Students play dodgeball for charity

Movember dodgeball tournament sees high turnout.

The tournament, organized by Active KSA for charity and some fun on-campus activity, saw high levels of participation. A total of 12 teams joined in, with some really creative and witty Movember and dodgeball-related names including Hail ze Moustache and Slum-Dodge Millionaires.

“I thought it was a lot of great fun, and the best thing was that a lot of people turned up for the event and the atmosphere was amazing,” says Mark Ibarra, a student at KPU. “There were more people than I expected and they all showed respect for the game while keeping it fun and social.”

“We [his team] didn’t do as well as we expected but the point was to have fun and we weren’t disappointed,” he says. Many teams showed great enthusiasm for the sport regardless of how they placed in the tournament.

The tournament also had a moustache competition between males and females, although according to Ibarra, “There weren’t really that many people eligible to take part in the moustache contest from the guy[s] because they got the criteria wrong, it was supposed to be a moustache only and no beard. Anyway, the guy who won deserved it because he had a totally rocking ‘stache.’”

The winner of the male moustache competition was given a sash and the title of “Mr. Movember” for his superb facial hair game. The female winner’s moustache game was also quite strong, red and made of cotton.

Although Movember is a charity event many love to jump on board with, it’s not devoid of criticism.

“I know that people are encouraged to grow beards and moustaches in order to raise awareness for prostate cancer and I think that it’s a noble cause, but I think that this could be done in a more effective way,” says Annie Nguyen, another student. “Some way in which females could also properly take part would be better: awareness can be created on a wider scale, because us girls can’t take part in the Movember traditions even though we want to. Generally girls can’t really grow beards!” she says, laughing.

The purpose of Movember is to raise awareness for prostate cancer and the Movember dodgeball tournament in particular was collecting donations for the cause. According to the World Cancer Research Fund International, prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer for males in Canada, and the second most common in the world.
On raising money for Prostate Cancer, John Arcega, another first year student at Kwantlen, had some thoughtful insight: “It is good that awareness is brought up for prostate and breast cancer because they are very common, but overall it’s a very bad disease and even the more uncommon ones should be given equal preference and attention but they’re not,” says John Arcega, a first-year student at KPU.

The tournament, although for charity and recreation, was fiercely competitive. Every team played until the last moustache standing. Even through fierce competition, a tournament cannot be great without sportsmanship, and in no way was it lacking this department.

Apologies for headshots, including one from Mr. Movember after nailing a girl on the opposing team square on the face with a bullet of an effort, were rife and after so many displays of fine in-game etiquette, the tournament organizers decided to have an award for the team with the best sportsmanship. This was ultimately won by the KSA United team, during the halftime award ceremony. Other prizes were also given out during this time.

After the halftime ceremony, the tournament resumed and after some tough matches it was ultimately won by the hard-hitting and fast moving AU Rockets.

It would not be difficult to notice, however, that the team with the best support was the Kwantlen Gaming Guild, with continuous chants of ”KGG!” that rocked the entire gym throughout the tournament every time they won a round, got someone out, or even waved to the crowd.

The great atmosphere, coupled with active participants, displays of sportsmanship and the noble intention behind it all made the Movember Dodgeball tournament a huge success.