dodgeball tournament

When NS was deployed to Qatar as part of his U.S. Air Force enlistment, the movie Dodgeball was released. As many American males know, that movie immortalized the sport, painting indelible pictures in our minds of the players in their 80's sportswear, while giving us many quotable lines. As I said, NS was in Qatar on an Air Force base that was fortunate enough to entertain the likes of Ben Stiller, the movie's star, who demonstrated the game of dodgeball for all the airmen. If he wasn't sold before, this made NS permanently interested in dodgeball. I don't think it takes much to convince a guy that hurling an object at a another person is a worthwhile activity, so my guy is keen to play at every opportunity (and used to play regularly with our pal BW in New Jersey). 

When the annual z99 Dodgeball Bash was held a couple weekends ago, NS and his team were quick to sign up.

Uncharacteristically, NS took the pre-game stretching sequence very seriously.

The uniform was complete with a cutoff tee, knee socks, and a headband.

                      

And every proper dodgeball player has a nickname.

Snake shirt-tattoo, courtesy of PD.

The tournament was held at Cayman International School. I arrived late, which apparently was the best thing to do, since the event didn't exactly start on time. I walked into a lively, loud, music-pumping, costume-filled gym containing every sort of dodgeball player imaginable. I found a perch high up on the bleachers and got to people-watching.

I loved some of the team names. This team was the Dodgefathers.

Here we have the women of the Playball Bunnies. Clever; memorable.

This team consisted solely of super heroes (none of which I recognized.) Probably the most colorful team in the gym.

Our team was the Incredi-Balls.

Team huddle to strategize...

"Okay so, I'll feed the balls to... No, you try to pick off... Uh, just hit some people."

We got this.

Remember the lovable, "husky" white guy from Remember the Titans? He showed up to football practice and said, "I just figure if I gotta be in school, I might as well hit some people while I'm at it." That's about right.

Apparently even guys in fringed, cut-off tees can hurl a dodgeball.

Typical dodgeball rules applied: If you get hit, you're out. If you catch a ball, the thrower is out, plus you bring another teammate in (for a net two-man shift.) No holding a ball for longer than five seconds. Stay within the lines. Etc.
There were real refs to keep people honest.

Each game consisted of three 3-minute matches. While the three-minute rule kept the tournament rolling, it also meant that teams with more people on the court near the three-minute mark started rolling balls to the opposition, trying to force them to throw to the winning team, where a catch would quickly end the game. All this ball-rolling meant a few boring games for us spectators, which led to quite a lot of booing. I'm a loud boo-er.

Our team kept the action rolling, though.

I don't think I'd want to meet the other end of this throw.

I may have been up in the bleachers, but watching an aggressive sport like dodgeball seemed to bring out my fighting spirit too. When not booing at the boring teams, I busied myself yelling at the opposition over the roar of the crowd. When someone was incredulous about being hit, I reminded them: "GET.OFF.THE.COURT!"

Unfortunately, our team didn't win the gold, although they got to the quarter finals and made some good hits along the way. (NS' final throw might have been the one pictured above, right into a girl's nose.) But hey, that's what it's all about, right? If you don't want to get hit, stick to the side lines and take photos. Like me.