‘Emerging’ Sports Like Dodgeball Taking Over Public Tennis Courts
Seattle, WA, United States (AHN) – Tennis anyone?
Not at some local courts in Seattle where your friendly, politically-correct gym teacher would be shocked to see dodgeball is making a comeback and bringing people together.
You read it right, dodgeball. As in get out of the way or you’re going to get beaned.
As in the game banned from many if not all elementary schools in today’s arguably overly-protective, coddle the kids environment.
Tennis, essentially a country-club type individual sport full of divas on the women’s side professionally – and perhaps just as many in the men’s game – is being pushed out and off of its own courts for the ultimate playground game of survival.
Tennis courts at Seattle’s Cal Anderson Park have become a dodgeball hotspot with games breaking out on Tuesday and Friday nights.
According to the Seattle Times, the games are popular, draw big crowds from the Capitol Hill neighborhood and foster a streetside camaraderie.
Usually something like this would get quashed by the local authorities in a “makes-no-sense we don’t care how many people enjoy it” move.
But give local parks-department officials credit, as the Times reported that they don’t want to destroy the camaraderie dodgeball has created.
“There is just a lot of foot traffic in that neighborhood,” Lucas Boyle, organizer for Seattle Street Dodgeball told the Seattle Times. “We get kids from the Central District, people going to a bar or a restaurant and they stumble upon the game. It’s entertainment.”
But a dilemma remains over allowing the use of tennis courts for dodgeball and a public hearing will be held Thursday during the Board of Park Commissioners meeting.
The city in 2008 had explicitly banned dodgeball on tennis courts. But the popularity of the game and other sports prompted officials to look again at the issue.
Boyle is hopeful dodgeball will be given a spot on the courts at Cal Anderson Park.
“It’s an amazing kind of adrenaline rush,” he said. “The tennis courts at Cal Anderson are the lifeblood of this amazing community event.”
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