Red death: The campus dodgeball phenomenon

EDMONTON (CUP) 8212; Players burst off their stomachs, stampeding towards each other in a mad dash to gain ball supremacy. The captured balls rocket across the court, cutting down the slow and the weak like lions aiming for a gazelle.

This is not some masochistic gladiatorial game. This is the second annual Campus Cup, the largest campus dodgeball tournament of the year at the University of Alberta.

Dodgeball enthusiasts participate in 22 hours of balls slapping thighs, chests, and if your aim was true, faces. The brainchild of Rory Tighe, Nick Dehod and Brennan Murphy, Campus Cup started in 2009 out of what Tighe calls “a crazy idea.”

While the previous year’s Cup featured 14 teams, 2010’s tournament swelled to 40 squads ready to burst onto the courts. Each team got 12 players, with no more than eight of either gender. Games lasted seven minutes, or until one side had eliminated the other as teams compete in a round-robin tournament over three days.

Not only does the Cup provide a physically demanding weekend, it allows teams to exercise their creative side, sporting names like Hookers and Blow, Insane Clown Policy, Red Delicious and the 11 Mac Experience.

“There’s a unique opportunity to expand dodgeball to all of campus,” Tighe said. “It’s been so incredibly successful in [U of A residence Lister Hall] and I think it’s been successful every time it’s been tried at the U of A. It definitely has a place.”

As well as being in possession of one of the best names in the tournament, Multiple Scorgasm was also in possession of a violent hangover. “We drank a little bit too much last night,” they explained. “Too many scorgasms.”

The Multiple Scorgasm team represents a common theme in the Campus Cup 8212; ex-Listerites taking advantage of another opportunity to play dodgeball on campus.

Starting in 2003, Mike DeBoer, Adam Houghton, Jon Paul, Mark Matras and Curtis Campbell founded the Lister Dodgeball League, setting in motion a residence-wide craze for tight red rubber-coated foam balls.

In the seven years that have followed, dodgeball has become an addiction for a majority of Lister students.

Originally, 20 teams bravely put themselves on the field, ready to wrap their balls in strong, sweaty grips, and dislocate their shoulders in the noble pursuit of inflicting the stinging pain of defeat on their fellow students. The league has since expanded to 36 teams that adhere to multiple styles of play.

There are different types of games: Classic rules, doctor, double doctor and assassins, and they all have their charms, each sporting a variant on the general dodgeball rule-set. But whatever style of game is chosen, there are going to be balls flying everywhere, red, black or white, with that last one being the Ball of Shame.

Shaved of its red rubber coating, leaving only the white foamy center, getting hit by such a sluggish projectile brings not physical, but emotional pain. If you’re tagged, you must sit in the centre of the court, basking in your shame, secure in the crushing knowledge that you let down not only your team, but, more importantly, yourself.

The game’s popularity is only slowly beginning to increase across the rest of the campus. Armed with an infamous enthusiasm, rabid intensity and some fearsome targeting tactics, the Lister Dodgeball League players play a big part in Campus Cup, often dominating the plucky outsider teams.

Lister Dodgeball League external administrator Zac Scabar has been involved for five years. He describes the league as a subculture unique to the residence.

“It’s something that only Lister kids really understand,” he said. “When you go outside Lister and you meet other people, they don’t know what you’re talking about.”

To a majority of Listerites, dodgeball is more than simply a game to be played on the weekend. Dodgeball is a way of life. Entire floors of the residence are drafted to make better dodgeball teams, all in the name of glory.

Outsiders might be surprised to find out how balls-to-the-wall Lister is when it comes to the sport of dodgeball, but as Scabar explained, “It’s the best way for people to relieve stress, get physical activity, and have fun with their friends.

“Everyone has so much fun; I think it speaks for itself.”

Related Posts