THS YIT Dodgeball Tournament Returns for Another Successful Year

Every year the Youth Initiative Team (YIT) puts on their highly anticipated and highly competitive Talawanda Dodgeball Tournament, and this year may have been one of the most exciting.

Throughout the year student interest in school events goes through many stages. In the fall, attention is focused on the football team and the many themed fan nights, from black and whiteouts, to Hawaiian and tropical. When the football season ends, fans come out to support the basketball teams. THS students even have a Nerf War, which becomes the talk of the school for a few weeks. But, once all of this is over and basketball season winds down, attention turns to creating, naming, and recruiting a dodgeball team for the annual YIT tournament.

This year’s tournament was held on Monday, February 29th, and featured both seasoned and novice teams.

“I went here when I was in high school, and we didn’t have anything like this when I was in school,” said teacher and competitor Andy Zimmerman. “We had a powder puff tournament, but that was shut down because a girl clotheslined another girl. So, I do think this is something people look forward to.”

This year was probably the biggest turnout the tournament has had in recent years. There were the usual determined and serious junior/senior athlete teams, as well as the mishmash of teams that seem to change in form every year. A teacher team created by Zimmerman even competed this year.

“I knew that we’d get beat,” Zimmerman said. “I figured we’d lose both games, us being older and not as spry as the students, but I didn’t count on the skill and energy of the teams we played.”

Above all, all the competitors had one goal in mind: a championship. But not all of these plans will come to fruition, and there can be only one winner. Teams are set up randomly for a seeding round which determines who will play in the first elimination round of the tournament. Teams that win this game will be selected to face a team who has lost their first game. From then on, teams must win matches to continue to advancing.

The championship game was nearly a sweep for Dragon Ballz, made up of members Alex Bear, Jacob Orona, Nick Morgan, Manny Camarena, and Jordan Ratliff. Strong throws and accuracy from Bear, Orona, and Morgan cut down three of the opponents early before losing a few of their own.

Kevin Engelhard of the runner-up team, Brave Balls, kept his team’s hopes alive by surviving and knocking out several Dragon Ballz members before finally being eliminated. “We tried our hardest, but we’re coming for [the NHS volleyball tourney] on friday,” he said.
Overall, this year’s YIT Dodgeball tournament was, without a doubt, a success once again.