Salty Crew defeats 4″11 in Costa Dodgeball Tournament

Costa students participate in the annual Dodgeball tournament. The Salty Crew dodgeball team defeated 4"11 in the dodgeball finals at Mira Costa High School on December 7th.

Brian Kaiserman

Sports Editor

In front of a packed Mustang Mall, team 4’11” came up well short of “Salty Crew,” who experienced the sweet taste of victory after senior Andrew Fasano made the biggest play of his athletic career with a championship clinching catch.

The matchup was a part of the semi-annual Mira Costa dodgeball tournament and occurred at lunchtime on Thursday, December 7. The tournament was hosted by Costa’s Associated Student Body and usually features 32 teams, but this year only 22 teams participated.

“I think we could have done a better job advertising and giving teams more time to sign up,” sophomore Commissioner of Athletics Dylan Patel said. “I think we did a good job but we have things to learn from for next time.”

In order to enter the tournament, Costa students formed squads of six players and one alternate. ASB also required a ten dollar entry fee in order for a team to be admitted to enter the tournament.

“I thought that ten dollars was a bit pricy for a school dodgeball tournament, but being able to represent the Salty Crew made it well worth it,” senior and salty crew team member Brad Hoffmeister said.

Salty Crew battled through four tough opponents on their road to the 2017 dodgeball championship. They controlled their finals match throughout ultimately winning with four players remaining.

“We did a great job of following the five fundamentals of dodgeball which are dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge,” Fasano said.

Fasano credits much of the team’s success to their late night study sessions, practices, meal plans, and exercise routines. The Salty Crew was nearly eliminated in the semifinals but managed to eek out a victory and ultimately claim the title with a win over the defending champions.

“To be able to dethrone the champs is a memory I will never forget and a story I can’t wait to tell over and over again,” Fasano said.

The Salty crew is named after a clothing company and Fasano hopes that the company will offer his dodgeball team a sponsorship for their efforts in the Costa tournament. Fasano’s team was not only motivated by the fans in attendance but also by a sports psychologist.

“The sports psychologist that we hired did a great job getting us motivated for our game,” Fasano said. “I can’t wait to go back to Salty Crew and pick up our official sponsorship for their dodgeball organization.”