Operation Dylan

As most of you will know by now, Waterford Dodgeball club are hosting a tournament on the May Bank holiday weekend in aid of Operation Dylan.



For those of you who may be wondering what Operation Dylan is about, i will try and give you a brief summary.  Dylan is a 4 year old boy, who like most boys that age like to explore, play , mess and pretty much cause havoc. ( i should know as i have 2 myself).  The difference with Dylan is that he was diagnosed with a condition called cerebral palsy.  Like most medical conditions, there are various levels which have different effects on different people but for Dylan it affects his ability to walk.

Dylan Training for the upcoming tournament

Dodgeballers and non dodgeballers alike, take the use of our legs for granted, We run, jump duck, dive and do all sorts with our legs and don't give a moments though about it, so i can only imagine how it must feel not to be able to do these things. 

looks like Dylan will be supporting Oozma Kappa

It is not all doom and gloom however and the good news is that you can help. Dylans parents , Claire and Lloyd have located an operation in the USA called  Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) which could help Dylan walk just like you or me. The only down side to this operation is that it is in the USA and unfortunately these things are never cheap, but that is where you come in.

 There are a number of ways you can help!!
1. Enter a team or join a team in the Dodgeball competition on May 3rd.  To enter a team simply email derek@dodgeball.ie with your team name and your in. Cost to enter is €10 per person (minimum of 6 per team)  or €7.50 if you come in fancy dress and you pay on the day.  For those who have never played before, it is a great way to try out a new sport and support a great cause while doing so.



2. Donate directly to operation Dylan.  I understand it is not possible for everyone to come along as some people may be away but that does not mean you can't get involved.  You can still donate. CLICK HERE   it does not matter how small or big a donation is as every penny counts and it will go to give a brave young boy a great chance to walk pain free.

For more information on Operation Dylan please check out the links below
https://www.facebook.com/OperationDylan/info
http://operationdylan.jimdo.com/
http://www.enableireland.ie/

Please share this event and try and get as many as your friends to play as possible and we will  Look forward to seeing you all on the court on May 3rd :)

If You click this you must follow the instructions  :)

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Tournament review

 

From Saturdays Tournament i am sore in places i never knew existed. Must be a sign that i am getting old.!!!   Won't be long more and i will be like this fella


As you all know we had 3 teams from Waterford travel to Dublin last Saturday looking for glory in the first tournament of the year. In what was a really competitive field, it was sadly not to be but i think the home of Dodgeball in Southern Ireland can be proud of their performances.


Reservoir dodge who were captained by EdPurcell, came 2nd in the plate in what was a cracking final with team twosie of Dublin. I was playing at the same time this game was going on so did not get to see a lot but Dublin raced into a 3- 0 lead, An inspired Ed led the comeback to 3-3 but Dublin were worthy winners in the last game and won 4-3 overall.

 I did not get to see most of their games due to playing times but from the games i did see Aidan O Neil was the stand out player from the games i did watch and of course Ed is always dangerous, especially on the counter attack. Signs were definitely encouraging and when Aidan, Del and ed all clicked and they looked at times if they were far better than their final position suggested. To be fair to Dodge they were missing no more than 4 of their players, who would of made a huge difference to them and at full strength i can only see this team improving.


As i have mentioned before, the Money shotz in my opinion were leading the race from all the Waterford teams to be in with a chance of winning the tournament outright. With all of their players except one representing Ireland it was hard to argue otherwise. I think they will feel a little disappointed with 4th place,especially after the blistering start they had. They won the first 3 games with ease before been defeated by eventual winners Kapow in the final group game. I really wanted to watch this game but i was busy getting thumped by Queens A team at the same time. I believe it was a tense game but Kapow were worthy winners and topped the group. Shotz progressed through the quarters with ease, easily beating Queens B team but met their match in the semis against the Queens A team who ran out 4-1 winners.

From the games i did see, Graham Coady was the stand out player and Andy made his usual fine catches. Also a special mention for the 2 Dublin girls Andy Fitz and Aisling Mullhern. Without them the shotz would not of had a team to compete and the 2 girls played brilliantly throughout



The Blue cobras, like the moneyshotz got off to a blistering start, winning 3 games in a row however they soon met their match when coming up against a Queens A who made light work at beating the cobras who finished second in their group. The cobras came up against Queens C in the Quater finals and sailed through to meet Kapow in the semis. Kapow proved to be too strong for the inexperienced cobras but it did set up a derby game between the shotz and the cobras in the 3rd place play off.
Like all derby games, this was a tense affair and you could sense that neither team wanted to lose, but it was was the Cobras who came out on top to clinch 3rd place and are now unbeaten against the shotz in the last 3 times they have met in a tournament.

The standout players for the Cobras had to be the 2 Dooley sisters, Both girls were in fine form and made some crucial catches on the day.

All in All each of the 3 teams can be happy with their performance but it is clear that their is a lot of work to do if they want to match the 2 Northern Ireland teams in the Irish open in May. I would like to see all teams come together and send up 2 really strong teams to the Belfast but time will tell if this is possible.

Photos from the tournament can be found here - Photos
 Videos (thanks to dave white) can also be found Here
full tournament results can be found Here





Training tonight was a little bit quiet, A mixture of champions league football and some sore bodies meant that there was only 10 players tonight.  The games started off bright but you could see some of the guys starting to get tired. Maybe stamina is something we need to work on when training on Monday nights!!!   Well done to Andy Nolan and winning last man standing tonight and also, well you know who won last woman standing.  I will update the tables on this during the week.

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