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stltoday
Ducking, diving, dipping and dodging
By Doug Moore
Of the Post-Dispatch
Sunday, Apr. 17 2005
The way that St. Louis University freshman Tim Letizia explains it, winning at
dodgeball is an art form.
There's the ducking, the diving, the dipping and, oh yes, the dodging. In a
game that can be over in mere seconds, it looks more like chaos.
Six balls being thrown at once. Six persons per team. If you're hit, you're
out. If you catch it, the thrower is out. A best-of-three match can last five
minutes.
It's the frenzied and sometimes free-form play that has made dodgeball a hit on
college campuses across the country and got the attention of Hollywood, which
made it into a popular movie last year.
At St. Louis University, Letizia and his five teammates won the spring league
championship over teams that were buffer, taller and more powerful.
"We have a lot of agility, we're small and we have speed," Letizia explained of
his coed team. "We also have court awareness, knowing where the balls are."
Then there was their secret weapon, freshman Colin Harris. "He ducks like a
crazy man," Letizia explains.
Last fall, 29 teams played in Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's
dodgeball league. Another league is planned after summer break. The Belleville
Parks Department and O'Fallon, Ill., YMCA also offer dodgeball leagues.
"It's that elementary school playground game that really takes the kids back,"
said Chad Rodgers, assistant director of recreational programs at SIUE. "Most
students can really relate."
But as dodgeball increases in popularity on college campuses and in city and
YMCA adult recreation programs, elementary schools are benching the sport.
"The demoralization of getting hit in the head or the groin is not a good
thing," said Mark Sissom, director of physical education curriculum for the
Rockwood School District. "We discourage any kind of elimination activity. The
goal is to keep them as physically active as possible. If you're one of the
first ones hit, then you stand to the side while everyone else plays."
Kent Proffer, a physical education teacher at Ellisville Elementary in the
Rockwood district, put it this way: "I believe that human beings should not be
used as targets. We adapt games so that children are throwing at targets,
rather than each other, and still have fun."
Proffer's comments parallel those of the National Association for Sport and
Physical Education, an organization in Reston, Va., that works with schools to
promote safe, healthy activities for students.
"It is not appropriate to teach our children that you win by hurting others,"
said Dolly Lambdin, past president of the NASPE.
Jim Rosborg, superintendent of Belleville District 118, says there is no
outright ban on dodgeball in his schools, but the sport is played less as
concerns grow over safety and self-esteem. The emphasis in Belleville and other
school districts is to focus on cardiovascular activities such as walking and
jumping rope.
Thrusting students who are not athletic into a competitive game where they are
easy targets is discouraged, Rosborg said.
The important difference between league play and school play is that P.E.
classes are mandatory. Those who choose to bean their friends at the YMCA
gymnasium are doing so because they opt to.
The resurgence of dodgeball began about 10 years ago on college campuses and
from what was then a fictitious organization, the International Dodge Ball
Federation.
"We made up a Web site and said we would be playing for the champion of the
world," said federation president Rusty Walker. "The Web site took off and
people e-mailed us, and then in six to eight months, it was real."
The federation, based in Gulfport, Miss., is one of two organizations that are
looked to for guidance in starting dodgeball leagues. The other is the National
Amateur Dodgeball Association, a division of the Schaumburg, Ill., Park
District.
"Back in 2000, the Schaumburg Park District tried to think of an event that
would bring people to town," said NADA director Nick Troy. "We picked
dodgeball. I don't know if it was supposed to get this big, but it did. It
really caught on."
Last year, the annual tournament attracted 103 teams. The dodgeball
organizations estimate that at least 300,000 people participate in some sort of
dodgeball league each year.
The Mississippi group advocates playing the game with one ball instead of six.
"It takes the luck out of it and it becomes a sport. It brings the skill level
higher," Walker said.
Both groups maintain that the game is safe, mainly because the balls are softer
and smaller than the large, red rubber ones that can leave a welt the size of a
saucer. Age levels range from junior high to 40-somethings.
"We've been doing it for 10 years and never had a drop in interest. The main
market is youth. That's our strongest demographic. It grows 15 to 20 percent a
year," Walker said.
The movie "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" brought a surge in the game's
popularity last year. In the film starring Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn, the
geeks beat the gym rats. GSN, formerly known as the Game Show Network, enters
season three in mid-July of its popular Extreme Dodgeball.
"Ball hits man. That's a funny concept right there," said Ian Valentine, senior
vice president of programming for GSN. "It's OK to take a ball and hit somebody
else. Can you think of another sport where that happens?"
Students at SLU say the appeal is bringing all skill levels together and using
the strengths of each player to knock off the other team.
"And," says Letizia, "it keeps you off the couch."
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