Captains’ Interviews: Dodgeball Club Captain

As we roll into December, the Captains’ interviews just keep on coming! This week, we have one of the quirkier Imperial sports on display: Dodgeball. Alan Soltani, a 3rd year physicist and Dodgeball club captain, is the man of the hour. We meet up in Beit quad to talk about balls, wrenches and more.

I’m not quite sure what to expect coming into the interview – what would the ‘dodgeball type’ be? Very friendly, as it turns out. I kick things off by asking a bit about the structure and organisation of the club, and where Alan fits in. “I’m club captain, as well as being first team captain – we also have a president though. My role involves organising the competitive side of the club, the matches, coaching and training.” How many teams do Dodgeball have? “This year, we’ve got three teams, which is the most we’ve ever had. Teams are mixed, with the game played six-a-side. We took twenty-one people to the university championships a few weeks ago.”

As I don’t remember anyone from dodgeball sending in a report about that, I ask him to tell me more: “There were thirty teams competing at Cranfield university, in the ‘experienced’ teams category. The first team did pretty well, getting to the quarter finals and losing to eventual winners Warwick – who are one of the strongest teams in the country.” Promising stuff, I think.

So what is the competition structure for the sport? “ The UK dodgeball teams are divided into leagues of eight teams, with the Premiership being the top one. We’re in the league below that, but we haven’t played any of our matches yet, our first fixtures are this Saturday. One thing to point out is that the leagues aren’t run by BUCS: there is a mix of university and non-university teams.” What are the team’s objectives for the season, I ask. After your result at the championships, are you the favourites to get promoted? “We weren’t at the start of the season, but we have beaten some premier league teams in warm-up open tournaments and people have started to take notice. Hopefully we can keep playing like this and go up.”

I thought, ‘I’ll give it a go’, and then just ended up loving it

I’m curious about the club’s history – surely it was founded pretty recently? “When I joined as a fresher, in 2009, the club was in its second year of existence. As far as I know it was formed by a group of medics who aren’t here any more…but the club has continued.” How was the fresher intake for this year? “Really solid. We started having training sessions in Ethos just this year, before that we would use the Union concert hall – which is surprisingly good for dodgeball. Training at Ethos makes it easier to draw in newcomers or people who want to give it a go, though, and I’d say we have about 35-40 people per training session.”

Do they have official dodgeball balls and everything? “Yeah, of course! It’s not rubber, actually, but inflatable with a soft outside layer.” He shows me one, and what immediately comes to mind is a Volleyball, but a bit lighter and slightly padded. Alan tells me it’s soft enough that head shots are allowed…perhaps with a bit too much of a grin on his face.

Now for the serious stuff: how did he get into Dodgeball? “actually, when I was at school, I used to watch this programme called Extreme Dodgeball that was on Sky. It just followed a bunch of American players around, and introduced the world of dodgeball, but it was awesome! When I got to uni and saw the dodgeball stand at fresher’s fair, I thought ‘I’ll give it a go’, and then just ended up loving it.”

It seems to be a recurring theme, this, of people picking up a sport at university and becoming the captain a few years down the line…So how easy is it to progress at dodgeball? What skills are needed? “It’s essentially a throwing and catching game, and those are the things you need to work on – along with speed, reflexes, that sort of thing. It’s pretty easy to progress rapidly, if you’re shown what to do. We [the people who joined at the same time as Alan - Ed.] took ages to progress, though, because at first we had no idea what we were doing, and no-one was really there to show us the ropes. The new lot are picking it up really quickly as they have us to teach them.”

Finally, the question I have to ask: was DodgeBall, the film a blessing or a curse for the sport? “ Definitely a blessing. UK dodgeball didn’t kick off until the film came out – there was a guy in Leicester who saw the film, thought ‘this is wicked’ and started the UK dodgeball association”.

To be very honest, most people had a bit of a laugh when I told them I’d be interviewing the dodgeball captain. I tell Alan this, and he concurs. It’s not always the easiest sport to admit to playing seriously. “ I’ve had quite a bit of stick over the years, especially when you say you play dodgeball competitively…but I’m used to it!” As the great Patches O’Houlihan once said, “If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.” You just have to be prepared to take some stick for it.