This infamous quote from the movie “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story” will hopefully not be ringing true for the close to 700 kids competing in the annual Penn-Trafford Make-A-Wish Dodgeball Tournament.
On March 1 in the P-T High School main gym, a multitude of elementary and middle school children from around the school district will compete to be crowned as dodgeball champions.
The kids, with the help of their parents, organize their own teams and use their creativity to come up with their own team names. Over the years, the teams have provided some very humorous and creative names, such as the “Dodgefathers,” “Dodgeballers, Shotcallers” and “Dodgezilla.”
The children love coming up with their own team names. One of these children is Level Green Elementary fourth-grader and member of the “Pink Panthers,” Lily Sementuh.
“I like it because you can pick silly names and you can design your own shirts,” stated Sementuh.
But the event does much more than just allow some fun competition; it also raises money for Make-A-Wish. The profits, made from the kids $10 registration, the T-shirts and concessions are donated to Make-A-Wish which is a national organization that helps to fulfill sick children’s wishes. Last year the dodgeball tournament made $20,938 with a goal of bringing in more this year.
Lily Sementuh (fourth from right) with her team from last year.
Registration is primarily open to P-T children with information being sent home with them from school and mass email blasts sent out to parents of P-T elementary and middle school students.
“Some teams do invite a child or two from another school,” stated Amber Bertosh, the event coordinator of the tournament and parent of a P-T elementary child. “However, we do not allow full teams from other schools to keep the tournament manageable.”
The tournament was started during the 2014-2015 school year by Harrison Park elementary school mother Lori Baccari. At that time, the event was solely for Harrison Park students, but it opened up to the rest of the community in 2017.
P-T children look forward to competing in the event every year for a wide variety of reasons.
“I like it because you get to have fun with your friends, there’s concessions and you can try to win first place,” stated Level Green Elementary 1st grader and a member of “Blue Lighting,” Charlotte “Charlie” Sementuh.
The event is a round-robin style tournament with the brackets being organized by students’ grade levels. Then, the teams with the best records from each bracket compete against each other to crown a champion. The winners of the tournament each get a medal and a $10 Dairy Queen gift card.
“This event is such a fun event to attend. I’m sure it is super stressful for the parents but if you flip through the pictures, the kids have a blast all day,” stated Bertosh. “Looking through the pictures at the end of the day is a great reminder as to why we do these things…for the kids, for the smiles for the fun.”
While the event brings in a lot of money, it relies heavily on community help. A majority of the concessions and other extra things provided during the event is donated by parents and other members of the P-T community. If anyone is interested in donating, the link to what they still need is the QR code is below.
Mia Williams, Managing Editor