Dodgeballs for charity

This weekend a playground classic will grow up.  On Saturday, Oct. 30, VCU’s Siegel Center is hosting the sixth annual Chick-fil-A Charity Dodgeball Tournament. Last year was the most successful, with 232 teams participating and raising over $400,000 for charities. Still, Chick-fil-A is looking to beat their own record this year with a goal of 400 teams and $100,000 in contributions.

The tournament began six years ago and was the brainchild of one of the owner/operators for Chick-fil-A, Howe Rice. Rice traveled to Niger, Africa and saw a need to build schools in Niger. The country is extremely poor with only an 18-percent literacy rate. When Rice returned to the states, he and his marketing director came up with the idea to start a dodgeball tournament as a fundraiser. Since the program started, 50 percent of the funds raised go to build schools in Niger, and the other 50 percent go to a local charity, which is rotated every year. This year Special Olympics Virginia has been selected.

On Saturday, three tournaments will take place at the Siegel Center. There is an adult tournament which has an amateur and pro division, a youth tournament with middle school and high school divisions, and for the first year, there is a separate college tournament. VCU is one of the sponsors of the event.

To promote playing in the tournament, Chick-fil-A hosted a promotional event called “Bring the Heat” in the university commons plaza on Monday, Oct. 18. Students were given the chance to throw a dodgeball and have their speed clocked. Those who met the qualification speed (30 mph for females and 45 mph for males) got a free spicy chicken sandwich. The top five females and top five males will be given the opportunity to play on the All-Star VCU team.

These individuals will play in the tournament for free, and VCU will provide t-shirts and uniforms.

Johnathan Mayo, the tournament director and president of Avail Marketing, said he is most looking forward to the new college competition aspect of the event.

“I think my favorite part this year is going to be to see how the college tournament turns out because it’s the first year and moving it to the Siegel Center,” Mayo said. “I know some of the other schools – Richmond and Virginia Union and Virginia State – some other local schools are putting in teams so that’ll be a nice friendly competition amongst the area colleges, just something fun.”

Mayo will be traveling with Chick-fil-A to Niger, Africa four days after the tournament to see the three schools the proceeds from the past events have built.

Jonathon Billings, a VCU graduate student in the Sports Leadership program, worked the radar gun for the event and thinks students should consider participating in the game.

“It’s a good way to spend your Saturday before Halloween,” Billings said. “Just coming to the dodgeball tournament and having fun with your friends.”

Billings said the highest speed for men at the “Bring the Heat” event was 57 mph, and the fastest for women was 37 mph.

VCU senior, Paige Birkelbach, was the fastest throwing female. She said it was not the allure of dodgeball that brought her over to the tent. She saw the signs for Chick-fil-A and thought perhaps free chicken was being given away, but once she found out more information, she decided to try her arm at throwing.

“I kind of threw it like I throw a baseball,” Birkelbach said. “So I kind of lifted my leg like you see guys in the major league do and just kind of chucked it as hard as I could. I thought I was going to throw it a lot faster than that to be honest.”

Birkelbach said if she qualifies for the VCU team, she would love the opportunity to play in the game.

“People like hitting each other with dodgeballs,” Birkelbach said. “It gets rid of a lot of frustrations, and I know it’s fun, and the balls don’t really hurt that much. I could definitely throw one of those balls at my boyfriend.”

Anyone interested in signing up for the tournament, or to find more information, visit www.cfarichmond.com