Dodgeball League

One miserable Saturday morning Haley and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 7:30 to get the most of our YMCA memberships. I had been bragging about how great this particular class was that I had been attending on Wednesdays and when I found out it was offered on Saturday too, we decided to go.

Big Mistake. We did about 300 push-ups within the hour (and you might think I’m exaggerating, but I am absolutely not). We ran stairs for a full half hour, we jumped rope, we ran while holding 20lbs above our head… we killed ourselves. And I’m sure Haley wanted to kill me. Please be warned. There is a different teacher for this class on Saturdays. DO NOT ATTEND ON SATURDAYS.

However, some good came from it. One of the other unfortunate victims of the class introduced herself to me and Haley. Her name's Molly. We hadn’t talked since the class when out of the blue, Molly called me and asked if I’d like to join a Dodgeball league. Of course this needed no thought on my part and I immediately accepted the invitation.

I am an official team member of the Delaware Sports League. Cosmos Dodgeball Team – and proud of it.

On our first game (which at the time of this posting was about 2 months ago) Molly couldn’t make it – but I didn’t know this prior to showing up in the gym filled with at least 50 people. After searching the faces I realized she wasn’t there. Problem: I knew NO other players on my team. Finally I got a girl with a clipboard and she pointed me in the right direction. The girls on my team are incredibly fun and friendly – so that’s perfect (again, the point here is to make friends… man, I’m starting to sound desperate, huh?).

So I explain to my team that I’ve not played since elementary school, but they were fine with that. This is how it works: Each pairing of teams plays 11 games, alternating between girls games and guys games for 10. The eleventh game is a co-ed game, with a max of 3 guys per team.

I was the second person out in the first game, but picked it up from then on. It was the most fun I’ve had in Wilmington so far. It was also a little scary. The girls on the opposing team were a lot stronger. I’d put money on the fact that they were softball players or throwers. But the guys – all around, were the real scary part. Just hearing the balls hit other people made me wince.

Well guess who got picked to be one of the two girls for the co-ed game. Yep, me.

So I was just running around terrified, making very little effort to catch or throw – I was just trying to not get whammed by one of the guys’ throws. Before I knew it, I was the last person left on my team, and I was terrified. All I could imagine was getting hit in my giant schnoz and crying on my first night in a roomful of strangers. (Not that similar experiences haven’t already happened to me – my nose and I have been through quiet a lot.)

I am now forced to throw and catch, and it’s me verses one very strong girl, and one hard hitting guy. I’m trying to act like it was my plan to be the last one the whole time, but I’m actually having a panic attack internally. This is when the girl steps backward on a ball and breaks her ankle. Game over.

And I shouldn’t have been so happy about that kind of an ending.