Reggie Thompson
The Paw Print
Friday, March 25 the Alamosa Family Recreational Center played host to the Battling Breast Cancer Dodgeball Tournament, in which nearly 30 teams and their families/fans came to support the meaningful cause.
County Administrator Barry Shioshita conceived the idea years ago and had a large hand in making this tournament happen, and after careful preparation, the proposal became a reality. The arrangement began in January with monthly meetings to organize the event, made up of mostly County of Alamosa connections. From those came ideas to spread the word around town. Ads went out through the newspaper and the radio with the aid of Kelly Gurule and breast cancer survivior Lisa Marlin, while Shioshita, Gurule, and Mayor Kathy Rogers got notices of the event to other larger employers such as City of Alamosa, ASC and Conejos County Hospital, and SLV Regional Medical Center through email flyer distribution. Shioshita’s role didn’t end there.
“Barry contacted the two major sponsors, provided the dodgeballs and referee equipment, got the t-shirts designed and made for the tourney, and contacted many of the volunteers, as well as emceed all night, made the trophies along with Commissioner Allen, and spent many hours on this project,” shared Mayor Rogers.
The event that was months in the making finally came this past Friday and went over successfully.
“[The tournament] far exceeded our expectations!” exclaimed Rogers. “It was incredible to see all the people on the court hearing the instruction from Barry. We did NOT expect this kind of crowd. Not only on the player side but also the many spectators we had!”
The cause earned $3,000.00 and counting from sponsors, donations, and the team entry fees.
Twenty-nine six-person teams entered the competition which was about nine more teams than the group expected to have and nearly matched their 30 team maximum. The tournament was double elimination format, with two divisions, Competitive and Old Geezers Coed. A particularly entertaining aspect of the tournament was the number of creative team names. Adams States’ wrestling team “The Ringworms” along with “Breast Friends” and Lisa Marlin’s “Marlin’s Dodgers” highlighted the bracket with their amusing names. Six hours went by before the winners were discovered. In the Old Geezers division, third place went to Heart of the City (Alamosa Public Works), second place was Rowdy Bunch, putting The Assets (City of Alamosa Finance) in the first place slot. In the Competitive division, Radioactive Roadkill (Conejos County Hospital) placed third, Team JS at second, and The Ringworms were awarded first place.
This was the first of potentially many dodgeball tournaments for the benefit of breast cancer research. Unfortunately, Shioshita will not be involved in future plans, because he will soon relocate to eastern Colorado.
Despite Shioshita’s eventual absence, Rogers remains optimistic about holding this event in the future.
“We hope this event can continue. We have heard many positive comments about the fun of the event and that it was just something different for Alamosa… We will be talking that out and see what we can do to keep this going.”
What’s Been Said…