In Term 1, Albion Park High School began the annual school dodgeball tournament, providing both students and teachers with a way to come together as a school community post Covid.
APHS has been running the annual dodgeball competition for over 14 years now, playing matches weekly, whether its students vs teachers or students vs students there is always a game being played. There are two different dodgeball comps that are played, 7-8 years play the junior comp and 9-12 years play the senior comp. Dodgeball games are played in the gym, free for anybody to leave and enter at any time. Once the term competition ends there is an assembly run to hand out that year's dodgeball winners.
Mr Todd, the administrator of APHS’s dodgeball competition shares his views on not only the success of the competition, but also its importance in a post covid environment:
What are the positive impacts that dodgeball has on students?
“I think it has a very positive impact on our students for a number of reasons.
Firstly, it allows the more competitive and lively students at school to have an outlet to participate in some rigorous physical activity. That’s a huge positive.
Secondly, because it’s a team sport, there is a huge social context to the competition. Another huge factor is that it is great entertainment, and we have seen a big increase in our crowd numbers over the last two years, and particularly since we banned phones at school.
The students who play know that it is set up as a “fun” competition, but there is also definitely a highly competitive spirit to the matches that are played. The Grand Final, in particular, is a bit of a hoot.
Another huge impact of this tournament is for the students who are in the Sports Committee, as they organize and run the show. It is such a great opportunity for them to develop their leadership, organizational and initiative skills at this time, and they usually do this without even knowing it!”
Why do you think dodgeball helps bring students together?
“Whilst some students don’t like playing Dodgeball, as a spectator sport, it’s pretty fun to watch. Who doesn’t like watching someone get maimed with a projectile!?!? Throw in the fact that the teachers always enter a team, it is definitely a great spectacle for our school community to witness. On Grand Final day, we usually do a bit of a skit in assembly to pique the interest and posters of the two teams will be stuck up around the school. Both grand final teams dress up for the occasion and with commentary, program, the singing of the National Anthem and music, it’s one of the few annual traditions we have at APHS that students really look forward to and has stood the test of time. The gym is usually absolutely chockers on this day, which is obviously fantastic.
And despite it all being a bit of a farce, it is mighty good fun at the end of the day.
Which is exactly what we want it to be!!”
It is clear dodgeball is one of the most beloved traditions within our school. This is not just shown through its run time of 14 years, but is also shown with the massive turnout of students every week. Students seek dodgeball as a source of entertainment during lunch, more now than ever with covid which has limited students' social activities for the past 2 years, and the new implement no phone rule.
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