Dodgeball tournament: the power of friendship
By Hannah Stephens
Owasso High School recently had its annual dodgeball tournament that helps raise funds for the senior grad bash. Students created teams with names from the Band Kids to the Ball Busters with costumes from coordinating t-shirts to ski masks. These teams went head to head to see who would ultimately battle it out against the teachers. However, there was one initial problem when starting up the tournament: there weren’t enough teams.
One member of the Ball Busters, Brookley Foster, explains, “Well it was a last-minute decision; they needed another girl, so they asked me to play.”
Like her, a member of another team, Elizabeth Passwaters, joined to help a team out.
Passwaters explained that she “joined the dodgeball team in order… to help my friend… be able to have fun on the court.”
For the school to allow the dodgeball game to happen, there had to be at least 14 teams. Yet at that point, only thirteen teams were established, not enough to make way for the game. Luckily, the soon-to-be member of the Black Panthers, Samantha Russell, came to the rescue.
Russell explained that she “joined… to save the tournament. [A] team needed a girl to participate, so I did it for the power of friendship in a My Little Pony kind of way.”
As many people on the teams had not previously known each other, and some had only known they were going to play the day before the tournament, winning would prove to be a challenge. Despite these setbacks, the teams were able to make the best of the game and find a way to work together.
Russell stated, “I knew absolutely no one on the team, but I think we did pretty well.”
Photo of Elizabeth Passwaters taken by Hannah Stephens
Passwaters lightheartedly added, “I think I was the first one out actually- I thought I did well; I deflected a few.… my girl-friends tried giving me… the balls for me to throw.”
Ultimately, the Ball Busters ended up defeating the other teams and advanced to the finals against the teachers.
Students and staff then began lining up for the final showdown. The buzzer went off to begin the round, and the students eagerly ran to get a ball to whack a teacher with. The teachers ran just as fast as the students, though. Balls flew through the air like lightning, both teachers and students narrowly avoiding being hit, but when the ending buzzer finally rang — the Ball Busters had won.
Through all of the team's hard work, Brookley Foster proudly exclaimed, “...winning, it was probably the best part about it!”
Despite being defeated by the victorious Ball Busters, all of the teams shared smiles at their hard work and their newly formed friendships.
Passwater explained, “My favorite part about the tournament was reuniting with my friend and being able to play with her and meeting new people. I haven’t played dodgeball since 5th grade; although I sucked tremendous[ly]... I had a lot of fun.”
Russell similarly stated, “My favorite part of the event was being able to meet new people and working as a team even though very few of us knew each other well.”
Russell wisely advises future students participating in the next tournaments to “duck, dip, dive, and dodge.”