School dives into dodgeball season

By Daniel Son-Bell
Staff Writer

Since it began four years ago, dodgeball has become one of the most sucessful spirit-generating activities at the school. For nearly two weeks every May, the entire school is on its feet, whether cheering in the stands, providing in-game commentary, fighting for their lives on the court or dressing up in zany costumes.
“We never see this many students getting this excited on this big a scale,” ASB President senior Nima Emami said.
Many teams go out just to have fun, treating the tournament more as a spirit activity than a sport. One such team is Team East Asia (EA), which chose its name because a different Team EA won the tournament in the past two years. The team said it is in the tournament just for fun.
“Dude, we are not going to live up to [last year’s] EA,” EA team member senior Bill Guo said.
On the opposite end of the spectrum are teams like the OT Ballers, that made it all the way to last year’s semifinals.
“We take it pretty seriously,” OT Ballers team member senior Andy Moore said. “We’re trying to actually win the whole thing. It’s the first priority for all of our team members right now.”
It takes a certain level of intensity to contend for the title. After all, in the words of legendary dodgeball coach Patches O’Houlihan from the movie “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story,” dodgeball is “a sport of violence, exclusion and degredation.” However, some believe that teams at school have taken this mantra a little too far.
Assistant Principal Cristy Dawson expressed several concerns about the tournament, the biggest of which is that teams typically consist of five guys and one girl. According to Dawson, the teams that have more females usually get “totally demolished” in the first round.
“It’s become absolutely male-dominated,” Dawson said. “This year it’s a huge problem.”
Dawson does not believe that it is fair that girls are being essentially shut out from the tournament when student participation is a priority.
Dawson said that she was not initially concerned about this because girls could compete in both the Powder Puff football and kickball tournaments earlier this year. However, few girls in the school ended up participating even in Powder Puff football, and several students believe that the dodgeball tournament has only made this imbalance greater.
“Kickball was two-to-one guys to girls,” freshman Audrey Cashen said. “Dodgeball is five-to-one.”
Dawson said that the most likely course of action will be to change the rules of the tournament next year so that teams need at least two girls or possibly an even split of three guys and three girls.
“I will absolutely change it next year,” Dawson said.