By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Will Strong said he has gotten “a couple of black eyes but nothing serious” playing on the Northern Kentucky University dodgeball team, one of the newest sports clubs for students on campus.
“We definitely take it to the next degree,” said Strong, a senior majoring in law. “It’s a lot harder hitting that anything you’ve ever experienced in high school.”
A staple in high school gym classes for generations, dodgeball‘s popularity has grown since 2004 when the movie “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story” was released. The National Collegiate Dodgeball Association (NCDA) that was formed in 2005 with five teams now has 28 listed on its website, including NKU.
In its second season, the Norse club team was No. 18 in the NCDA power rankings posted on March 7 and takes a 4-14 record into the national tournament that takes place Saturday and Sunday at Cleveland State University.
“We’ve played a bunch of really good teams,” Strong said. “Ohio has a lot of really good teams, so it’s hard for us to get a lot of wins. Every team (in Ohio) but one is in the top 10.”
The NKU coach is Wes Peters, who started the University of Cincinnati dodgeball team that’s No. 8 in the current national rankings. He helped Strong get the NKU club team started last year and continues to work with players on individual skills and team strategy they need to succeed in the fast-paced sport.
“Our coach has helped us a lot since he also started the UC team and he used to play when he was in college,” said Strong, a Bellevue High School graduate. “So we’ve learned a lot from him. We’re kind of on the same path that UC was on, and now they’re in the final four (of the national tournament) every year.”
In college dodgeball, two teams with 12 players compete on a court divided into two halves with throw lines marked on each side. The object of the game is to sideline players on the opposite team by hitting them with slightly deflated rubber kickballs.
If all players on one team are eliminated, the other team wins. A time clock is also used to determine matches. When a set time expires, the team with the most active players on the court wins.
If a player throws a ball that is caught by an opponent, the thrower is out and one of the catcher’s teammates can re-enter the game. If the ball bounces off a player and is caught by a teammate, no one on either side is eliminated.
A player can use a ball to block a throw, but any teammate who gets hit by the blocked ball goes to the sideline.
Players are not allowed to throw directly at an opponent’s head, but there’s such a flurry of action that balls can hit any part of the body. Strong said keeping your head on a swivel is something he learned very quickly.
“If you work as a unit, it goes a lot better,” Strong said. “If you wander too close to the throwing line without support, they’re going to gun you down. Keeping in formation is important. When you see someone throwing 70 miles per hour at you, you kind of learn you can’t do it by yourself.”
Strong said they have 20 students, including one woman, on the current roster. Most of them come to practice sessions held twice a week at the campus rec center.
Some team members are former high school athletes applying their talents in a new sport. All of them see it as a way to have fun and meet new people.
“I’ve met a lot of new friends from the club,” Strong said. “Sahil (Bachwani) is from the Ivory Coast in Africa. You didn’t think you’d get to meet such different kinds of people, but now he’s one of my best friends because we play dodgeball together two or three times a week.”
The goal this weekend at Cleveland State is to earn one of 16 berths in the NCDA championship bracket. To do that, Strong said NKU would have to win at least two of its four seeding matches on Saturday.
There will also be a second bracket at the national tournament for teams that that don’t make the top 16.
“If we’re in the (secondary) bracket, we’d have a chance to win that, so that would be a huge momentum boost,” said Strong. “But it would be something to hang our hats on in our second year if we made the top bracket and had a chance to compete for a national championship.”