This semester is starting to feel more normal now that COVID-19 restrictions have lightened up, where more events are allowed to happen on campus. Events like the Interfraternity Council Dodgeball Tournament help students escape the world of COVID for an hour or two with some friendly competition and an enjoyable game to watch.
The Interfraternity Council (IFC) hosted a dodgeball tournament on November 3 for the various Greek organizations on ONU campus. IFC’s Vice President of Campus and Interfraternal Relations, Tylar Dazey, coordinated and hosted the event in order to create an opportunity for ONU’s Greek organizations to get together and bond. The event was held in the King Horn Sports Center, but only two teams were able to make it due to an unfortunate last minute time and location change. The two teams, members of the Sigma Phi Epsilon and the Sigma Pi fraternities, still seemed to have a great time at the event despite low attendance. The Sigma Phi Epsilon team officially won the dodgeball tournament, as announced on the IFC Instagram profile, but the two fraternities continued to play multiple rounds for fun. They even mixed up the teams completely so members of both fraternities were on the same team.
Although I didn’t play, I had a lot of fun watching the games; there’s nothing like watching some overly competitive guys get pelted with small rubber dodgeballs. I’ve never been good at dodgeball myself, but it’s always a fun time. I think a dodgeball tournament is just the kind of event to get students out and involved on campus without too much commitment. It’s not like baseball or football (or any other mainstream sport) where you need to continually practice to get better. It’s almost a delicacy, like in middle school gym class when there’s a substitute teacher and everyone gets excited because having a substitute teacher for gym means dodgeball.
One change I would have made to the IFC Dodgeball Tournament is to open it up to the whole of ONU. Of course, given the whole COVID-19 situation and the fact that there was an unplanned time and location change, it probably wouldn’t be possible to get a large crowd to watch. That being said, if this event were to happen again in non-COVID times, it’d be fun to have members of the ONU community, whether Greek or not, come out, watch a dodgeball game and root for the different fraternities and sororities on campus. The feeling of being surrounded by my fellow students and cheering on my friends playing is a unifying feeling that makes me feel more connected to campus. These friendly competitive events open to the whole of ONU campus are a lot different from the student section vibes during intense OAC sport games against other schools. The unifying bond is a feeling I haven’t felt since COVID hit, but the IFC dodgeball tournament gave me hope that opportunities to experience that feeling again might be coming soon. If not for me, someone graduating this year, hopefully for the younger undergraduates who haven’t experienced college without COVID.
Although COVID-19 is still a factor that affects us every freaking day, we’re getting to a point where the restrictions are continually lifting. Because of this, the ONU student body sees more events on campus to get students engaged and involved. As simple as a dodgeball tournament between two fraternities is, it’s another step towards normalcy in events on campus and bringing the campus closer together again.