If you walk by Faunce House on a Thursday at midnight and see people jumping off the statue in front of it, screaming in primordial fashion, "I'm thirsty for blood now" and battling apparently to the death with playground balls, don't fret. These aren't "West Side Story"-inspired dance battles or actual street gangs on the Main Green. This is dodgeball.
Boaz Munro '09 hosted the semester's first game Sept. 20, after hearing that friends at the University of Pittsburgh had started their own dodgeball group. "I asked my suitemates what they thought of the idea and when I got good feedback I went to the mall, bought playground balls and made a Facebook event out of it, where I invited all of my friends," Munro said. "There were so many people on the first night - it was pretty chaotic."
Following the first game's success, Munro created a Facebook group called "Midnight Dodgeball (and other games)" to spread the word. The group currently has 71 members, according to its Facebook profile.
"New people show up to play every week," Munro said. Unlike intramural sports, Munro's dodgeball teams are unstructured and players often switch sides. "This way the teams aren't made up of the same people during each game and people can get to know each other more easily," Munro said.
Since that first night in September, the group has continued to play on Thursday nights and has gained momentum thanks to its devoted members. "We get about 30 people to come out and play every week - the largest number of people we've had at one time was over 60," Munro said.
Though the group's title suggests they play games other than dodgeball, Munro affirmed that it is still the preferred sport of the group. "It's easier to break up into teams in dodgeball than it is in other games like capture the flag, which we tried the second week. It was too dark and the only thing we could do to differentiate one person from another was to have the teams break up into skins versus shirts," Munro said.
The group mostly sticks to traditional dodgeball - where two teams hurl balls at each other until one team is completely eliminated - but they also play a second version of the game that is "every man for himself," Munro said.
Group member Dan Sterba '08 said the group doesn't often play the harsher version of the game. "When we play every man for himself it's pretty intense, it's like a battle zone," Sterba said. "Some find it exhilarating and some find it stressful."
Though Munro founded the group, he doesn't dictate which games it plays. "If everyone all of a sudden wanted to play another sport, that would be fine with me. I'm not really in charge, I'm more of a facilitator," Munro said. "We'll always be open to playing other games."
Though games start at midnight and run for over an hour on most nights, the dodgeball devotees have not encountered any problems except for one lost ball and one noise complaint on the night of the first game.
"Sometimes the security guards come over because they think there's some disturbance at first, but then when they see that we're playing dodgeball they just watch us - its pretty funny," said group member Juliana Thorstenn '09. "We really haven't had any problems, except for missing balls, so if anyone wants to donate any dodgeballs, that would be great."
No matter how intense the games get, with rain or extremely low temperatures, an air of camaraderie serves as the driving force behind the group, despite what some may call its childish nature. "It's really nice to have Midnight Dodgeball because people are able to socialize. I appreciate that it's this hodge-podge of people where unlikely friendships are formed and new people join weekly," Munro said.
The group also offers students an alternative to drinking and going to parties before the weekend, said member Finn Yarbrough '09. "It gives you something to do to blow off some steam without partying and drinking during the week," Yarbough said. "It's like being part of a sports team. I feel a responsibility to make it happen every week."
Sterba agreed that Midnight Dodgeball helps relieve stress. "Hitting the kid who blind-sighted you with the Dora the Explorer ball is definitely a much healthier way to let your aggression out at the end of the day," he said.
