Category: Press

Winnipeg – code orange

We are aware of Winnipeg being upgraded (or downgraded, depending on how you view it) to Code Orange. We are working with Gyms to cancel the space for the duration of this new lockdown.

For the time being, you can assume all games that are scheduled to happen during the Code Orange to be postponed. Should this last only a few weeks, we will do our best to add on to the end of the season and hopefully finish before Christmas.

Should it last longer than 4 weeks, there will be a partial or entire cancellation of the season, and proportional refunds will follow at that time. For the time being, though, we made allowances in the schedule for at least 3 weeks of lockdown – which was communicated in advance of the season. We were prepared for such an eventuality, which is why we booked 12 weeks of Gym Space.

Stay safe, be responsible, we’ll be back to having fun once this outbreak is under control!

Update September 25 2020: with the government announcing indoor sports are still okay to proceed with the same restrictions as before today, we have reached out to captains to determine how teams feel about when and how we return to play.

Sunday September 27th will still be cancelled regardless of the survey results, as we always strive to give at least 72 hours notice before scheduling/rescheduling a game.

Update 2 September 26 2020: Here is a document from the Manitoba Government detailing the current restrictions. The passage concerning athletic activities is near the end of the document.

Spring 2020

Hello Dodgeballers,

Thank you for taking the time to read this. This has been the hardest time for Dodgeball, and myself personally, in recent memory.

I will cut straight to the chase:

Spring season:

April is cancelled. There is no possibility for us to prepare a season that begins in April even if a vaccine is discovered tomorrow.

Team league will be delayed until May as we should still be able to run a nearly-normal season in May and June. If, by May 1, society is still locked down then Spring will be cancelled entirely, and teams will be refunded. Please do not register for Spring season until we know for sure we will be able to run it.

Spring Draft league is cancelled as we cannot run it without a full season. Refunds for draft will be coming next week.

Winter season:

Due to the circumstances in draft (one captain vying for their captaincy via the championship) we will remain committed to completing this draft season whenever it is safe to do so

We also remain committed to running all the championships if possible. If, however, we are still unable to get back in the gyms by June 30th, we will look at the following options:

  • Recreational divisions will be decided based on the seed, unless all teams in contention agree to wait
  • Competitive divisions will be consulted as to how they want to proceed

All teams will receive free drop-ins equal to the number of games cancelled, to be used after business resumes

Future seasons:

We will not open registration for any future seasons until such time as we know for certain we will be able to run them

Business continuity:

Dodgeball is an inherently profitable business that, aside from refunds, will not be taking on any additional costs while shutdown. Unfortunately, we just placed a large order for equipment which means that, in order to process refunds, we will be going into debt. We believe this is the ethical way to operate and will hold that debt until such time as Dodgeball reopens. If your team is entitled to a refund and is willing to leave that as a credit towards a future season, we will give you the option to do so. However, we are fully prepared to weather this storm for as long as it takes.

I have picked up a full-time job in the meantime, and will pay the Dodgeball Winnipeg debt out of my own pocket to make sure the business remains solvent and able to fulfill its obligations to its customers.

This is a hard time for everyone, and we will not make it harder for you. Nothing matters more to me than the community we serve. I appreciate the great gift you have all given Dodgeball Winnipeg in the form of your trust.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this,

Stacy Huen

Managing director, Dodgeball Winnipeg

Winter 2020 is cancelled, Spring 2020 is still happening

Looks like we’re shutting down over Covid-19. We did not take this decision lightly. There are numerous factors that came into play here aside from public sentiment.

1) Dodgeball contains an unusually high amount of physical contact with bodily fluid given the nature of our sport
2) In the last 24 hours the scare has ramped up significantly
3) Most major sporting organizations have shut down

How will this affect teams with games left?

1) We are asking to cancel the gym space. So far EECC has already said they will not charge us. We will have to wait for responses from Norberry, Sinclair Park, and Winakwa before we determine what amount we can refund the teams
2) All teams that did not make playoffs will have their games cancelled and will receive free drop-ins for all rostered players equivalent to the number of games they will miss. (2 for Sunday teams, 1 for Monday teams, 1 for Thursday teams)
3) All teams with playoff games left to be played will have them postponed. We will attempt to reschedule these games before next season, if possible. If, in the unlikely scenario, we cannot reschedule these games, they will be cancelled as well and we will look at refunds for the affected teams.

How does this affect Spring season?

We are very hopeful that, given the 5 weeks between now and then, Spring should happen as planned. If for some reason it cannot, and there are cancellations or delays of the season, teams will be reimbursed proportionally to the amount they were affected. (Example, if we have to cancel the first game only, you would receive a refund of 1/9 of your team fees)

This has been budgeted for and your money is safe with us. We will act ethically and responsibly to ensure the season happens in whatever capacity is possible given the nature of the current situation.

September 15th venue changes

We received some seriously unfortunate news from Dakota Field house on Friday that they will be closing September 13th-20th for some urgently needed repairs, and will in fact have their floors entirely redone during this time.
 
This means that we have had to secure other venues for the Semi-finals week of Sundays for the summer season.
 
In order to maintain the same style of play, the divisions will be rescheduled as following.
 
Draft:
 
4:00-6:00 East Elmwood CC (playoff games)
 
4:15-6:15 Norberry-Glenlee CC (teams ranked 5-8)
 
Rec:
 
6:00-8:00 Winakwa CC
 
Platinum & Gold:
 
6:00-10:00 East Elmwood CC with nets (playoffs)
 
8:00-10:00 Winakwa CC, with nets (non-playoffs)

We’re back!

Alright folks, we are back from the National Dodgeball Tournament in Barrie!

What does this mean?

  1. Draft scores will be entered shortly. We were going to do them on the plane but the iPad I brought with the photos of the scores got left at the airport so that did not happen
  2. Sunday schedules for the rest of the season will be entered shortly
  3. More games to be broadcast! While out in Ontario I broadcast a few games and did commentary on them, which I loved doing. In future DW will try to live stream more games and include commentary to help people interested in the game follow along and learn
  4. We will be opening registration for Summer season very shortly

On the horizon:

  1. We will be hosting a draft tournament soon
  2. Dodgeball Manitoba will be hosting a beach dodgeball tournament to raise funds for 2018 Nationals
  3. Summer teams that have a pun with a specific theme (like last summer) will have money from their registration fee donated to D’Arcy’s ARC to help them replace the medication that was stolen from their facility last night
  4. We will be fixing some house rules in Summer to align ourselves more closely with the international standard (ie: removing the 3, 2, 1 from the beginning of rounds and just starting rounds with a “Teams Ready…. *whistle*)
  5. WDBF style balls will become the standard for our league in Fall for sure, but possibly in summer if we get our order in time for the season
  6. We will host a “cattle call” for people to learn how to be a ref. It will be a day of free dodgeball, training, and at the end everyone who passes a test will become certified to ref for us (and other WDBF style leagues) and be eligible to pick up shifts. More info TBA as we figure out the logistics for this event
  7. We will be hosting a competitive 1v1 tournament to determine who deserves the title of best Sudden Death player

FAQs for spring:

Q: Why were the standings left for weeks without an update?

A: The employee of ours who is in charge of updating standings was spending a LOT of time covering shifts and putting out fires that developed, and the time that was normally allotted to data entry got used up solving more pressing issues

Q: Why are the Sunday schedules being released 1-2 weeks at a time?

A: We have to book a LOT of refs on that day who all work day jobs and most play on Sunday teams as well. We have to fit their reffing schedule around their playing/work schedule unlike a night such as Mondays (for example) where we have 2 refs doing the same shift all season.

 

Best of luck in Halifax!

We would like to wish Team Manitoba the best of luck as they prepare to head to the Dodgeball Canada national tournament this weekend.

Show them what Manitoba is made of!

Don’t hurt yourself – use recovery spot

As an athlete you may be putting long hours in the gym, preparing for your next competition, recovering from an injury, or looking for ways to compliment your health, fitness, and performance.

Recovery Spot provides dynamic “compression therapy” to support performance recovery for athletes at all levels and “hot & cold therapy” for injury treatment.

If you play in Dodgeball Winnipeg, you will receive the following just for playing in our league:

For Compression and Cryotherapy recovery systems:

  • Recovery Compression Therapy sessions free of charge from April 1-June 30
  • Twice a week, 30 minute sessions

 

Floors at ROCC

We heard concerns about the floors at River Osborne being wet so we went there to check it out and yes it was bad, and almost certainly from condensation.

We have booked this gym before for 2-3 hours at a time and it’s been fine – it was even fine today during draft – but it looks like 6.5 hours coupled with the humidity of today was more than the ventilation system could handle.

For the immediate future we will be moving draft to EECC to reduce the stress on Osborne. We will make sure they have the large roof fans on (they were not on today) and check out the 9:30 game once again on April 9 and see what it’s like. If it is once again unacceptable we will do our best to find an alternative venue. We have already reached out to our regular places to see if any of them can accommodate Sunday evenings.

We do ask that you not write off the gym just because it was bad today. Clearly it can’t handle 6.5 hours in humid weather, but it was great for at least 3 hours, possibly 4 based on the timeline we have gathered from people’s responses. We will make sure everything is in place April 9th to deal with humidity/condensation, and if it is still bad we will make sure not to book the gym for more than 3 hours in future.