2007 EASTERN MISSOURI DODGEBALL ASSOCIATION
Week 5

H&S TIRE INVITATIONAL: The opening nights tournament wasn't glamorous and it wasn't glory. It was just a fine example of fine played EMDA dodge ball with a host of surprises. First surprise, the Wildcats, E-Town Rangers, and Street Signs finish their bracket tied 2-1. The Rangers were expected to sneak through fairly easily without much hype, but instead lost a surprise game at the hands of the Street Signs. The Signs, entering the tourney with a 1-18 record beat the 16-3 Rangers! This must have been the greatest upset in the history of our dodgeball league! And after the Signs posted an L on the Rangers, the Jeff Easterwood-less Wildcats almost did the same. During the championship, the Rangers faced their cross-town allies Dream Team whom was expected to win easily. DT had just put the Wild Dogs (for the 3rd time in 2 weeks with all games going 2-1) down, and passed through the Boon Dox and Jackalopes fairly easily. However, in the finals, it was all E-Town. The Rangers from Elsberry win their second tourney of the year and have showed that by beating a quality team like the Dream Team that they should be strong contenders for the Co-Ed title. On a special note, the Wild Dogs 3-1 have now put them just one game under .500 in the boys league--which is in all reality, an incredible accomplishment.

Principal John Waters Invitational: Thursday night was no easy chore for This is Sparta--the odds on favorite to win the tournament named after their own principal. Down on players because of scheduling difficulty--they knew they were down on numbers--and those losses almost forced them to lose. The Magnums just about nipped them in round 3 of the prelims (and that would have been a good feeling for them through Holt HS), but This is Sparta pulled it out. But in the championship--the EMDA finally saw the emergence of Vendetta--the team hit with the hardest luck of the tourney thus far. Their 4-0 night puts them from 3rd to 1st in the AL West. But, keeping up pace in the tough AL West with a 3-1 record was the Crazy Ivans. The Ivans are hard to figure out. Their weeks one and five record is 8-1, but there weeks two, three, and four record was 6-8. Who will show up when it is necessary? In other news, which is very big in the world of the Girls League, is the fact that the Vixens have finally pulled ahead of the Emo Kidz. Congrats girls! The Hillbillies continue to fight hard and remain consistent. Do not count them out when you face them. The Guardians and Emo Kidz were no-shows for the tournament.

PRINCIPAL DAVID WATERS INVITATIONAL: This tournament, fully covered by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (no kidding, begin checking the daily paper under the Every Day section) was the highlight of the evening as this week it represented the most competitive tourney. On one side, you have the incredible teams of the Broncos, Hitmen, and Mean Machines. The other side features the 636 Boys, the Raunchy Burritos and the Captain Planets who brought a 9 game win streak into the tourney. After a blowout win featuring the Mean Machines devouring the Broncos, the Machines squeaked past a tough Hitmen team to put themselves in a position to win the tourney. However, the other side of the bracket is much more confusing. The reasons for this is because the Co-Ed Cuts upset the heavily favored 636 Boys while the Raunchy Burritos upended the Planets' success when "Wyatt" Earp came back from a 4 to 1 deficit to win. These events caused a mess as it took extra "best of one" style games to see who would move on. On the low end, the Captain Planets won the 4th place game by forfeit over the X-men after a dismal evening where nothing seemed to go right (hey, it happens, at some point in time every team either doesn't play up to standard, gets a few calls to go against them, or etc). The Planets still sit 17-6 going into Week Six and look good for the playoffs. In the 3rd place game, the Raunchy Burritos beat the Hitmen. For the Burritos, it seemed that they were the team receiving most of the press because of the awesome physiques owned by Ethan "Allen" Killian and Kurt "Diamond" Kutter. For the Hitmen, it was the second time they went 1-3 in a tournament, and pretty much ended their chances of sneaking into the boys championship tourney. For the 2nd place game, the Broncos handled the Cuts in an impressive manner. But the championship was much different. Fans watching the match between the Machines and the 636 Boys were absolutely amazed (and this included a lot of players). The Machines are emerging as they finally have their whole team present, and the 636 Boys were at the top of their game. One voice in the crowd even said that this match looked like a championship game (which is good because it was). One of the highlights was the game two match where Peter "the Great" Merz went from 4 to 1 down to a 1 on 1 until he got hit by the 70 mph ball thrown by Bill "Bob Thornton" Kannady. Congrats to the Boys from the area code on your big win.

A-MRAZEK INVITATIONAL: Eight teams entered this tourney, and many good ones including the Dudley Boys, Not to Mess With, and the Saints. Yet, what everybody really wanted to see was the battle between the #1 Stingrays and the #2 Zumwalt Bad Boys. Well, the Stingrays did clear through the competition (though once again they had to face fierce competition from the Boys from Dudleyville). Likewise, the Bad Boys sailed through their half (even though a major Steve Lowrey vs. Karl Messenger battle went on for around 5 minutes at the end of the Not to Mess With contest). And the two behemoths met in the championship. The first game went forever. If there was a record for duration of game, it had to be the 15 minute battle played between these two as "Big" Ben Johnson from the 'Rays won over Brennan "Seasoning Salt" Lowrey after a 9 minute individual struggle. The Stingrays keep their top spot while ZBB will keep the #2 spot even with the loss. In other matches, the Dudley Boys went 3-1 to stay in a good position to qualify for the playoffs, Sweet Feet had an amazing night with an upset win over N2MW. The Saints sadly dropped three ballgames which pretty much takes them out of the running of winning the AL West next Thursday. Finally, in the 4th Place battle, Dodge This took out the Bearded Unicorns after Valerie Avery took a mild ankle injury into the tarp.

A LOOK AHEAD:

BOYS PLAYOFF TEAMS: It looks like the top 4 teams (Stingrays, Zumwalt Bad Boys, Dream Team, and the 636 Boys) are all locks for the playoffs unless something unimaginable happens. These teams are also the most likely to reach the Final Four after the first round. However, the odds show that one of them will probably stub their toe in the first round of the playoffs to one of the emerging teams and that would flush their amazing records down the drain. One intriguing game is the battle between the 636 Boys and ZBB which will probably decide the NL East Champion.

BOYS TEAMS ON THE BUBBLE: That leaves 5 teams for 4 spots. Currently, both the Planets and the Dudleys sit at 17-6 which gives them a little room to breathe. The Broncos, Mean Machines, and This is Sparta all sit at 16-7. Most experts believe that a 20-8 record will make the tourney and most likely the teams finishing at 19-9 will have to go to some type of tie-breaking system (for that info, click on the 2006 season and look for "tie breaking procedure" for exact details.). What this means is that more than likely a 3-2 record would propel the Dudleys and Planets into the tournament, but a 2-3 night could force them to rename their team to the Humpty Dumpties. For the other 3, if the tournament were to take place right now...Sparta would be #7, Machines would be #8, and the Broncos would be the #1 seed in the consolation bracket. Why? Both Sparta and the Machines hold tie-breaking procedure over the Broncos because of their wins over them. Then, Sparta holds the tie-breaker over the Machines based on strength of schedule. Thus, the Broncos really have to go 4-1 next Thursday to really feel good about their playoff chances (which could be tough since they are playing both the Bad Boys and the 636 Boys). However, games are not a walk in the park for anyone as the Machines have to face the Captain Planets, Stingrays, and N2MW. Meanwhile, Sparta has to face the Dream Team, Hitmen, and the Dudleys. It's gonna be a mess that won't be settled until about 1:00am when all the math is done.

BOYS CONSOLATION MADNESS: Playing for the boys consolation trophies (yes, there are trophies for the bracket, so one could argue that 9th place is better than 4th), will be one of the bubble teams listed above and two other great teams made up of the Hitmen and the Raunchy Burritos (unless the Hitmen go undefeated and 2 other teams have total collapse). The Wild Dogs and Magnums will also be formidable adversaries followed by the Guardians and the X-Men. Technically, the #1 seed of this tourney does get a bye since Arson forfeited weeks ago.

CO-ED CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW: The E-Town Rangers are in, have the #1 seed, and will be the team to beat regardless of what happens Week Six. Likewise, the Crazy Ivans and Vendetta are also most likely in as they do battle next week for the pride of conquering the AL West. Furthermore, the AL Central top two teams (Cuts and N2MW) look to also be not too shabby. These 5 appear to be locks for the tourney, and can begin now to make game plans on conquering. The side-note for the evening is that both the Ivans and Vendetta are tied at 14-9 and the Cuts and N2MW are tied at 13-10...and they both play each other next week! How's that for scheduling?

CO-ED CHAMPIONSHIP BUBBLE: Last week at this time, there wasn't a bubble. But because of the amazing play of the Wildcats, we now have 4 teams fighting for 3 spots. Experts believe the cut-off will either be 14-14 or 13-15 (most likely 13-15) for the record of the 8th place team. More than likely, the AJ Fox led Saints at 12-11 will be in, as will the Vicious Vixens. The final spot will come down to either the Emo Kidz or the Wildcats, who play each other next week--the winner may just claim spot #8.

CO-ED CONSOLATION FINALS: This tourney will be up in the air and really have no particular favorites. The winner may be based solely on who can get their team to show up entirely. Sweet Feet and the Hillbillies both have 8 wins, the Jackalopes 7, and Dodge This has 6. The Boon Dox won 2 games last week as did the Street Signs. The Bearded Unicorns could do well if they could just field their full team. Your guess will be as good as mine.

OTHER TOURNEYS: The three girls teams look to be gaining ground on each other week to week. Both the Vixens and Sweet Feet have more consistently than Emo over the last 3 weeks. Meanwhile, the Wildcats almost beat E-Town which should heat up the Middle School division. Do not count out Boon Dox.

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