As part of the Campus Fun initiative, students of the Arts and Entertainment Management Program staged a dodgeball tournament last Wednesday to show that even the small Capilano University campus should not be exempt from partaking in the grand pseudo-scholastic discipline of ganging up on the weak in addition fashionably donning, in most cases, a patchy moustache. Dodgeball has always been a favourite of the semi-athlete as most people can definitely remember happily pelting opponents in grade and high school. However, it seems the tournament struggled to achieve maximum participation. Originally 10 teams, out of a maximum 16, signed up for the competition. The tournament would finally consist, after further reduction, of six teams competing in a Best-of-3 elimination fashion. Teams were by and large made up of six players with an average male-to-female ratio of 2-1.
“There had to be at least one female because Vancouver Dodgeball League rules demand it so,” explains Storrie Serres, the tournament organizer and arts and entertainment student.
According to its business card, the Vancouver Dodgeball League first and foremost promotes “organized chaos.” And that organized chaos, last week, consisted of blue, red, orange and green balls of humiliation missing people’s heads and reproductive organs by mere inches.
This was only one of the many events in Campus Fun’s repertoire. Events also included last week’s Amazing Race in Middle Earth. A cycling club is also in discussion, Serres says. If the club comes to fruition, students will able to join Serres and her crew for idyllic rides around the North Shore. However, Campus Fun’s existence is always trivial from semester to semester and Serres adds that a return to the event planning “would be nice, but that [she] will see.”
The eventual winner was a mix of extracurricular soccer players who missed the news that their customary Wednesday noon activity was cancelled to give way to something less exclusive. They quickly shifted mind frames and muscle memory from their pedestrious preference to their hand-eye coordination. This decision would prove fruitful. According to Mike, the winning team’s star player, the strategy to Dodgeball success is “Athletes always win.” No more, no less.
This turned out to be true since success in such a Darwinian sport seems to require cheetah-like agility, Mr. Miyagi’s reflexes, and the precision and strength of a Navy SEAL. The soccer players exhibited almost of the characteristics.
In true athletic fashion, post-game incentives and prizes included gift cards, pizza, a general sense of accomplishment and smiles all around. Hopefully next year the Arts and Entertainment Management students can convince more students to recognize the joy of this proven anger management technique and sign up for what ends up being an amazing butt work-out.
//Sasha Lakic, Writer
//graphic by Natahsha Prakash
