Pool B: OSU, Delta, DePaul, Oakland

Each team would play the other three teams in the pool once. This was due to there being a lot of arm fatigue by the end of the first day in the first year's tournament.

The results from Day 1:

Pool A-
GVSU : 3-0
Kent St: 2-1
MSU: 1-2
GVSU JV: 0-3

Pool B-
OSU: 3-0
DePaul: 2-1
Delta: 1-2 (to be honest, I dont remember who won the Delta/DePaul game...couldve been Delta)
Oakland: 0-3

So the Single Elimination Championships went like this:

Round 1

MSU def Kent St
Delta def DePaul (these two matches were the first two held as we only had two courts to play on)

followed by

OSU def Oakland (Oakland conceded defeat at halftime, the second half was a massive free-for all among all interested players from any team. Actually this was the highlight of the tournament, lots of fun)
GVSU was awarded a first round bye for being undefeated in round robin play and having more wins in the regular season than OSU

Second Round:

GVSU def MSU
OSU def Delta

Consolation game:

MSU and Delta elected to not play the game and split 3rd place, possibly due to time constraints.

Championship game:

OSU def GVSU 2-1. GVSU led 1-0 at halftime. They won the first game fairly decisively, but then the second game was very drawn out and ended up going all the way to halftime without a point being scored. OSU then came out and won their own fairly decisive game to start the second half. The final full game of the match was a pretty extensive one with that at one point was a 7 on 5 OSU advantage, but then OSU got a couple huge plays to close it out and was able to take the lead with about 2 or 3 minutes left in the second half. GVSU came out blazing, but there just wasnt enough time for them to mount a comeback. This game also got pretty heated at times, but afterwards there was good sportsmanship on both sides and despite this matchup being hyped pretty much all season and it being really close, both sides left with a lot of respect for each other. OSU has since always held GVSU in high regard both in terms of ability (obviously) but also in terms of sportsmanship.

After that, I graduated, moved down south and didn't get to be part of the league in any fashion in 2007, even as a spectator. So beyond 2006, I cant give you and specific details besides that the next two seasons also featured championship games with GVSU and OSU squaring off but with GVSU winning both of them.

As I can recall, the original founders and captains of the early clubs were:

Kent State: Olsen Ebright (team may have been founded even before him, but he was their primary contact person in 2002-2003). He also came to OSU to represent them when the Today Show from NBC came to film a segment about dodgeball--something which was originally supposed to happen at Kent State, but they were between semesters when NBC wanted to shoot the film, so they came to OSU instead. The clip ended up being less about the growth of dodgeball as a sport at the collegiate level and more as a cheap tie in to the stupid Dodgeball movie. I'm not sure specifically who Kent's captain(s) were once the NCDA began, but Nick Fantozzi was one of the leaders of the group and was our main contact person when we wanted to get in touch with them for a game.

Ohio State: Considered to be founded by Gavin Mueller and Todd Burns in 1999-2000 (both graduated and moved on before the MDC/NCDA was even an idea). Marc Ybarsabal was then the captain and primary contact for the first season in 2005, with Joe Ryan as the assistant captain. Marc graduated in '05 and then Joe was the Captain with Zack Mylander and Nick Wright (myself) as the alternate captains. All 3 of us graduated in '06 and we passed the titles on to Dave Shaffstall and Alex Young after that.

As stated before, Bomis obviously got MSU's team off the ground and from what I understand, Ben Murphy for Delta (I'm not sure if there were any co-captains or alternate captains for them during the first year of their existence).

I know DePaul dodgeball also existed well before the creation of the NCDA (I believe they were the oldest club in the league predating the year 2000 if I'm not mistaken). I can't say for sure who founded them, but Ryan "Magoo" McGeehan was their typical contact person in the first two years of the league. For the life of me I cannot remember the name of the other captain that they had, who was a very good player and was a real nice guy in the multiple times I met him. Sorry, I'd know his name if I heard it but I can't pull it out of my head right now.

I wish I had specific scores of all the games, but at the time, I dont think anyone really knew what the league was going to morph into and that detailed record keeping beyond the very basics was going to be a worthwhile use of time. If I got anything wrong with this, I apologize, but to the best of my knowledge this is all accurate.

From Bomis:

The big thing you need to remember is that for the first 3 or 4 years we inflated the dodgeballs until they were taught. It wasn't really by design, it just started that way. I can't imagine playing in the racquetball courts like MSU did those first two years with the throwing speeds people have now. Teams still tried to grip throw, but it wasn't nearly as fast and you'd often get cases of people's fingers bleeding from trying to curve the ball inward. I checked out some old footage recently, it looked tame compared to what goes on today. The other important thing to remember is that the shot clock only existed when you had all ten balls, so a 9-on-1 situation could be held indefinitely. There was also no "legit throw" clause, so you'd see some teams *cough cough* roll a ball to the other side to keep from having all 10.

Murphy sent me an email asking if we wanted to play a game, which sounded fun so naturally we accepted. There was a second place plaque and a tarnished little cup for the winner. This cup became the top of the Michigan Dodgeball Cup trophy (which I'm told is made of solid silver). We showed up at some church/community center and played for about an hour. The church staff was ticked because dodgeballs kept hitting the radiator panels, making these awful crashing noises. MSU won 8-3, I've got some pics stored on my laptop at home.

Yeah, the real reason Delta couldn't play Sunday of that first tournament was because I just couldn't work out a schedule that first year. There was a "must be a student organization" rule which everyone knew about heading in, but Ben seemed to really want it for his group so I figured what the heck, let 'em play on Saturday. I remember the last OSU/MSU score being 8-4.

GVSU... my hatred of them was pre-ordained for so many reasons with that first game. We had to reschedule that game a bunch of times. It wasn't Dave Soukup's fault, the athletic department was just being a pain, and then we realized we had scheduled a game on Super Bowl Sunday, so we had to move it again. I was actually fairly upbeat with that first 4-2 loss, we had come off a much-closer-than-it-shoulda-been W against Delta, having goofed around much of the game, but we'd actually tried at GVSU. They wore blue their first year and hadn't figured out how to be this unstoppable force - yet. I managed to imitate Izzo while I was there - he wasn't having the best season, and earlier that week while trailing he had called timeout a split second before Mo Ager nailed a 3. The second string team was trailing in the closing minute of the half, Mike Youngs is the only one left, I call timeout so I can sub in Rob Freeman, who was a defensive master... and he makes a catch from about 15 feet away. Rob gets hit about 10 seconds in. Youngs was LIVID. And to be fair I was getting overcompetitive at that point.

Michigan Dodgeball Cup came down to the final seconds, with a throw at Kevin Hankinson going in and out of his hands for the GVSU win. It was tough to call that one from the booth, but it made for a heck of a finish.

The extra team at DePaul's Chicago Open was Kansas State. Everyone was drained by the time we got to the end, but we managed to pull that one out and sing the fight song and everything. I was almost bouncing off the walls because we had actually managed to string some Ws together after struggling most of the year, Rob Viola got a game-saving OT catch between his legs (I think against Delta). I'm also pretty sure DePaul had some footage of Nick Gebauer getting clocked by a Kansas State player, I mean right into his face.

Oh, and a funny story I just remembered! So like I mentioned earlier, there wasn't any shotclock rule, and you could roll a ball to the other side and there wasn't anything in the rules to stop it. Delta had been catching some flak by this point in the year for not doing anything unless they had at least 7 or 8. DePaul decided to flip the script on them, not doing a thing unless they had all 10 balls. Not knowing DePaul's plan, I wander over to check their score at halftime: 1-0 DePaul. I check back at the end of the game, same score. I look at Murphy who's passing me. "Don't even TALK to me, Bomis!" Once we found out what DePaul did we couldn't stop giggling. I think Viola applauded.

2007

MSU managed to score huge on the fundraising front and had enough money to rent a bus for a rare fall Thursday night game at Grand Valley. Once we got there, it was clear they were on a mission, destroying us 16-0. Black eyes and bruises abounded. I remember the newer guys begging me to put up a fight with the refs or Soukup, but the truth of it was we were just plain getting stomped. At one point the crowd started laughing at Freeman who'd been laid out and wasn't moving (eventually he rolled under the net/wall just behind the baseline) and no one appeared to be doing anything to help him. At that point I snapped and blindsided Dave with a rant that I'm not even sure made sense, but I was getting on him for everything and anything. Amazingly enough, we didn't lose any of the people who were at that game.

State won in overtime vs. Delta later that month, with Gerald Hessell hitting Dave Halloran with about :40 to go in regulation. Later that year they'd have their first lost to DC in Saginaw, and again at the MDC that February, the last televised game MSU had. Oakland was kind enough to serve as sacrificial lambs in the dodgeball halftime show for the basketball doubleheader.

OSU put together the spring tournament, but for whatever reason that fell through in March and in 24 hours I was somehow able to cobble together enough court time to host in April. Marshall tackled a GVSU player at one point, MSU lost either 8-1 or 8-0 to GVSU, and GVSU finally beat Ohio State.

Promo – 2006

Highlights put together by Connor Dempsey. Includes some stuff from the 2006 Michigan Dodgeball Cup - Back when it was played by whoever could get themselves there and not just Michigan teams.