OLIVIA RICHMAN — General Assignment Reporter
Weaving. Jumping. Dodging. The teams at the dodgeball game last week fought for the bragging rights of winning the fourth annual tournament. Nick Dizinno, a nursing major at Southern Connecticut State University and part of the McNeffers dodgeball team, said he had a definite reason why he joined his Neff Hall dodgeball team.
“I want to hit people with dodgeballs,” said Dizinno.
And why not? According to Sarah Wright, the co-president of the Physical Education Club on campus, dodgeball is a great way to stay active and have fun at the same time.
“It’s a great way to promote physical activity on campus,” she said, “in a fun way. This is my second year running it. It gets people together. It shows support for the school, from your teammates and promotes physical activity on campus.”
Wright said that the benefits of dodgeball are learning commu n i c a t i o n by making up strategic plays with one’s team and that “you use muscles you don’t normally use and exercise in a way you wouldn’t do every day.”
Not only that but players can have fun and “get hit with things,” according to Dizinno, naming his reasons for liking dodgeball. Dizinno has been playing dodgeball since before his first year at SCSU started.
“There was a dodgeball tournament at my high school,” he said. “Mad people showed up. It was a lot of fun.”
He’s not the only one. Katie Walter, a history and education double major, said she remembers playing dodgeball from her elementary school days.
“I used to play when I was little,” said Walter, part of the G-lax team. “And I played in last year’s tournament. It was really fun and we made it really far. It was fun to play against people you don’t usually see around campus.”
Last year, the dodgeball tournament was a success, according to Wright.
“It was a great success,” she said. “Thirty teams came in. We used the money donated to the P.E. Club to fund students in our program to send them to state and national conferences. They are physical education conferences where there’s an opportunity to present sports and activities that other P.E. teachers can use and also to get ideas from other schools.”
Walter said she enjoyed playing dodgeball this year. “It’s fun,” she said. “You get to see other teams play and you get a good workout.”
Suit up! There are Nike coupons for dodgeball gear.
