Dodgeball Efforts

I'm pretty athletic.  However, I am also a girly girl.  Growing up I picked sports based on benefits.  I'm not talking about speed, muscle, or agility those to me were just the side effects.  I picked karate because I wanted to be able to beat my brothers up, swimming because I would have a reason for my Step Dad to buy me multiple swim suits and basketball because I had a crush on a member of the guy's team. 

So when I was asked this summer to join Katz and his friends to join their dodgeball team I was undecided.  What pushed me over the edge?  You might have guessed it, I would get to make more friends!  Like most things I didn't think about the actual event of playing I just envisioned this amazing group of people chatting, drinking cocktails after games, and getting snazzy team t-shirts.  It wasn't until game day that I reality started to swoop in.  Aside from the movie Dodgeball I didn't really know anything about the actual "sport".  So I decided to google "Dodgeball Strategy" to give me a a leg up and not seem like an idiot when I met my new team.  I mean I was only picked because they were short girls who would deliberately choose to get hit with a big rubber ball.

After my strategy session with some male co-workers I decided I was ready to join Lefebvre's Beavers!  Yes that's our team name, courtesy of Ryan Lefebvre our fearless Team Captain.  When I showed up I was pleased to see that my team was awesome.  Maria, Kim, Michelle, and Erin all welcomed me in and we had a great time chit-chatting and talking about other teams before our game started.  When they called our team I got really nervous and started to sweat.  As I was walking onto the court I recognized a familiar face.  When I went home for Christmas I hung out with my friend Mary who introduced me to Barry.  He and I had a great time and I knew he lived in Chicago but we never exchanged numbers so I just figured that was the end of that.  So now I was double nervous and off my A-Game because I ran into this really handsome guy that I never thought I would see again.  

My first game was a learning curve, along with our team.  We were smoked by the red team and were not really gelling that well. So bad that some barefoot hippie kid offered to join our team.  I think they are probably the best team in the league and the guys were all flanked with gold chains and pretty saucy attitudes.  I did have one accomplishment during our first game.  I got someone out!  I ran up to a guy who was charging another player and not really paying attention to his surroundings so I threw it at his shins (Thank you strategy website) and got him out.  I was SO shocked and excited to get their player out I fist pumped, jumped, and shouted "Yeah!" as soon as I did that I was pummeled with two balls to the body.  Lesson learned:  As in life you should never celebrate too early. 

The next few games were better and Ryan's coaching helped too.  We got into the play offs but lost to the yellow team.  Even though we did not win, the best part of Dodge Ball was going to the Duffy's after party for burgers and brewskies. 

See you next Thursday Beavers!