Cassie and Alex on Bringing Dodgeball to the District

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

Cassie, left, is pictured with Alex

Cassie – ‘I was born in Boise, Idaho and then lived for a number of years in Portland, Oregon. I came to D.C. to work on marketing and events three years ago. One of my best friend’s from college moved out here for work and that encouraged me to look for jobs out here. Now that I am here, I love the area and can’t see myself moving anytime soon.

For me, dodgeball is such a stress relief. You work hard all day and then you can throw balls at people as hard as you can and not get in trouble for it.

“As a kid, I played dodgeball in elementary school and then started playing more seriously about seven years ago while I was living in Portland. The league there is huge, they have around 60 teams or so, and it is pretty competitive. When I moved here, I couldn’t find a league anywhere in D.C. The closest league I could find was out in Montgomery County. It was amazing to me that there was no dodgeball in the District given how popular things like kickball and softball are here.

“For me, I love dodgeball because it is competitive and aggressive. You can be terrible when you start playing, but the sport is all about determination and practice. Once you get better and teams get into a rhythm, you figure out how much strategy is involved in this game. Do you focus on catching or throwing? Should you worry more about the boys or the girls? In what order do you pick people off? As the leagues grow and players get better, the teams will get more competitive and hopefully dodgeball will become more popular in the District.

Alex – “I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and came to D.C. after I graduated from college in Akron, Ohio. I came here to take a job in federal consulting. Right now I work for a three letter company that does computer stuff. I’ll leave it at that.

“To be honest, I played dodgeball as a kid, but I really loved four square. Unfortunately, that is not really a sport that you can build a league out of. I started playing competitive dodgeball three years ago in Montgomery County. That is where I met Cassie. We were not on the same team, and, in fact, we hated playing her team because they used to play in the grey areas of the rules.

“But we overcame our dodgeball differences and got together to start a league in D.C. Most people don’t realize how much work this is. We had the idea in October and then spent six months forming an LLC, getting a tax I.D. number, getting a business license, writing the rules and policies, talking to accountants and lawyers, finding a bar and beer sponsor and then getting t-shirts made. It is a lot of work for little financial reward, but we do it because we love it.

“For me, dodgeball is such a stress relief. You work hard all day and then you can throw balls at people as hard as you can and not get in trouble for it. I love that. Now, we get about 100 people who come out to play dodgeball with us. The league keeps growing and we have a number of teams like Smackintheface, Hairiest Houdinis, Balls in Your Face, Once More With Feeling, and some other cleverly named teams.

“I really love this city and couldn’t see doing this where I grew up. Here, there is something so nice about how accessible everything is and the fact that you don’t need a car for everything. In D.C., people leave work and get on the metro to come to the game. Then, we all walk to the bar and take the metro or a taxi home. Starting this league has really exposed me to so many places and things about the city that I never knew before.”

Read more about how and where to play dodgeball in the District here. Learn the Five Ds of dodgeball below.