Dodgeball

My dodgeball league starts tonight so I thought I'd write about how I became interested in the sport and how it has been a positive influence in my life.

I've been playing fairly regularly for just over 3 years now. Playing dodgeball has become one of the highlights of my week on a regular basis. I started playing when I moved to Scottsdale to go to school at ASU Polytechnic. I moved there from Glendale, AZ which is about 30 miles to the west. At the time I didn't know anyone on this side of town except for my friend John who was my roommate. I was going to school 30 miles to the east so the friends I made out there weren't exactly in close proximity to where I lived either. Being a very outgoing person, I really missed having friends to hang out with regularly. I got connected with AZ Dodgeball when the owner of the league friend requested me on the social networking site Myspace, back when it was still popular. I looked at their website and realized they met on Thursday nights about 4 miles from where I lived. I decided to go check it out one week and was hooked immediately. I have played on a weekly basis, other than the few times that I have sustained injuries, ever since then.

At first it was just a fun way to be active during the week. Gradually, I became friends with many of the people in the league and started to hang out with them on the weekends. A few months later I was going on snowboarding trips and soon realized that my entire social life was grounded with people that I had met through playing dodgeball. Pretty soon I showed up one night and saw two girls warming up that I had never seen before. A friends girlfriend walked up to me and said, "That blond girl is really cute, you should go talk to her." I replied, "I don't know about her but her friend is hot!" Then I walked over and introduced myself to Renee who I have now been seeing for over 2 years. I continued playing and making friends and now I can't imagine what my life would be like if I hadn't found out about this awesome sport!

What I learned from playing dodgeball is that there are a lot of benefits to joining a social athletic group other than just the fun to be had by playing. So I'd encourage anyone who wants to make friends and have fun to go out and join a dodgeball/kickball/bowling, etc league. It could change your life.