2nd Infantry Division Dodgeball Champions

So there we were.  Just driving along when we noticed a banner near the gym announcing the 2007 2nd Infantry Division Dodgeball tournament.  It was two days away.  With such little time for the serious training we knew we'd have to undertake, we looked only wistfully at the banner, knowing we'd probably be unable to compete in such a strenuous and serious competition.  Deeply rooted in tradition, Dodgeball is certainly no sport for the amateur.
 
Upon arriving at the Aid Station.  We continued to contemplate our involvement in such a noble tournament.  Should we enter?  Should we get team shirts?  The decision was made.  We would participate, though we well knew the risks involved.  We downloaded playbooks from the National Dodgeball Association of America website and studied day and night.  Fear motivated us.  Pride drove us on.
 
And then, as quickly as it arrived...the excitement of the tournament passed.  It was as if we had forgotten about it alltogether.  The day before...it was hardly spoken of.  But the morning of...a call went out.  Well, it was a text message, but it went out nonetheless.  It was from Corporal Lash and it was but one word....DODGEBALL???  The meaning was clear!!  There could be no mistaking this rally cry, nay..BATTLE CRY as it was!  Hungover to the last man, we quickly assembled our crew at the entrance to the gym and there we registered our team, the Quad Pod, for the tournament.
 
Our team consisted of Lash, Ussery, Young, Schenck and myself.  SSG Romero, unable to compete because of Staff Duty, was there to cheer us on.  Cates was also on hand with a six pack of Corona that he snuck into the gym.  This liquid gold helped us win the very real gold we now wear around our necks....I have no doubt about it.

There were 8 teams in all, and we quickly made short work of the 1st two.  We suffered a loss to a team called US in round three, which sent us down to the losers bracket.  Down we went, but like a tornado of teeth and fingernails we fought our way back to the championship game where we once again faced US.  This time...for the gold medal and trophy.  The fear from the US team was clearly evident as they watched us walk back onto the court.  Like a slow motion cut scene, we were side by side, preparing to exact revenge on this upstart team.

The battle was fierce, but PFC Schenck remained standing against a lone US player.  For what seemed like long moments they stared each other down.  Jaws set in determination.  Sweat beading on their brows...  finally, the US player fired his dodgeball at Schenck, who caught it, becoming the MVP and winning the tournament for us. 
Of other note in the tournament was a heroic diving catch effort made by Ussery on the front line and Lash's catching 2 balls in game 2 to bring his own players back to full strength on the court.
 
Here are some pictures.  Most people can fit a cigarette behind their ear.  Schenck can stuff a whole pack behind his monkey ears:

Immediately after winning our championship game:

Here we are being adorned with our gold medals.  Well earned chaps!!

The trophy!!!!  Lofted high by our MVP!

A few victory poses.  NOTE!!  We do not support or condone the throwing of "signs" or any other gangsterisms.  These are not GANGSTA  poses.  They are definitely NINJA(tm) poses. 

Champions and participants.

Finally....there is a video clip of our victory speech.  To view it..simply click this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTiBNKVLpiM

Virginia Beach, January 2007

The following is a repost of a blog that originally appeared on Myspace on January 7th, 2007. 

After the busy holly jolly season, Malisa, Collin and I drove down to Virginia Beach to visit with my dad and Mom-mom.  We also saw my uncle Mike (Dad's brother), Uncle Bob and Aunt Linda.  There was more family, but you get the idea...

Normally when we come down, we try to stay at the Navy Lodge on Dam Neck, but they were full, and good thing, because we had a GREAT time staying at the Marriott on Virginia Beach...and with the government rate, it ended up costing about the same.

Here's Collin, checking out the view when we first arrived in our room..

Here was our room...it was cute.  And of course, Malisa had to go the extra mile and decorate Collin's bed with his friend Thomas the Tank Engine.

Collin wasted no time and wanted to head down to "Berginia Beach" right away to check out the sand and waves...

So, we went down and played in the sand...

..and found some sand piles that had been pushed up along the beach

After jumping off the piles for a little while, Collin wanted to make a tunnel like Tommy goes through...so we dug

And I convinced Collin that he should get in the tunnel...

Well, you can guess what any reasonable dad would do to their son next.....bury him.

Then we walked along the boardwalk for a while to see the new King Neptune statue that was put up in front of the new Hilton hotel (Auntie Paris' Hotel, as I refer to her).

 

Speaking of Auntie Paris...here's Malisa and Collin outside her new place now...it's actually really nice.  There's a lot of shops inside and a Starbucks, which is all we cared about.

 

The next day we went to visit family in the morning and then came back to the hotel in the afternoon.  Here's the view from the balcony...

Of course, Collin wanted to go down to the beach again...this time to test the ocean surf.

 

 

 It was like 75 degrees at least that day, amazing weather for January.  Reports came in from my Massachusetts contacts that they were having weather just as warm up there...too weird.  My sister says's it's El Nino and that made her go for a walk....see her blog for more details.  :) Here's Malisa and Collin again....he's doing his "Don't tell ME daddy" pose that became repeated far too often to everybody during this trip.  Still love him though...he's lucky he's so damn cute.

We were making our plan....how we would attack the waves and then retreat before they could counterattack and get us..

I had a meeting with the General to make sure that plan was okay....she agreed it was solid and agreed to take this publicity photo.

 

 

So...with our solid plan...we set out to battle the waves.  Collin armed with a bucket...and me with a nerf football.

Here we are in "retreat" mode....I don't like to retreat...I say we were tactically falling back to improve our position

The waves proved to have a couple tricks up their sleeves and managed to catch Collin off guard....actually knocking him over and getting a mouthful of salt water...

Undaunted though...Collin wanted more immediately!  With battle cries of "Let's do it again Daddy!" we ventured back...

And so we did...but this time, I was a little closer at hand...scared he was getting too brave, lol.

We finally headed back up to the room in time to catch the sunset (East coast...so nothing impressive to see on the beach really....had to look out over the landscape instead)...but managed to catch this cool eye effect.

Then we chilled out on the balcony for a while and watched the sun go down on the beach.  Malisa and I toasted with a glass of Scotch and Collin had a glass of apple juice. (Along with his 3 binkeys that he's not supposed to have in the daytime).

We finished the evening with some crab legs at Harpoon Larry's Killer Seafood where Collin fell asleep on Malisa's lap.

The third day arrived, Sunday I think.  And we managed to get up and see the sunrise...here's Malisa's sunrise picture..

Collin got to do some bonding with my dad, his "Pop".

They were playing in the pine needles and learning about worms and pinecones...very cute.

They became such good buddies that Collin didn't want to leave and go to Target unless dad was going too...

Finally, I convinced Malisa to get a bikini so she could go swimming with Collin and I down in the hotel pool...here she is looking all beautiful!

 

Okay, okay....can't show any more of those pictures (unless you're willing to pay $19.95/month on my website...) All in all though, we had a great time and we're still here.  Gonna head back to Massachusetts tomorrow once Collin starts to get tired enough where we can put him in the car seat and have him sleep most of the way.  It's a long drive and probably toughest on him having to be strapped in the whole way.  I set him up with Tommy and Mickey Mouse DVD's, but still...it's a long drive. I head back to Korea on Friday morning....hopefully my luggage will fare better than last time!  We all went for one last walk on the beach in the morning before we left.  Collin's little footprints on the sand were all that we left behind.