BELLVILLE, Ohio — Dodge. Duck. Dip. Dive. And Dodge. Patches O’Houlihan would have been proud.
Had O’Houlihan, the coach of Average Joe’s Gym in the 2004 comedy, “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story,” visited Les Hauenstein Gym on Friday, he would have been blown away by the level of competition at the eighth annual Clear Fork dodgeball tournament. Thirty-eight teams and almost 200 students — about half of the student population — took part in the event, organized by high school physical education teacher Jeremy Riddle.
“We used to do a student-faculty basketball game and we got to the point where we thought we weren’t going to be able to win that,” Riddle said. “Mr. Brown (high school principal Brian Brown) came up with the dodgeball idea and it has taken off.”
Riddle is the driving force behind the double-elimination tournament. He seeds all the teams then places them in an NCAA-style bracket.
“We come out with rankings every year. I rank every team and it creates quite the hype,” Riddle said. “Seven of the eight years I’ve picked the winner and the one year I didn’t it was the No. 2 seed that won it.
“I’ve had them all in gym class so I’ve seen them all.”
Riddle has refined the seeding process to a science.
“I get all the stuff on Wednesday and we have a reveal at lunch on Thursday,” Riddle said. “It’s comparable to the NCAA bracket reveal in March.”
Some of the teams in this year’s tournament included Ball or NOthing, The Ballbarians, Don’t Stop Ball-eiving and Ball of Duty.
“The kids have a lot of fun naming the teams,” Riddle said. “We have to make sure they are school appropriate. A lot of the kids also dress up for the tournament.”
The dodgeball tournament is traditionally help on the day before the start of holiday break. This year’s winner was Master McCune, the No. 16 seed.
“There are a lot of kids who look forward to this,” Riddle said. “We run it through our intramural program. We do some other tournaments, too. We have a basketball tournament and a volleyball tournament, but this is the big one.
“This is a great way to send the kids off on their break.”
“I get all the stuff on Wednesday and we have a reveal at lunch on Thursday. It’s comparable to the NCAA bracket reveal in March.”
Clear Fork High School physical education teacher Jeremy Riddle
