Listen Here
By: Cory William Berlekamp
Twitter: @cberlekamp
Email: coryberlekamp1@gmail.com
Balls flew in the FRC at the University of Findlay on the evening of Nov. 9 to raise funds for the American Cancer Society.
The Colleges Against Cancer club on campus hosted their annual “Protect Your Balls” dodgeball tournament last Thursday to help promote awareness of testicular cancer. Three teams participated in the tournament raising $90 for the Student Government Association funded event.
President of the CAC and Senior at the University of Findlay, Jen Darling, is the founder of the event.
“It is known that men try to belittle their health problems,” said Darling. “This is a month for awareness with this event being more focused on testicular cancer.”
Coming out to participate were the wrestlers as “The Roughnecks,” medical students as “The Testicular Torsions,” and the Oilers Changing Campus Culture sponsored group as “The Blue Ballers.” With a decreased number of participants this year, the single elimination style tournament had to be changed to accommodate the three teams playing. Darling was not sure why the turnout was lower than what they have seen in the past.
“I’m kind of disappointed because I was the founder of “Protect Your Balls” dodgeball tournament,” Darling said. “Student participation has really gone down this past year, we don’t really know why.”
Regardless of the turnout, the teams came to play and the tournament was nothing short of competitive. The tournament was played as a round robin where the teams played best of three against each other in the first round. The two losing teams then battled for their spot in the championship round.
The med students were the first team to get knocked out leaving the wrestlers and the OC3 team to play best of five in the championship. In the previous years, the wrestlers have dominated taking first place the past two tournaments. After going back and forth with the OC3 though, their reign finally came to an end after game five.
“Feels great to dethrone them,” Logan Cox, president of the OC3 said. “Forcing to game five, two to two winner takes all, nothing like winning a gift card.”
Along with their pride, each player on the winning team took home a $20 gift card to Ralphie’s restaurant. The restaurant is currently closed due to damages from last week’s wind storm. “Hopefully they reopen soon,” Cox said as the teams congratulated each other in good sportsmanship.
Although the tournament was a fun experience, its purpose is very important to the CAC and its president. Along with raising funds for the American Cancer Society, the CAC’s other main goal is to raise awareness. “Our goal on campus is to promote awareness for different types of cancer,” Darling said. “Prevention is the best key to lower your risk factors for different kinds of cancers.”
The next event CAC is putting on is Relay for Life in March. Darling is excited and hopeful that participation for that event will be higher than the dodgeball tournament.
“You walk around the track all day and raise money for the American Cancer Society,” Darling said. “You keep walking to resemble that cancer never stops so neither do we.”
