The Clarke University Faculty wins in a 4-set match against the students. After an even start, faculty took control of the game and brought the victory home.
Monday, September 25th. Anthony King, Coordinator for Campus Activities sets foot on the A.Y. McDonald Athletic & Recreation Field on the northern side of campus. As the sun gracefully bathes the field in light, the mesmerizing venue rises to its real purpose. The annual Dodgeball Game. 14 Faculty Members face off against the students of Clarke University. After a short delay of game, the first “Ready, Set, Go” sounded. The Student Section, led by half of the softball team sprinted to the balls and tried snatching them from their ambitious opponents. After a short shootout the faculty held firm and controlled the field. The last member of the student section went down after being thrown at with everything they had. Anthony King summarized the game on the sideline: “We came out a little timid. We hadn’t developed a strategy quite yet, so we wanted the students to make a move first. However, as the game progressed, we had a good flow of throw to catch ratio. Resulting in us winning the first game.”
Round 2. The students got support by two more members and now got the right support for beating the first round-winners. This time the game was tied for a long time, with hits on each side but the student section found a way to bounce back and won by time limitation, because they still had more players left after the 5 minutes ran out. Anthony King watched most of that game from the sideline because catching is not really something that retired football receivers are used to do, while students told us in an interview that they “wanted to stabilize (their) defense, which worked very well and led to winning the game offensively.” That tied the score and meant that the decider could win it for either side.
Before round 3 went underway, the faculty team tried to strengthen their offense by convincing some players to switch sides. And that worked pretty well. From the beginning, the student section only got one ball while being targeted from every side. After some quick outs, the weakened roster tried their best to catch what they could, but had to deal with to much pressure coming from the opposing team. After a loss by time limitation it meant 2:1 for the faculty.
With time on the clock, a 4th quarter was proposed. The softball team had their last shot at redemption before leaving for practice and they wanted to use it. With quick feet and some good plays that got a good field position, pushing faculty back to their own endline, but in the crunch time, 3 clutch catches by former faculty-athletes led to the experienced team getting back in the game with two minutes left on the clock. A thrilling shootout started with close calls on both sides and some clutch plays to keep the balls in the air. After a back and forth, two massive hits by faculty had the student section in a weak position with the one chance to catch balls in order to get back into the game. But a catch and a following leg hit eliminated the last two student players and won it for team faculty. The final score was 3:1 for faculty with a dominant performance by the leading staff-members. In the post-game interview, captain of the winning team, Anthony King, stated “The 3rd and 4th game was all about who wanted it more. The faculty & staff, "we had some dawgs on our team, people who were going to go out there and compete. Ultimately, it led to the outcome we expected.“
This year`s winners are already being challenged by the students to defend their title next year. Until then: Your 2023 Clarke University Dodgeball Champions are the faculty staff!
Benjamin Reiser
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