By Joshua Smith

Students from across campus gathered in Hanes Gym on September 18 for an evening of competitive fun, energy and communal fellowship as West Hall resident advisors (RAs) Austin Federspiel and Camryn Stradford hosted the dodgeball tournament. Federspiel specifically helped with providing the dodgeballs, food and water, along with the sign-in sheet.

The event was advertised on the GC ResLife Instagram on September 14 with the message, “Mark your calendars! Friday night at 4:00 West Hall RA’s Federspiel and Stradford are hosting a dodgeball tournament in Hanes Gym! Find some friends and make a team to sign up with Federspiel or Stradford before the end of the week. We cannot wait to see everyone jumping into a great time and getting some great prizes!!”

Students were encouraged to form their own teams and sign up for the dodgeball tournament with Federspiel or Stradford before the end of the week. The announcement promoted the dodgeball tournament as an opportunity for students to have fun, win some prizes and awards and “dodge negative energy.”

The dodgeball tournament, titled on the GC ResLife Instagram AI flyer as “300 Hall vs Hall Dodge Ball,” uses the slogan “No Mercy. Just Dodge.”

All students were welcome to participate and join, with snacks and refreshments being provided at the event. The winning team at the dodgeball tournament would receive a hall award as well.

Deandre Sellers, a fellow resident advisor for Hill Hall, participated in the tournament as well as taking and staging pictures at the event. He said the event was organized with community building in mind. While he was not one of the tournament hosts, he said that the resident advisors wanted “to bring the community together and have a good time.” Federspiel contributed to this sentiment in his interview by saying that they were hoping to get a lot of people to play.

The dodgeball tournament began with smaller three-on-three games before developing into six-on-six matchups. Instead of assigning team captains, the students were able to arrive with their teammates and were then placed into groups. The games were played as best of five competitions, with Federspiel and Stradford attempting to divide the teams up evenly after seeing how everyone played in the first few rounds.

“We tried to divide it as even as we could,” Sellers said. “We did this to try and make it fair for everyone.”

However, Sellers did say that the team sizes were not much of a concern. Federspiel said that they “started by bringing food and water into Hanes gym and then set out the dodgeballs. When they got started, they played a total of 10-15 games, and added more people as the event went on.”

“The first couple games were three-on-three due to the number of people that were there,” said Federspiel about the structure and format of the games. “The rounds were best out of five games and scoring was determined by these rules: if you hit someone, they are out and if you catch a dodgeball, a person who got out on your team already can come back in the game. Every game lasted probably around five to nine minutes long.”

Safety was also addressed by Federspiel and Stradford before the games began. Players were given established rules that prohibited throwing dodgeballs at the head or private areas (similar to general dodgeball rules). The field of play was also enclosed to not allow too much room, helping people attack better in the games, according to Federspiel.

Federspiel and Stradford adjusted the quality of the teams after watching players compete in the first few rounds, specifically to create a more well-rounded experience for participants with varying levels of dodgeball experience. Sellers described the overall atmosphere of the dodgeball event as “very energetic and competitive.” Sellers said that everyone was engaged in the games and they were having fun too.

The dodgeball tournament was one of several programs (more to come soon) that have been organized by our resident advisors throughout the entirety of the fall semester. A later GC ResLife Instagram post on September 21 highlighted the various recent RA events, including puzzles, music bingo, dodgeball and the biggest event of the fall semester so far, a sand volleyball tournament. The post said that the students who have attended have had fun and it encouraged students and residents to share any of their ideas for future programs.

Unfortunately, Federspiel disagreed with this sentiment, as he felt that there were not enough people at the dodgeball tournament for his liking. He would have liked to improve the amount of time that people knew that the dodgeball tournament was available to students and residents, along with putting the flyer for the tournament in all the dorms. He suggested improving the snacks for upcoming tournaments so the people can “enjoy them better.”

For students and campus residents looking for more than just friendly competition, the dodgeball tournament offered an opportunity to interact with other students and residents, work collectively together and enjoy an afternoon away from the classroom. With the inclusion of the refreshments and awards/prizes, this tournament brought students together in Hanes Gym for an electric start to the RA programs this semester.