Sign me up Adam!!!

When we used to play, hitting the rim got everyone who was out of the game back in, and making the basket ended the game with a win for your team

So, are you starting a league or something? Count me in.

we played this crazy fun game in my high school (in geneseo, NY – near rochester), that supposedly one of our gym teachers invented. it was called K-9, and it was a variation of kickball that used the entire gym for an infield, and had 9 bases. (see diagram http://www.chrisboy.com/img/k9.gif)
the cool thing was that you could have as many people on a single base at one time as you wanted, so slow kids could wait until a pack built up at 2nd base, then run as a pack to 3rd when a good kicker got up. this made the game tolerable (and even fun) for kids of all levels. i loved it, and i was pretty hopeless at most games. you also got an instant homer for everyone on base if your ball hit the huge blue devil head painted on the wall of the gym, on the fly. (since painted over due to compaints of satanism on our schools blah blah blah…)

When I was in elementary school, it was called dogdeball, in MS poison, and in HS slaughterball. We didn’t use the rim or backboard at all. In highschool, some of the guys were more mature, and they could really hurl the ball hard. Skinny kids (like me) and pudgy kids took the brunt of the injuries and broken glasses. It was the perfect sport for lazy coaches who just babysat the kids. At least it had rules, which is more than I can say for our anarchic mob rules soccer games.

oh yeah – my only dodgeball memory is this: i’m standing at the back on my team’s side in 8th grade, and the ball accidentally bounces over to me. so, i pick it up and gird myself to throw it with my sissy girl throw. just my luck, as i throw it, chris chiara, the toughest kid in the class (who already has slammed me into a locker in the past), is looking the wrong way. my ball soars on its sad arc, and hits him in the calf. he roars with rage, and as he stomps off the court, he shouts to his friends “get him!” as he points at me. within 5 seconds or so, all balls on the court were flying at me (we played with 5-6 balls at a time). no permanent damage, but man, i can still remember the slow motion disaster feeling as i realized my sorry toss was going to hit him.

Childhood memory/confession: I was molested by a dodgeball as a child.

I had some kind of magical dodgeball survival skills back in elementary school, which held to a degree throughout various later gym classes. My ability was to not be hit. It just couldn’t be done. Now I’ve never been able to throw worth half a crap, so on more than one occasion, I found myself as the only person left on my whole team.

It wasn’t as though I was fast or anything. In fact, I was pretty chubby all the way from elementary to freshman year. I just had the ability to tell where the ball was going to be and where m body should not. A ball would come roaring past, and I didn’t have to make flying leaps because I was already not there. It wasn’t esp or any of that crap, I just thought it was easy to tell when someone was going to chuck one at me, which happened often.

I was just talking about rimdodge this weekend at my girlfriend’s graduation party. The poor deprived kids in Wisconsin have never heard of the game. That was always my favorite in elementary school, even though I could never hit the rim.

Do you remember that full-contact basketball game that was played for a short time at Webster? I don’t remember the name of the game, but one of the teams was the “New York Subway Slayers,” as I recall.

I was one of those kids who ended up being the last one on my team alive too. I think that it was survival instinct from getting my ass kicked so much. One thing I was good at as a nerd was running all the way home to avoid being beat up and dodging stuff thrown at me. I couldn’t throw, couldn’t catch, couldn’t even really run unless I was being chased actually.

well of course you can’t run on demand. That’s the kind of patented, fear-driven Run Like a Crazed Weasel (TM). If you’ve ever read any Terry Pratchett, I’d reference the world’s most inept wizard, Rincewind. But then, I’m not sure of the literary caliber of this crowd.

I’m lucky enough to play dodgeball 3 to 4 times a week during the summer months. Granted, it’s mainly with 10 and 11 year olds, but that just makes it more fun in a Billy Madison kind of way.
At Camp Highlands for Boys in Sayner, WI, we belong, on a given night during Evening Games, to one of manifold denominations of dodgeball, including Medic, which involves pins and a player who can restore life to other players who have been hit; Prisoner Ball, which sounds a lot like Rim Dodge; Bombardment, which takes place on a tennis court; and Buffalo Hunt, which is the best because there are no teams, minimal rules, and no set end to the contest.
Can’t wait for the first rubber balls to drop in just a few weeks.

Of course, than there are variations that are so far out there, it’s more like the next evelutionary step. I’m speaking specifically of Australian Field Quidditch, House Rules, something the fun-loving guys at Mac Hall (www.machall.com) came up with.

Basically, you take one of those little clear rubber balls that have the red LED light that lights up when you jar it. You find a room as dark as humanly possible, but somewhat spacious. Now huck the thing at eachother. There are no winners, but ther sure as hell are a lot of losers.

Mac Hall used to sell the light-up balls, don’t know if they do anymore.

Rob

The game was called Basket O’ Death…me and Rob Shereda invented with the other dorky 4th graders and were playing for about a week before the 6th graders saw what we were doing and came over to play. Thats when the game started getting really rough and when the one handicapped kid who I believe was 24 and well over 6 feet tall started playing.

I honestly forget most of the rules, but I remember I kept a stat books that involved not only baskets but Smotherings.

i’ve played most of these variations….my favorite being guard the pin. the way we played was like this: there were six or eight stations and players and only four or six balls. you had to keep from having your pin knocked over. i liked the strategy involved. i was fairly aggressive, as opposed to the players that never left their station. what fun is that?!

also, at home we played “tron” and also used frisbees as well as balls. it hurt a lot.

Smotherings … that’s priceless.

I don’t know where local is, but I started a Dodgeball club at HSU. If that’s local enough, let me know.