– Craig Hagerman, staff
The Laurier Brantford extramural dodge ball team was in action on Thursday at George Brown College, with them being able to finish in second place, preventing an all Humber final.
The team came to play but were outgunned in the final game by a strong Humber squad that have been playing together since September.
Laurier Brantford’s Cale McCormick was shocked by how organized the winning Humber team was.
“Humber’s coach wore a tie and the team even had set plays. They would yell out ‘number one’, and we would look at each other and go, ‘what is that?’”
There was no doubt the Humber team had much practice and had been playing with each other for a longer period than the Laurier Brantford team. This alone spoke a lot about the skill level of the Laurier team, especially in comparison to last years team.
The team took part in the same tournament last year, but unfortunately finished in 6th place, that could arguably be blamed on the seven person (four guys and three girls) team being thrown together and thrust into the fire. This year, the team was built through a tryout basis, with the lack of commitment from players being rarely called into question. The team was also able to hold practices this year, something that the Laurier Brantford team never did before.
Despite not being able to make it to the tournament this time around, team captain Nolan Kreis was able to find some replacements that he felt would do a great job in his absence.
“I still had a great captain in Tim Miller and a key last minute pick up of first year student Adam Zach, and with a solid line up of rookies and the added experience of Michelle Anger and Cale McCormick, it really worked to our advantage.”
Kreis is already looking forward to getting back into this tournament next year for the chance to bring a championship back to Brantford.
“I look forward to seeing what happens next year as I’m hoping all of the second and first year players we had on the team this year will improve and will hopefully be able to clinch a title for us come next year.”
With the great improvement and development of the dodge ball program at Laurier Brantford, come next year, the team may be one of the elite dodge ball teams in the tournament. The Laurier Brantford squad will be looking to improve on their second place finish when they compete in the Fanshawe College tournament on March 9th. Here, the team will look to dodge, dip, duck, dive, and dodge, as always.
