VCU Gears Up for Nationals
There is less than one week left until the National Collegiate Dodgeball Association's (NCDA) main event, Nationals. This year, the always highly anticipated tournament is being held at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, OH from April 16th-17th. The top teams from across the country will be present to showcase their skills, and hopefully walk away with some hardware come Sunday April 17th. This year's VCU squad has made a major leap in terms of success on the court, and are looking to make some noise in the tournament. The team is lead by current President and Head Captain, Adam Hallers. During his four year tenure with the team, he has noticed the improvement, "If someone would've told me the team would be where it is today when I first started, I simply wouldn't have believed it. We have more than doubled the size of our organization since I've been here, and this is by far the best the team has ever looked. Seeing where we are now is really exciting and speaks volumes of the time and effort put in by all of our members, we really have something special going on here."
Even with all the success, the team is no where near their peak according to Vice President and Assistant Captain, Matt Bosco, "I love how far we have come, but it just makes me more excited to think about how far we can go. This team is far from its full potential, but once we get there it'll be amazing to witness".
Most of the top lineup is highlighted by underclassman and newcomers to the program, something that gives promise to the school's potential dominance in the future. This includes six freshmen in Tre Edmonds, RJ Morgan, Wayne Shortt, Andrew Galloway, Lakota Smith, and Melvin Portillo. Additionally, there are seven sophomores with Hunter Ford, Torao Ota, Nick Taylor, Bobby Allison, Jason Huang, Adi Balu, and Minh-Quan Pham headlining the class of 2018. VCU's team has seen major contributions coming from these two classes, and will need those contributions again come next Saturday if they hope to make a deep run in the tournament.
There is no lack of upperclassmen leadership however, which includes previously listed Adam Hallers, Matt Bosco, as well as Junior Sam Lammie leading the way, the latter of which was a key part in VCU's previous overtime win versus the University of Maryland. "A huge part of being successful in this sport is listening to the captain's directions because they have a lot of experience and know what it takes to win" said the Junior. He also continued by saying, "We have a solid unit that is willing to put in work and do what it takes to win, I feel confident going into our final tournament of the year."
When asked about his outlook for the tournament and the future of the program, Sophomore Hunter Ford stated, "Our players are young, hungry, and already finding success early in their careers. As for Nationals, I believe we will surprise a lot of teams in a positive way. I've already had many times this year when captains from other schools will come to me and ask about my teammates, and then when I mention that they are only freshmen or sophomores they are very surprised. The sky is the limit for us, and I know we can be a championship contender within the next two years."
Livestreaming will be available for all matches at Nationals on the NCDA Dodgeball Livestream account, which is where you can watch all of VCU's match-ups. Until then, expect hard work, preparation, and big (expletive) plays.
Go Rams
