James Walls | Editor-in-Chief
The Dirty Duncans and Mayhem Lite race for ammunition at the start of their match in the dodgeball tournament on May 3 in the Bob Sneller Gymansium.
Ryan Land
Sports Editor
The TRIO program raised $1,679.75 during their inaugural Scholarship Dodgeball Tournament, held on May 3 in the Bob Sneller Gymnasium on the Neosho campus.
All of the money raised from the tournament will go towards giving current or dual-credit high school students scholarship money to use towards pursuing higher education during the fall and spring semesters.
Vanessa Ellison, academic coordinator for math and science of south region for the TRIO program, says that certain students will receive certain amounts of the money raised not only from the tournament, but from other means of fundraising as well.
“There will be multiple scholarships,” said Ellison. “We usually give two to three scholarships to college students and then we give anywhere from five to seven duel-credit scholarships to students in high school that are enrolled.”
Ellison stated that having events throughout the school year such as the tournament is key in helping to raise money to continue giving scholarships for students.
“As far as our scholarships go, it [fundraising] is extremely important,” admitted Ellison. “The only way we’re going to be able to continue providing scholarships is to do fundraisers once, if not, twice a year.”
Ellison, who has been with the TRIO program since last May, gives credit to where it is due for how well the tournament went in its first year.
Ellison admitted, “We thought for the first time, we were pretty happy with the success of it.”
Wade Williams, assistant director of Upward Bound, chose to participate in the tournament because of his willingness to help students.
“Well I work for the TRIO program, so I wanted to help raise money for our students,” Williams stated.
Williams also wanted to participate because of his love of a good battle.
“I love a good competition,” said Williams, who started at Crowder in October of 2005. “I’m game for anything, especially if it’s for a good cause.”
Garrett Griffith, psychology major, admitted that the competition on the gym floor was nothing he couldn’t handle.
“Some of them [competitors] kind of make me nervous,” admitted Griffith, a student at the Neosho campus. “Some of them have some good arms, but it doesn’t worry me. I just thought I would go out there and play and have fun.”
18 teams took part in the tournament, which started at 10 a.m. and ended shortly after 1 p.m.
Team “Alliance #2,” composed of several area high school students and Missouri Southern State University students took the victory after defeating the McDonald County based Mustang Mafia in the final round of the tournament.
Plans are currently underway for next year’s tournament.
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