(This article, reprinted with permission, featuring the Bexley dodge ball team, appeared in The Columbus Dispatch on June 4, 2005)  6/6/05

Bexley to stay on the ball with battle for regional title

Lori Geller
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

They consider themselves Buckeyes at heart, but many Bexley residents take another sport as seriously as Ohio State football.

Ever since the Bexley Reckers, a team of summer-camp counselors, picked up national-championship trophies in 2000 and 2001, dodge ball has grown more popular in the community.

''We are the dodge-ball capital of the world," said team member Michael Price, supervisor of the Bexley Recreation Department. ''If there's one thing we love, it's dodge ball."

The National Amateur Dodgeball Association has chosen Bexley to host the Midwest Regional Qualifier tournament June 18, ahead of the National Dodgeball Championships on July 22-23 in Schaumburg, Ill.

Bexley Mayor David Madison is among the donors who contributed money to send the team to the competition in 2003, when the Reckers finished third.

''It's flattering that people can view us as this dodge-ball city," said Madison, who played in his 20s.

In 2001, the association established the Bexley Cup - a prize awarded to any team that wins the indoor and outdoor national tournaments the same year.

One other team, the Queens from LaGrange, Ill., has won the cup twice.

The association, Vice President Bill DePue said, will cover entry fees for winners of the Bexley event.

(Individuals are allowed to compete nationally without participating in the qualifier.)

''We received . . . calls and e-mails from across the country requesting to host the tournament," DePue said, "but decided to put our faith in Bexley's dodge-ball reputation."

Money raised from registration fees will benefit autism research in honor of Price's nephew, Dominic.

''Dodge ball has given us so much," Price said, ''and now it's letting us give back for a good cause."

The pursuit, DePue said, has reached a peak partly because of the 2004 film DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story.

''People began to realize the game isn't for sports nuts," he said. ''It's for anyone who is looking for an alternate way to get out and run around."

Chris Cannon, 19, of the Sunbury area will compete in Bexley with his father and two brothers.

''I remember playing in elementary school, but I never thought I'd be playing it today," said Cannon, who vies weekly at the Sports Barn at Easton, one of several sites in central Ohio that offer dodge ball throughout the year.

Ross Marks, 23, of Gahanna is fond of the simplicity: Two teams throw rubber-coated foam balls at each other with the goal of eliminating opponents by hitting them with a live ball or catching one.

''I've seen everyone from kids to 65-year-olds play," he said. ''And that's why I love it."

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