{"id":172697,"date":"2026-04-22T12:44:03","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=172697"},"modified":"2026-04-23T16:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:29:12","slug":"intramural-dodgeball-offers-connection-and-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/22\/intramural-dodgeball-offers-connection-and-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond their punny names, intramural dodgeball teams bring serious competition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bates Intramural Sports has once again brought together a wide mix of students for this dodgeball season, with 23 teams and over 200 players participating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Bates, excitement about intramural dodgeball begins building in mid-February. One person acts as a team captain and gathers players to join them. From there, teams form in all kinds of ways. Some are built from friendships, or friends-of-friendships, others from clubs or teams trying to spend more time together outside their main activity; some are strangers looking for a team through the Bates recreation page. This year’s Multifaith Chaplaincy Fellows have formed a team called \u201cSpringfellows,\u201d Bates men\u2019s tennis plays under the simple name \u201cTeam BMT,\u201d and the \u201cPage Ballerz\u201d all reside in Page Hall.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Arden Minor \u201828 of Danbory, Conn., hurls a ball at the opposing team in Dodgeball Intramural Semifinals. (Brewster Burns for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The flexibility of the teams is what makes it work. Players can skip a game if they have to study for a test or go to play rehearsal, and it\u2019s easy for students to sub in when they\u2019re registered with Intramural Sports. Some players return to teams they already know, while others join entirely new groups. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Students
The games begin at Bates Intramural Dodgeball Semifinals. (Brewster Burns for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Delphine Mailhot \u201928, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was part of a team last year that was \u201cjust made up of people who the captain or other people on the team knew.\u201d She was recruited through her club ski team, but met a range of players from other settings. Last season, her experience reflected what a lot of players feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was a little weird and felt awkward with these people who I knew only tangentially,\u201d she says. \u201cBut it was honestly so normal and good. I love to show up and try and that\u2019s all we did.\u201d By the end of the season, that same group had made it all the way to the semifinals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Katie Gardiner \u201828, at left, of Ketchum, Idaho, plays alongside Patrick Robinson \u201829 of Waterville, Maine, going for a contorted throw during dodgeball semifinals. (Brewster Burns for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This year, despite being invited back to last year\u2019s team, she opted to play for\u00a0\u201cSailor? I Hardly Know Her,\u201d a team consisting of members of the sailing club for which Delphine serves as a social chair. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a good way to build more team camaraderie within sailing, and that\u2019s something that we\u2019re working on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Dodgenomics team member Sivani Arvapelli \u201826 of South Windsor, Conn., ready for the competition during the dodgeball semifinals. (Brewster Burns for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The team names and the shared identity that comes with them are a large part of the fun. \u201cDodgenomics is somewhat like a cult,\u201d says Jillian Pastore \u201926 of Ridgefield, Conn., founder and captain of the team. \u201cTenured members even have customized T-shirts with normal distributions and cash signs drawn on them. Throughout Dodgenomics\u2019 career, people have graduated, so we are now mostly a crew of friends with no major specification required for entry.\u201d Members of the team \u201cForfeit\u201d like to tell about when the opposing team didn\u2019t show up to their first game because they assumed the name meant the game was already canceled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even in this fun, low-stress, environment, the games can still deliver high-stakes moments. Henry Cea \u201929 of Metuchen, N.J., a \u201cWe Huck Dots\u201d player says, \u201cIn one of our games, when we were playing the rowers, we were down to one person against five. Shoutout to \u2018Walk-Em Down\u2019 Will McLean [\u201929]! Our last person held out and finished off the five rowers!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Three
Jillian Pastore \u201926, at left, of Ridgefield, Conn., gives a pep talk to the Dodgenomics team at this year’s dodgeball semifinals. (Brewster Burns for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pastore, whose team made it to the finals this year, says that things can get theatrical. \u201cPeople screaming at each other, presenting long-winded debates with the student referees over a call, jumping up and down like lunatics when their teammate lands a hit on their opponent. That is what makes these higher-stakes intramural rounds so memorable for me. They\u2019re a testament to how much people love competition and sports, regardless of the level.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Bates, intramural dodgeball is a big deal. Students form teams with names like “Dodgenomics” and \u201cSpringfellows,” and the competition \u2014 and community \u2014 is real.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1819,"featured_media":172709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[1,11012],"tags":[12458],"class_list":["post-172697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-batesnews","category-student-life","tag-intramural-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1819"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172697"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172783,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172697\/revisions\/172783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}