There was a sense of uncertainty in the air.
My teammates / co-workers and I entered the Student Recreation Center for our first dodgeball game of the intramural season, not knowing what to expect. Most of us hadn’t played since middle school, and even then it was unorganized playground-style, rubber-ball warfare.
Adding to our skepticism was the fact that we would be playing without the owner of arguably our strongest throwing arm, as our
6-foot-3, 240-pound colleague had female commitments (shaking my head) to uphold.
Regardless, the five of us pushed through our self-doubt and proceeded to the back courts for what we hoped would be a simple game of ball tag.
Morale increased when we caught a glimpse of our opponents: a group of scrawny dudes, who, at first glance, looked like they couldn’t throw a ball through a wet paper sack.
While our squad full of sports writers wasn’t exactly oozing athleticism, we figured the arms of a former high school pitcher and a high school quarterback would be enough to get us by.
Boy were we wrong.
What we assumed would be an effortless victory quickly turned into a bloodbath in favor of the scrawny dudes. The tone was set on the very first throw of the game when my teammate accidentally deflected the toss off a ball he was holding straight into my shoulder.
Six seconds into the game and I was already out. Nothing like getting off to a fast start.
The little dudes, who had looked so harmless before the game, were suddenly peppering us with well placed throws, using strategy by hanging out by the end line nearly the entire series and promptly sweeping us out of the gym, three games to none.
Insult was added to injury when I found out one of their players was a 2004 high school graduate.
They were young, they were small and they kicked our asses.
Let me guess, that scene from the movie “Dodgeball,” when the group from Average Joe’s loses to a collection of girl scouts is going through your head right now, isn’t it?
The loss stung, but we used it as a learning experience. We knew what to expect for future matches. We knew that if you wanted to win, you had to lay back a little bit and not play with raw aggression and ego.
We quickly put the information to use and swept our next opponent for the ultimate redemption. Considering that it was our first dodgeball experience in years, and we were playing without our best arm, we were happy with a split.
With the first week in the books, the rest of the season could go one of two ways: Either we improve immensely with the return of our top gun, or we end up taking teams for granted and getting destroyed again.
Stay tuned for the results.

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