On March 19, 2017, the dodgeball tournament was held by the class of 2020 to fundraise. Seventeen teams competed for the championship, and the Team Toolbox team won.

Although the intention of the class of 2020 was to fundraise, the overall goal was to have fun and honor an annual RB event.

“The expectations of the tournament were just to have a ton of fun and to allow kids to get together and put together a team and have some friendly, healthy competition. I think the tournament definitely lived up to those expectations,” said Jenna Osburn, the coordinator of the event.

Preparation for some groups was minimal, but others took their team spirit in a more elaborate approach.

“We made a group chat, coordinated our outfits and got hyped up before the first game. It was super fun and we won a game,” said Bailey Hastings, team member of ALL DODGE, NO BALLS.

Many of the players have participated in the tournament in past years, and this year they planned to better their performance.

“We went to the championship our freshman and sophomore year, but we came short both times, so we really wanted to bring that cup home this year,” said Ixtian Garcia, team member of the Roosters.

Dodgeball veterans had an entirely new experience in this tournament due to the large rate of student involvement. Students who represented clubs helped run the event and several new from the class of 2020 played to support their grade.

“We had seventeen teams, which is the most we’ve ever had, and all of the kids had a really great time. We had a lot of students from Student Association that didn’t necessarily want to play dodgeball but they came and volunteered. They refereed or they worked the score table or they helped set things up. There were a lot of different ways to get involved even if you didn’t want to play,” said Osburn.

Because the event welcomed those with little to no prior experience, many joined solely to enjoy a recreational activity. Some teams had never played dodgeball competitively and used this tournament as an opportunity to bond with friends.

“We all signed up for the tournament because we wanted to do something fun as friends. We didn’t do anything to prepare for the tournament other than gather basketball jerseys for uniforms. Our main strengths were catching and throwing as we had baseball and football players,” said Christopher Doherty, team member of Flype.

Despite some losses, teams were generally pleased with the outcome of the event.

“We got second place. We were the underdogs and making it to the championships was really fun. Our strength was that there are people that played baseball or softball on our own time,” said Daniel Sessler, team member of team Cuban Missile Crisis.