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You’re reading this right: Trampoline dodgeball tournament in Irving was a ball 

At an Ultimate Dodgeball Regional Qualifier at Sky Zone Trampoline Park in Irving Wednesday night, competitors were bouncing off the walls. Literally.

Ultimate Dodgeball is a typical ball-throwing game, but with the added levity of wall to wall trampolines. The intense matches last 3 minutes long.

“I like to do things to keep me active besides just your typical workout,” says Derik Cavoto, a member of a team called Voodoo, who was sweating after the warmup.

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The tournament kicked off with a performance of the national anthem while teams placed their hands over their hearts, the way any serious sporting event would start.

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Six teams competed in the tournament with colorful names like Razzle Dazzle, Wrecking Ballz, Lone Star Syndicate, NeverSoft, Recon and Voodoo. (Guess which one is from New Orleans?) Lone Star Syndicate, led by team captain and USA dodgeball team member Cody Stidham, fought a long and hard battle to victory, bringing home $1,000 and advancing to the national competition in Chicago on Aug. 2-5. In the last seconds of the final match, two Syndicates and a member of Recon sent the red balls flying at each other in a rapid exchange until the Syndicates cornered the final Recon member and defeated him with a hard smack.

Many of the members know one another, as they play in an elite dodgeball league at recreational centers throughout D-FW. And while the game might seem fleeting, the participants take this sport seriously.

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“Dodgeball to me is the most competitive sport,” says Dallas Dodgeball Commissioner Tom Wakefield. “People may think it’s just something kind of silly from grade school, but you’ve got to do everything. You’ve got to move quickly. You’ve got to be a strong thrower. You’ve got to be a catcher. Not every sport has all that.”

The members of NeverSoft, eight men from Arlington, met working at a trampoline park. In one game, team captain Ryan Dean remained in the game long after his teammates, diving to the ground and jump splitting in the air as multiple balls flew around him.

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Other participants included a pastry chef, PR guy and dental hygienist.

For Francisco Arteaga, he started playing dodgeball while studying for his dental hygiene exam. “It was a good release to get out there and move my body,” he says. Arteaga even bought a minivan so the whole crew could travel together to tournaments throughout the country.

“Playing dodgeball around the nation is like I found a family,” Arteaga says. “It’s awesome being able to get together. We have people from different backgrounds and different career paths and we all just get together and look out for each other.”

Portales, a pastry chef and a member of Lone Star Syndicate, says he lost 30 pounds playing and training for dodgeball.

“It’s a lot of cardio, so it’s a way to lose weight and have fun,” Portales says.

The final game pitted two local teams against one another, Lone Star Syndicate and Recon. Since many of the competitors had played each other and knew one another’s strategies, Lone Star Syndicate adopted a smarter and more conservative approach.

“[Dodgeball] is kind of like a chess match on a basketball court because you’re doing everything for a reason and you have different plays for different people,” says Stidham, the captain of the winning team.

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In the coming weeks until the national competition, Lone Star Syndicate will practice weekly at Skyzone Irving and compete in dodgeball leagues throughout D-FW. Additionally, the team will participate in four more tournaments both on and off the trampoline before early August.

While Stidham says the team still has more practice to get in, “everybody did their part to bring home the gold.”