Does the the mention of dodgeball spur images of friends and enemies running around throwing red foam balls at various targets? Well Lipscomb University is striving to change that opinion and promote the “life” of dodge ball and its purpose on the campus.
“Dodgeball is a meant to be a saga,” said Garner Goode, director of student involvement. “We watched dodgeball as it was played over and over on the Lipscomb campus. It was in fact, overplayed, and so we killed it.
“Then we watched as it was brought back from the dead and was reborn into our events here at Lipscomb last year. This year, we have to watch it and try to figure out where dodgeball has gone wrong.”
This year’s theme in dodgeball is “No Escape,” named for the prison-like features of Fanning .
“The purpose of the audience is to try and decipher why dodge ball needed to go to prison and what went wrong,” Goode said. “The Lipscomb campus has been so wrapped up in the life of dodgeball since we began the program several years ago. We need their help to get into the personality of dodgeball.”
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In 2004, dodgeball was played in the fall and spring semester and then again in the fall 2005 semester. In the spring semester of that year however, dodgeball was “killed” so there were no dodgeball games in 2006 or 2007. However, in 2008, dodgeball was brought back to life and reborn in 2009, and featured teams such as the ones pictures: the Indianapolis Cults (above), including Jim Jones and his followers, and Team Belmont (left).
“The goal is to have fun,” Goode said. “The point is not necessarily to win but to have fun and be crazy. Some of the teams really care about winning but the majority care about being silly and having a good time with the audience. Most people aren’t too serious and use it just as a great night on campus.”
There are 20 teams participating this year’s festivities. That means there are 100 actual players and a total of almost 200 people either participating or helping out.
Organizers expect a thousand people to attend the event Friday (today) in the Fanning Hall courtyard.
“The teams are welcome to come up with their own theme,” Goode said. “ We have all kinds of ideas like a Ghostbuster team, a Chilean miners team, Youtube celebrities team, Dumbledore’s Army team, renowned women in history team, and even more surprises to come.”
“We are the Hogwart’s-themed team,” said Bryce Davidson, sophomore math education major from Columbia, Tenn.
“This is our second time playing and we’re playing mainly for fun. If we end up winning, that’s pretty cool too. We just want to entertain the crowd a little bit and playing dodge ball is just a plus.”
Photo credit for main picture: Kaitlynn Passon.