Monstars Win Annual Dodgeball Competition

By: Brian GoffOn September 23, over 90 players on 18 teams competed to be crowned dodgeball champions, but only one team walked away victorious. The top two teams each won a gift card to Chili's, but that wasn’t the top prize. These teams were playing for glory, for the right to call themselves number one.

The tournament, hosted by the Honors College Student Council, began at 5:30 p.m. The tournament was split into three beginning brackets of six, with each team playing three different opponents from their brackets. Points were assigned to the winning team based on how many of their players remained standing in the end. The two teams with the top two points would then move on to the next bracket. The next bracket of six teams, called the Winners Bracket, would each play three games with the top two teams moving on to the final four. The other two teams from the final four would come from the Consolation Bracket, which was created so that all teams stood an equal chance at reaching the final four.

It was clear from the beginning that there were two teams fated to meet each other in the final match: Balls of Fire and Monstars. Both teams swept through their initial brackets with intense focus on their court, so they had no knowledge of how the teams in other brackets were doing. They swiftly and handily destroyed all challengers such as Dodgeballs to the Face, Unpeggables, and Atkins 4 Fat Kids.

Both Monstars and Balls of Fire advanced to the Winners Bracket undefeated and ready to take on a new caliber of opponents. As fate would have it, these two great teams avoided playing each other in the Winners Bracket. As a result of this, both teams again easily demolished their competition and advanced through this round unscathed and undefeated again.

The Final Four rolled around and the crowd was anxious to see the two teams face off, but this time rules got in the way of their match. The two winning teams would each play a team from the Consolation Bracket to determine the players in the final match. Balls of Fire and Monstars would have to wait one more round to face off, and to ultimately decide who would claim the title.

Unfortunately, the match between Balls of Fire and Monstars never happened. Balls of Fire lost due to a technicality, running out of time, to a team from the Consolation Bracket. The Monstars went on to win their match and to easily defeat their competition in the final match. In a stunning display of might, the final match was over within seconds of it starting. Clearly, they deserved to be called champions.

The Monstars were led by team captain Ben Gillie who was joined by Brittany Berta, Meghan Wilhelmsen, Megan Lamb, Richie Ball, Rob Boelke, and Nick Stack.


Left: Team Monstars / Right: Team Pantalones Calientes. Photos by Kayla Richmond.