How did you all meet?

We met on a hunting trip gone bad in the Alaska Range, tracking down the ever elusive Denali Blue Moose. The aircraft engine stalled and we crashed on a glacier 170 miles west of Mount McKinley. Fortunately, the dodgeballs we were carrying with us for bait acted as airbags and saved everyone's lives. We were down to our last Pabst Blue Ribbon when an Air Force helicopter came and evac'd us out. From the air, we spotted the ever-elusive Denali Blue Moose and got clearance from NORAD to take him out with a Maverick missile. What's left of the creature is in Brad's freezer.

Just kidding, but seriously, it happened.

Well, Craig met Brad thru his brother-in-law and softball. During a BBQ last summer, Craig mentioned putting a team together for the Anchorage League and through some intricate six degrees of Kevin Bacon separation we hooked up with Tish, Tim, and Pete. During open gym and league play last year, our team played against Gary and Bob's team. We bought them in free agency during the off season and had them join "Those Guys".

Where did your name originate?

We were going to call ourselves Alaska Northslope Crude but that didn't make sense. During open gym, we blew up everyone with those dodgeballs. Everybody was like, "You're scrimmaging 'Those Guys'! Good luck. They have cannons" The name stuck.

Actually, I think Brad, to his credit again, came up with the team name. It's a metaphor.

Tell us a little bit about your hometown?

We live in igloos and ride dog sleds to and from the ice shelf we play dodgeball on in the Bering Sea. Actually, geographically speaking, a crow would probably freeze to death and fall to the earth if it tried flying from Anchorage to the Bering Sea. We're not even near it. Anchorage is the largest city in Alaska with about 270,000 residents. Alaska is the largest state in the union: 2.5 times the size of Texas and 3.5 times the size of California. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that everyone keeps bickering about is the size of South Carolina in and of itself. Anchorage has all the amenities of a big city: McDonald's, Blockbuster, 20-plex movie theaters, etc. Great nightlife and great local culture. Halibut and salmon are king and queen among the local cuisine. The winters start in early October and run thru early April with a helluva lot of darkness and a helluva lot of cold. Sun didn't bother coming up today (Oct 11th) until after 8:30am. People enjoy the outdoors year round fishing, hunting, mountain biking, hiking, snow machining, etc. The summers more than make up for the winters with almost 24 hours of sunshine. We hope to have a Midnight Sun Open Dodgeball Tournament next June.

Is your style of play different from the NDL¹s and how so?

Yes. We play 4 versus 4 with 2 7" balls and 2 6" balls. After the NDL tournament, we adopted many of your rules, i.e. "the retriever". The retriever makes our games flow better. We also got rid of our 7 second rule once a player touches a ball. We'll give both teams a 7 second count now ONLY if play is stalled for a large amount of time. In this manner, we find we don't even have to use it. Players continue to throw. We have a suicide rule but didn't adopt the sacrifice fly part where you can return to the other side. Any ball that comes back over the centerline we also treat dead. And there are no block attacks.

Tell us about your sponsor or league that you play in?

The league we play in is infant. We basically are restarting last year's league with a different name: Alaska Dodgeball League. It looks like we may have 5 or 6 teams for starters and we hope to grow down the road.

Did anyone win big while you were at the tournament in Vegas?

"Those Guys" took 2nd place in Open and "Those Guys and Gals" took 2nd place in Co-Ed. We were happy with our showing but wanted to come home #1 in each category. We were winded. The level of play of all the teams was amazing. Great efforts by everyone.

What is your record?

We were 10 and 2 in our league's play last year with the two losses as forfeits because all of us had Christmas parties to go to. I'm not really sure what our record was in the Vegas tournament?

Do you and your teammates play any other sports together?

Most of us play softball during the summer, but on different teams. We also usually play some pickup basketball and pickup football in the fall and winter.

What is it about dodgeball that made you want to play?

The adrenalin rush. Where else can I throw a ball as hard as I can at someone less than 3 feet away on purpose and get away with it. It's a great workout, good people, and great fun.

Do you play indoors or outdoors, and which do you prefer?

We play indoors and prefer indoors. Please see ice shelf and Bering Sea comments above.

Do any of your team members have specific dodgeball names? Explain how they received their name?

Not yet. Haven't really given it a whole helluva lot of thought. But there's potential there.

How often do you play or practice together during the week.

For the Vegas tournament, since we weren't used to playing 6 v 6, we actually practiced once per week and had our normal open gym 4 v 4 play on another day for exercise.

Tell us something interesting about one of your teammates.

One of the players in our league is actually a cage fighter up here in the Alaska Fighting Championships (AFC).

Tell us about one of your most humiliating dodgeball experiences.

Anytime you get hit in the face or between the legs. Ouch.