Throw it at her face!

Tonight my dodgeball team, 'Je Dodge Bien', won first place in our league!!

It was a close game, with the winning score of 7-6.

It was a little tense today, however we managed to keep our cool despite a lot of distraction from the other team. You know how sometimes it's hard to define what exactly it is that annoys you? Well, that was NOT the case tonight!

The last time we played this team, it was a huge deal because we were playing to tie the score (they were up one point) and this girl on their team got hit with the ball and ran off the court crying. I want to make sure I explain this correctly so I don't sound like a jerk, but she wasn't hit unfairly. In fact, she was cocky and rude all game and was getting right in there to play her share. So she got hit and it shocked her and she ran off crying. Fine. It turned out that she was fine after all, not seriously injured, HOWEVER she made such a big deal about it as she took off that half her team ran after her to make sure she was ok. Since they LEFT the court, that meant that they should have forfeited that point. However, the game coordinate (aka Ref) decided they would WIN the game, rather than tie it, because we should be good enough sports since their girl was hurt. I argued and thought it should be a tie, since we won that point as they all ran off...Needless to say this didn't sit well with any of us.

In any case, tonight we played them for the championship. And there was this girl, again, shooting her mouth off.

The first thing that was annoying but not really beyond the bounds of sportmanship was their excessive cheering anytime they hit one of us. Fine, it's a psychological game to rattle us and get your team pumped. But then the stupid girl (from now on, referred to as SG) started counting down everytime we had the ball. In dodgeball, you are only allowed to hold the ball for 10 seconds. Most people honour this rule, and if they don't, someone usually just yells 'Ten seconds' and they toss the ball away. But this girl thought she was sooooo smart to start counting off on us. Not only was it rude and loud (preventing us from hearing our own teammates), it was moving into the realm of heckling, which I think is inappropriate in a sport that is pushing for good sportsmanship. This issue was quickly resolved when I yelled back at her "THAT'S NOT NECESSARY!", which quickly shut her up (never let it be said that I don't get the job done as captain).

The last thing that really put me over the edge, so that I brought it up with the other team's captain after the game, was something SG yelled while I was on the court with several of my male teammates. There were three guys on the other team with the balls ready to throw, and they were aiming at me, when SG yelled "THROW IT AT HER FACE!". She could only mean me, since I was the only girl on the court for my team at the time.

Hmm...I wonder why she thought that comment would be appropriate? Not only is it incredibly unsportsmanlike, it was super rude and very personal! I was pretty angry about it, so, as I said, I brought it up with the game coordinator and the captain of her team. That was definately crossing the line. We are supposed to be grown-ups playing competitive sports, not little kids just trying to hurt each other as we throw balls at each other...

Unfortunately, there won't be any repercussions for her, except that everyone knows she's a jerk and tries to get her out first on the dodgeball court. I should take comfort in the fact that she's a pretty bad athlete...and I guess I'm a better sport than her too.