Some University students reverted to their elementary school roots the moment their dodgeball game began Monday, pegging each other across tennis courts at the Student Recreational Sports Complex.
Defending dodgeball champion team “Money In The Bank,” or MITB, developed a strategy to pick-off players on the opposing team, “Dirty South.”
Jonathan Stoltz, accounting senior, yelled, “Go for the weakest link!” as MITB took the victory over Dirty South.
Dodgeball is a popular recreational game in University intramural sports, with about 30 teams, but the sport has critics who are worried about the psychological and physical effects it may have on children.
Louis Harrison, associate professor of pedagogy in the kinesiology department, said many elementary and junior high schools do not promote dodgeball anymore because it has had negative effects on children.
“It develops an elitism – the slowest get put out first, and they need the most exercise,” Harrison said.
Kickball also doesn’t promote physical activity, Harrison said.
“A large number of kids stand around waiting,” Harrison said. “[Physical education courses] are moving toward a large degree of physical activity, such as walking and jogging.”
Many students who play intramural dodgeball in college played the sport as children, and those memories spurred them to take up the sport again.
Karl Romig, general studies senior on MITB, said his dodgeball skills have been honed since childhood, and he played dodgeball as a camp counselor this summer.
Bob Rea, physical education teacher at Highland Elementary in Baton Rouge, said his curriculum involves sports modified for
pre-kindergarten through fifth grade children.
“They play all sports – kickball, baseball, track and field, but it’s mostly about skill,” Rea said. “I teach a lot of lead-up behavioral lessons about how my students should act.”
Rea said his students play dodgeball with foam balls instead of rubber balls to avoid injury and the children roll and bounce the balls instead of throwing them. Rea said he thinks the most important behavioral lesson to learn in early elementary school is how to play games appropriately.
“I teach them how to say, ‘Thank you,’ and ‘Good job’,” Rea said. “They also learn how to control the force and energy of their throws.”
Harrison said an obesity problem in children and adults has spurred the change toward more activity-oriented games such as basketball, which allows students to continually move and exercise.
Harrison said team games such as dodgeball may result in certain students always being picked last. The ones who are always hit first in dodgeball may not develop good feelings toward future physical activity, Harrison said.
But for Alex Price, business administration freshman on the Dirty South team, his memories of dodgeball are positive.
“I look forward to dodgeball games all week,” Price said.
Contact Leslie Ziober at [email protected]