The Campus Activities Board (CAB) will be having a dodgeball tournament Sunday, March 20 at noon in Alumni Hall. This event will take place as a part of the Gustie Cup, a year-long competition in various athletics.
This is the second year of the Gustie Cup competition on campus. It is a series of athletic competitions that teams can compete in once a month. So far, the tournaments have included flag football, volleyball, basketball and floor hockey. The upcoming events include ultimate Frisbee and softball, as well as dodgeball this weekend.
Team Inflate-a-Date started off the year on a winning streak, defeating the competition in the first three tournaments. It was, however, defeated in the floor hockey competition by team PVB4MVP.
Sophomore Biology Major Tim Miller of Inflate-a-Date commented on team members’ diverse skill sets, saying, “I feel like our team has the ability to win any of these tournaments because we have such a diverse set of talents on our team. We have a lot of guys who can throw, but, more importantly, we have a lot of guys who look good doing it. And that’s really what it’s all about. Having fun and winning would be nice too.”
CAB awards the winning team of each tournament a prize, as well as the team that accumulates the most points throughout the year. Due to Inflate-a-Date’s recent winning streak, CAB has also decided to add a prize for the top team for spring semester, as well. Students can check the current team standings on the CAB website.
Teams do not have to compete in every tournament of the year, and can join the competition at any time. Any teams looking to sign up to play can go to the CAB website, get a sign-up form from outside of the CAB office in the Gustie Den or sign up the day of the competition. The number of teams at each competition varies, usually between six to twelve teams.
Junior Management Major Lisa Klass is pleased with the excitement that the Gustie Cup is generating this year. “It is so exciting that so many teams are competing, because it is such a new event,” Klass said. “There were eleven teams last time, so hopefully those teams are coming back.”
Inflate-a-Date is one team that will definitely be returning to play again at the dodgeball tournament. Although the team claims to participate in the Gustie Cup for the fun of it, members still take the tournament very seriously. “I am very excited for the dodgeball tournament,” Miller said. “We are all going to watch the movie Dodgeball before the big day to get pumped. Then we’ll probably have a team breakfast before going over our scouting reports and strategies we’ll utilize later during the tournament.”
Keeping with the light-hearted spirit, much of Inflate-a-Date’s strategy is inspired from Dodgeball. “Our strategy is to stick to the fundamentals and five Ds: Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive and Dodge,” Junior Inflate-a-Date team member Trevor Gervais said. “We hope for the best.”
Dodgeball is particularly interesting because it is a more accessible sport, and women can feel comfortable playing alongside the men. “I think dodgeball is pretty fun because anyone can play, and some of these sports are male-dominated, unfortunately. Dodgeball is nice because girls can come up and be kind of like a sneak attack,” Klass said.
Spectators are welcome to attend each tournament as well, though Klass encourages everyone to play. “Come play. It’s a really fun thing; we always have a good time. You can compete against your friends but also play with your friends, and it’s a fun way to get out there and be active,” Klass said. “Who doesn’t like to chuck balls at each other?”