Dodgeball players from our church dodgeball league took a trip to compete for the national dodgeball championship--and finished first and second in the nation. You may have to read that first sentence again, but it is the truth and that is what happened. Here's how it happened...
In the Spring, we hosted our annual dodgeball league which we call the Western St. Charles County dodgeball association. After making contact with the National Amateur Dodgeball Association located in suburban Chicago, it became apparent that our best teams would be invited to play and may even be ceded high enough to do well. Therefore, with the help of some corporate sponsors, we planned the trip and went North in late July of 2006.
The Zumwalt Bad Boys, undefeated league champions, came together as a team and competed in the Mens "A"division which is made up of traveling teams from around the nation. There was much discussion that perhaps youth pastor Tom Papez made a mistake by enrolling them in such a difficult division--but we felt win or lose--we would win or lose big. Overall, they made the final 8 and qualified for finals but lost in the first round. To people of the area, this may seem like a great success, but to the Bad Boys and their goal of winning the championship--this day was really a downer filled with frustration and an unhappy ending. However, the local press surrounded the Bad Boys throughout the day since they had shaved Mohawks into their hair prior to departure, and their talent and dark looks was definitely something of amusement to the local media.
The Loco Motives were made up of all-star members of the Krazy 8's, Not to Mess With, and the All-Americans. Like the Holy Dodgers, they competed in the Co-Rec division and did pretty well after a rough start due or rules discrepancies and the different format. The highlight for there day took place during their Final Four match against the undefeated #1 seed who had competed well in the tourney for the last 6 years. The match went into 8 overtimes (shootout style) when team leader Andrew Merz connected on a throw that sent the Los Royales home for the day. The celebration (from all the teams since the Royales had such dislike for them by fellow competitors) was so hard that Merz actually got punched in the mouth by a congratulatory friend.
The Holy Dodgers had a day to remember, a memory that will never be forgotten. The team, formerly named Tom's Dodging Divas who had finished 2nd in the WSC Co-Ed division, took their Holy Name and never looked back. Led by Fellowship of Weldon Springs youth minister Tom Crowe, won the hearts and souls of Chicago by coming off an 0-2 start to win the rest of their games and eventually the National Championship. Ironically, they had met the other church team in the finals, and praying together at mid-court before the match was truly exciting and a great testimony to the hundreds of fans on hand. In a brief overtime match, the Dodgers proved that they could dodge, dip, duck, dive, and dodge better than anyone else in the nation. And we are very proud of them.
In addition to the competition, this trip was also a "mission." On the Friday before we competed, we traveled downtown to the inner core of Chicago and helped do demolition on an abandoned crack house that was in process of becoming a church. The people who work for the parachurch ministry "Sunshine Gospel" were renovating a 102 year old building that had been abandoned and abused for the last 10 years. The completed structure is going to house a church, a technology area to train locals on using computers, a coffee house, offices for a handful of local pastors who have no office space, and housing for low income single mothers. When completed, the value of the building alone will be well over 2 million dollars, but they needed our muscle to blast some stuff away--which we did---while having a blast ourselves.
Prior to leaving the Windy City, we worshipped Sunday morning at Willow Creek Church (one of the best and largest churches in that nation), ate Chicago Style Hot Dogs, and had our victory meal at Geno's East (declared one of the top ten pizza places in the world by an A&E special youth pastor Tom Papez had seen years earlier).
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