There must being something fun about throwing a rubber ball at someone from point-blank range, because close to 250 participants filed into the Hornet’s Nest for a dodgeball tournament as the Fifth Annual Sacramento State Throwdown took center stage on Tuesday night.

The free event for students and faculty members was put on by Recreational Sports and saw players dodging hastily, attempting to dance out of the way of flying rubber balls like knives that were being thrown at them.

The single-elimination tournament hosted 31 teams of eight, including 17 men’s teams and 14 co-ed teams, including a total of nine Greek teams. Teams played two practice games to start and were guaranteed at least two more games in their best-of-three matches against each other. The tournament took three and a half hours to complete.

Players were enthusiastic about playing with more than half of the teams wearing uniforms – some more creative than others – showing their spirit for the old playground game.

The best dressed award went to the Ninja Turtles team, who sported different colored bandanas around their heads while wearing green outfits.

Some first time dodgeball players were there to enjoy a good time. Junior nursing student Jessica Brown said, “I was excited even though I have never really played dodgeball.” Brown also admitted her fear of dodgeball, just like many others who play. “I was just afraid to get hit in the head, but I’m having a blast. I will definitely participate in it next year.”

The rules state that any player that gets hit in the head from an opponent’s toss is not eliminated from the game. Any ball that hits below the neck means the player is out.

Intramurals Administrative Assistant for Rec Sports Eric Buechler explained that the dodgeball tournament is always held at the beginning of the semester and some people might not get the chance to find out about it.

“The idea is to get the message out to more people who might not know about this, because it is such a good first event of the year,” Buechler said.

Rec Sport’s Supervisor of Officials Jivin Seward said, “Most people know about this tournament by the advertising on campus and word of mouth. This year we tried to reach out to more freshmen by advertising at freshmen orientation.”

Seward also said that he was proud of the turnout and looked forward to more chaos next semester when Rec Sports will host a spring semester throwdown.

The PE Majors won the co-ed team title defeating the Ninja Turtles. Even in defeat, Ninja Turtles player and communication studies major Courtney Kennedy said, “This is my second year playing and I absolutely love it, the energy in here is awesome.”

Another Ninja Turtles player, sophomore Dylan Lawrence, said, “It was nice to come out for the first time and hang out with friends and have a good time with friendly competition.” He also complimented the officiating student referees. “The refs do their part to keep it safe out there, they make good calls and they know what they are doing.”

Blue Balls, the winning team of the men’s division and last year’s runner-up in the event, defeated Entity, the defending champions. In a heated three game battle, Blue Balls came back from a first game loss to win two straight games to win the coveted title.

Blue Balls player Tyler Dove, a junior criminal justice student, said, “It feels good to win since we came so close to winning last year.”

The event had more to offer this year than in the past, according to some students, which lead to a more enjoyable experience.

Junior business management student John Gilmore said, “It was definitely a lot better than last year, the referees were better and they even had pizza and red bull girls giving out drinks this year.”

Junior kinesiology student Mark Elder summed up the Sac State Throwdown saying, “I think they (Rec Sports) ran it well and it was a good atmosphere, I would recommend it to my friends.”

The Sac State Throwdown is the kick-off event for more things to come this semester from Rec Sports.

The flag football and indoor soccer leagues are starting on Sept. 17th, while the tennis league will start on Sept. 24th. Seward said, “We’ll have competitive flag football and indoor soccer for both men and women, and we also have special events like bowling and golf, so look out for that.”

Andrew Eggers can be reached at [email protected].