York students dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge for glory

Alexander Colle | Sports Editor

Featured image: Annual dodgeball tournament allows students to throw away stresses all night long. | Mackenzie Clark

Their limbs ache, their exhaustion is undeniable, and their sleep is limited—this perfectly sums up the experience of a typical RAGE Dodgeball player during York’s annual dodgeball tournament. But why do they do it? For eternal glory, of course.

This Friday, York held the 2017 RAGE Dodgeball Tournament, an all-night event that pins 66 teams spanning every college against each other at the Tait McKenzie Centre. The first matches start at 10:30 p.m., with the championship final beginning at 8 a.m. the following morning. The earliest a team can get knocked out is 2:30 a.m., when the first round is scheduled to end.

Depending on how well a team does, they could be knocked out three hours later at 5:30 a.m., or a couple hours after that at 8 a.m. Only the best of the best get to this point, as players battle physical and mental walls as the clock ticks on. Considering these pains, one might wonder why they even do it in the first place.

“I’m here because dodgeball is a great way to get out and get active,” says third-year Film Production student Austin Maxwell, “and an even better chance to hang out with a bunch of cool people and meet people from other colleges. Right now, I’m playing for the Purple Cobras of Winter’s College. We’re hoping to win.”

Among the dodgeball hype was a noticeable sense of pride for each team’s college. Some teams opted to dress up for the occasion, with team costumes spanning from The Incredibles to animal onesies, Hawaiians, and the fabled Purple Cobras, a team based off of the popular dodgeball film Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.

“There’s a lot of school spirit out here,” continued Purple Cobra Maxwell. “There’s a lot of inner-school rivalries between the colleges and it definitely helped bring the experience up.”

Among the physical and mental challenges of playing all night are also social challenges that come as a result of self-refereeing the matches. The lack of an outside official brings another level of competition, as all players must agree on calls no matter how controversial. Some teams peacefully agree on calls, while others passionately dispute them, at times resulting in heated shouting matches and even fights between the mentally-exhausted players.

All of this, done in the name of eternal dodgeball glory.

Despite the aching muscles, exhaustion, and constant disagreement between teams, when asked if he would participate in the tournament next year, Maxwell simply respond with: “And the year after that.”

Remember—if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball. Thankfully, no wrenches were thrown during the tournament this year, as teams had a memorable experience representing their colleges in a fun-filled night at York.