Costa Dodgeball Tournament

Andrew Fasano

Staff Writer

The second dodgeball tournament of the school year saw over a hundred students crowd the Mustang mall on Monday, June 5th to see who would replace the Goats and P.O.’s to be the second team with their name engraved on the trophy.

The tournament was hosted and officiated by Costa’s Associated Student Body, led by sophomore Malcolm Kluth, who established all the rules. Kluth said that the bracket was randomly arranged with the 32 teams that signed up. The rules of the tournament were as simple as if you’re hit or throw a ball that gets caught, you are out.

“It’s always a great turnout, which makes running the tournament even more enjoyable,” Kluth said. “The competition level between the teams builds exponentially as the tournament enters the deeper rounds, making it fun for everyone who comes to watch.”

Baseball player profile for junior Joey Acosta

In the final game of the tournament, “Extremely Slightly” was able to prevail over Alex Con Los Boyz, winning 6-0. “Extremely Slightly” was comprised of all baseball players in junior Joey Acosta, sophomore Chase Meidroth, and seniors Matt Besera, Kohl Titzler, Carson Phillips, and Jake Symon.

“It’s always fun competing in the tournament,” Acosta said. “Me and the rest of the guys have a lot of fun playing dodgeball, and were happy we were able to come out as the champions.”

As for “Alex con los boyz” which was comprised of juniors Robert Cook, Ben Paley, Alex Nahabed, Blake Curtain, Dane Johnson, and Caden Loversky, they clawed their way into the finals after two very close matches, especially in their quarter finals matchup against the favored Salty Crew, who most of the audience felt should have won, according to junior spectator TK Maier.

Photos: “Extremely Slightly” takes the trophy home with a commanding finals victory.

“Salty Crew is a great team, and in all honesty probably deserved to win,” Cook said. “We were hanging on tight the entire game. We were just grateful we were able to get some lucky outs deep into the match.”

Video: The rules of the Costa dodgeball tournament (which started May 29 on the tennis courts) were followed by the standard rules of the game. Despite some of the harsh rules, “Extremely Slightly” was able to walk away as champions. 

The teams battled through a total of 4 games before reaching the finals, with the final game being played in the Mustang Mall for easy fan accessibility. There was an eruption of joy as viewers stormed the court after the last opposing player was ruled out.

“We were winning the game at one point and that’s the victory we will take home,” junior Alex Nahabed said. “We will be training hard during the off season and will not disappoint alex con los boyz fans in the following dodgeball tournament.”

Although one might believe that there is no strategy involved in the game of dodgeball aside from throwing and catching, “Extremely Slightly” believes it was one of the main reasons they won. According to Acosta, the key to winning games is aiming low and catching.

Link: Dodge ball tournament from previous years

“We were big on playing to our strengths,” Acosta said. “Considering all of our baseball backgrounds, dodgeball came pretty natural to us, so we put as much strength behind the ball as we could, and aimed low.”