Dodgeball Madness Lights Up Nolan Gym

By DENIKA DIXON
Contributing Writer

The 12th annual Dodgeball Madness Tournament was held last Tuesday, March 22 in the Nolan Gymnasium. A total of 12 teams battled it out for the winning title and trophy.
The winners, wearing bright pink t-shirts, were “We Are Gladiators.” The co-ed group seemed very into the game and tried to get the crowd hyped up as well. Competing against the Gladiators were the Old Folks, Fire Balls, Slumdog Billionaires, Dodge Father, Cloudy With a Chance of Dodgeball, Purple Cobras, Super Average Joes, Chomba Wombas, Pesos, Misunderstood and Ballerz.
Dodgeball Madness has been taking place at Saint Rose since 2004. Two major coordinators for this year’s event were the president of SEB Haele Dixon and Maria Hartz .
“It is a fun, friendly competition that offers a great event for all students to attend,” said Dixon.
Not only was it a fun competition, but there were raffles and performances to break up the dodgeball games. Prizes raffled off included a gift card, a yogibo, a pair of Beats by Dre headphones and a flat screen TV.
The Knightz in Motion hip-hop dance team, the ALANA Steppers and the cheer team all performed at the festivities.
Although the gym was filled with great palpable energy, some spectators felt that their could have been some improvements.
“They need better referees,” said Abrie Moise, commenting on what some thought were questionable calls by the pair of referees monitoring the games.
During the tournament many of the players were getting away with things that were supposedly against the rules and the crowd became rowdy as a result.
The matches went on from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Organizers created a bracket and had each team play a different team until it only came down to the top three.
Many of the teams had normal battles, but one unusually long battle occurred when We are Gladiators and The Fireballs came face to face.
The match came down to one last player standing on each team. They were going tit-for-tat for a long time and even had to play overtime rounds.
The crowd was booing because the player from We are Gladiators wouldn’t run for the balls at center court. When the organizers gave them each a partner, to try to get the game over and done, it still came down to the two original people. Eventually team Fireball was hit and the crowd erupted.
The annual event was once again a success.
“It was great to see all the teams play and the performances,” said Kamila Castillo, an SEB member.
For junior Mike Aurrichio, Dodgeball Madness was overall a great experience.
“The crowd was getting into it, every performance was on point and the tournament was a great combination of competitiveness and more importantly, fun,” he said. “Dodgeball Madness 2k16 was a success.”