Welcome to the Rec Leagues....

Last night was my first game with the Moth Balls, the team organized by one of Jellybean's co-workers. The only players on our team with any dodgeball experience were myself, Jellybean, and Jellybean's twin, Lefty. Even then, Lefty's experience was limited to watching one Evil Empire game, and playing dodgeball a few times as a part of TCSSC's All-Sorts-of-Sports league.

This was very different then a typical night with the Evil Empire.

The most obvious difference was that both teams last night played every round with four girls and two guys out on the floor. The closest the Empire has ever come to that kind of social progress is two summers ago when we had a very small team and we would, on occasion, put out three girls and three guys. Otherwise, the Empire will put out four guys and two girls every round of every game. The Moth Balls weren't the only egalitarians, our opponents the Incredi-balls also put four girls and two guys out on the court for every round.

The other major difference was understanding and comprehension of the rules. In fairness, the league had changed their version of the rules of dodgeball that day, so that added to the confusion.

But the other team had some real struggles with the basics. For example, a guy and a girl on their team were convinced that the ball was still live after bouncing on the ground, which led to Who's-On-First stlye arguments like...

Incredi-ball: YOU'RE OUT!
Moth Ball: The ball bounced before it hit me.
IB: YEAH! I SAW! STOP CHEATING!
MB: But it bounced like three or four times!
IB: I KNOW!

And round and round we went... Another mistake they made was that they called Jellybean out because she blocked a ball and one of the Incredi-balls caught it. That should be a neutral play, but they insisted that she was out.

It's one of the funny truths of amateur sport: the more relaxed and recreational a sport is supposed to be, the more conflict and chaos there will be. A blown call by a referee or a missed play will slide right off the back of a professional athlete, but for the house league player in a university's intramural program it's the end of the world. Although competitive or even intermediate dodgeball is over-the-top in its intensity, many disputes are avoided because players just call plays neutral and focus on continuing their game.

The standings showed that we lost one spirit point, but our captain took two spirit points off the Incredi-balls. We're now in last place in the league, but because two games ended in ties, we can easily catch up in the standings with a big win with full spirit points.

However, I was very impressed with how my Moth Balls played. They were flexible in their thinking and adapted to the other team's strengths and weaknesses quickly. The biggest adjustment the Moth Balls will need to make is we need to get used to the speed of the game. There was a lot of standing around and watching the play unfold. With some more experience, we'll learn that a player can change the outcome of every second of the game.

The best part though, is that despite the bitchiness of the Incredi-Balls, the Moth Balls had tons of fun. There were smiles on everyone's faces, and everyone was excited for the next week of playing.

Personally, I had a sub-par game. Although I had two or three catches and my throws were good and hard, I lacked accuracy and missed a lot of easy outs. I was keeping the ball down low, but it was tailing to the right too much. My dodging was off too. I was too conscious of the new rules, and committed the cardinal sin of dodgeball: I turned my back to the play. I chalked it all up to rust and fighting a strong head cold, but it was still disappointing.

We lost the game 15-7, but that's alright. We played very well and the Moth Balls show a lot of promise. I am sure that the second time we play the Incredi-balls we'll come out on top.