Dodgeball is a sport most associated with elementary school gym classes, but for more than 40 students in the Bowling Green dodgeball club, it has become a passion.

“A lot of people know of dodgeball, but I don’t think a lot of people have played competitively,” said Eric Fiske, one of the founding fathers of BG’s dodgeball club.

The club, which is part of the National College Dodgeball Association, was founded by juniors Fiske and Mike Fulton in 2002.

Fiske and Fulton began the club because of their love of dodgeball that they developed in their hometown of Rocky River, Ohio.

The two have been friends since elementary school. They played recreation league dodgeball together, and ?? before that, they played in Fulton’s basement.

“We used to play with his dad down in the basement, we had little balls that we were throwing around breaking [things],” Fiske said.

Despite forming the club in 2002, the team didn’t take off until last school year when they competed in the NCDA end of the year tournament at Michigan State University.

At the tournament, BG competed against the top three teams from the 2006 tournament, including Ohio State, the three-time reigning champion at the time.

BG ended up losing all four games, but the tournament turned out to be a great learning experience and showed the team how large-scale college dodgeball has become.

“We learned a lot from that tournament. It was kind of interesting, we came back and the next practice we had the people that went to the tournament play against the people that didn’t just to see what we learned,” Fiske said. “And it was pretty amazing. We kind of creamed them.”

The NCDA currently consists of 16 teams around the Midwest and has a goal of establishing teams at several more schools this year.

The association’s rules call for two teams of 15 with two 25-minute halves. To score a point, a team must eliminate the other team completely. After each point is scored, the teams reset to the full roster.

Another difference between the NCDA and elementary school gym classes is the presence of a six-man referee team that monitors catches, outs, a shot clock, and even has the power to issue red and yellow cards.

Having only played four official games last season, the team has been talking to both Michigan State and Delta University to try to plan two games, one home and one away before the national tournament in the spring.

The team is currently accepting members and has weekly practices Monday nights at the Perry Fieldhouse.