First Baptist Church of Lake Saint Louis

2007 EASTERN MISSOURI DODGEBALL ASSOCIATION
Championship Week

BOYS CHAMPIONSHIP

The 8 team tournament to decide the EMDA championship was spectacular. As was expected, the best teams brought their A game and underdogs made upsets.

In Bracket #1, the night started off with fireworks as the two top teams (Stingrays and 636 Boys) both were upset. That meant that the battle between the 'Rays and 'Boys meant the end of the line for the losers. After a host of close calls, the 636 season ended early for the all-stars from Timberland, while another Timberland team (the Captain Planets) won the whole bracket by going 3-0. Sparta made things interesting but got ousted in game 3 by the 'Rays pretty handedly. Technically, Vegas thought there was a great chance of an upset in this bracket, but failed to predict the correct team when the odds makers initially put Sparta in the Final Four.

Bracket #2 was easily won by the Bad Boys. True to their fashion, they brought their best on the most important night. Yet, anyone of the Zumwalt Bad Boys would tell you that all three teams put up a great fight, especially the Dream Team. As for the other 3 (DT, Broncos, & Dudleys), they all beat each other and ended up in the tie-breaking procedure, which was won in a classy fashion by the Dream Team. One of the DT's members even said that they felt lucky to be alive through the bracket, little did they know that their luck was just beginning.

In the Final Four, the Stingrays proved that their 26-2 regular season record was more powerful than the 3-0 the Planets had posted on the evening. But in the other match, a great upset was made when the Dream Team put down the Zumwalt Bad Boys, making sure that there would be a new champion for the 3rd straight year. In one tough moment, ZBB had a 5-3 advantage when an odd ball careened off 2 Bad Boys to even the numbers breathing some life to the Dream Team who seemed just about ready to fail. ZBB would finish off the Planets for the 3rd Place game.

The championship game was one of the most exciting moments in dodgeball history. In the last two years, both title fights have been high volume slugfests--but this one was an intense strategic battle that went on for over 20 minutes. It was more of a gentlemen game with 2 high integrity team jostling back and forth in a verbal game of tug-of-war. Almost like they were both thankful to be there. After a 10 minute final, a three vs. three battle erupted into a 15 second fireball that ended with all 3 Stingrays getting knocked out (two of them lying on the floor while 1 actually injured his ankle). Look back, the Stingrays probably wished that they had played their typical game of firing double balls at a time rather than the waiting game played by the outstanding defensive Dream Team. Yet, in the end, the Dream Team won, and are the new EMDA champions (for at least the next 52 weeks).

One thing that happened during the closing of the tourney, is that a handful of teams stayed around to express their thanks to league commissioner Tom Papez. Papez really felt thanked by this. In all reality nobody really knows how many hours it takes to organize this giant league, and he would not bother to tell anyone exactly how much time is involved, it did make him feel great to receive the appreciation. Thanks guys. God bless you in the off-season.

CO-ED CHAMPIONSHIP

Going into the finals for the Co-Ed, Vegas really felt that Not 2 Mess With was clearly the best team and that it would take a tremendous upset in order for any team to beat them in the tourney. After the prelims, in became apparent that the early prediction would look likely to come true. Likewise, the Cuts made easy work of Bracket #1 (even though most teams in the league would never have picked them to finish so high. But if you watched them play during the season, the Cuts always had the ability to bounce back well after losing tough matches to elite boys teams. Moreover, league commissioner Tom Papez remembers how well they performed when it counted in last years consolation tournament and thought that they would perform that well again.

It was tough nights for Vendetta and the Crazy Ivans. Both came in expecting to make the Co-Ed Final Four, and in all reality they could have had just a couple of balls bounced differently. Vendetta plays the game at such a high intensity that some folks even picked them to win the whole bracket. But as it turns out, both teams finished the night, after 31 games into the season, just 1 game short of the Final Four. In all reality guys, that is a great season and the EMDA is proud of how well you represented.

The team that really excelled beyond all expectations was the Saints, though if one studied their team during the course of the year, there were no surprises. The Saints fielded a good team throughout the league but never really had their full team present until the last week, which worked out well for them as they beat a surprised N2MW for the 3rd Place Game. In the Championship (and all 3 Final Four games were 2-1 decisions), the Cuts shocked the E-Town Rangers for the championship. Hats goes off to E-Town. In all reality, they did the impossible. This middle school team beat co-ed teams, boys teams, girls teams...really...just about everybody. The Cuts, considered by some to be nowhere near the top becomes the most surprising champions in the history of the EMDA. They played under the radar the whole season and shined their light at the end.