Dodgeball has evolved since you played it in your middle school gym class. Today’s dodgeball is played on a court made of trampolined floors and walls, with competitors flying in all directions. Today’s dodgeball is played at Sky Zone Kansas City, where competitors and fun seekers of all ages come to test their skill on the futuristic looking court.
Ben: Hello this is Ben Hartman of Blogger Local Kansas City. We’re sitting here at Sky Zone in Shawnee Mission with it’s manager Jarrett Wright. He’s going to tell us a little bit about the facility and the unique services they offer the community. Then he’s going to tell us about the Ultimate 3D Dodgeball league they’ve got going on here. Jarrett tell us a bit about Sky Zone and fill us on this 3D dodge ball you guys have going.
Jarrett: Sky Zone was opened on September 24th of last year, 2012. We have five different trampoline based courts. We have a large main court. We have a Sky Zone court where we have three basketball goals. Kids and people of all types love to come in and they are all doing different types of tricks, jumps, things like that. We have a foam zone where you jump in, do different types of tricks into our large foam pit. We do lots of birthday parties for kids of all ages. As long as you can walk you can jump, so we have three year olds come in all the way up to twenty year olds.
We’ve had bachelor parties, bachelorette parties here. Never a wedding yet; we hope to get one soon.
Ben: The Ultimate 3D dodgeball, that’s a pretty unique thing you’re doing here. I don’t think a lot of people know that ultimate dodge on a trampoline exists. Can you tell us a bit about whose playing and how you get involved in this? Then maybe a bit about where it can take you. Can you play competitively against people from other cities?
Jarrett: The ultimate 3D dodge ball league that we have going on right now is just all local teams that are joining. You can sign up either on our website or you can also come in and sign up right here at Sky Zone. This league builds up to every year in June we have the ultimate dodge ball championship with all the Sky Zones. There’s 40 plus Sky Zones around the United States. Each Sky Zone will have a local qualifier depending on stats and other things like that. Teams will go to a specific location to play for a prize amount of money. This year the location is Las Vegas.
A little bit about the ultimate dodge ball, the 3D dodge ball is you have to have six to eight players to actually play on a team. You have to be 16 and older and it’s fun for everybody. We have doctors play, lawyers play, kids 16 that are in High School play. I think the older, the 30 and up crowd enjoys maybe more than the thirteen year olds. We have a lot of older teams that play.
Ben: Venting that 9 to 5 frustration.
Jarrett: Yes sir.
Ben: Getting it all out.
Jarrett: Yes sir.
Ben: Do you have any protective gear required or is it not too dangerous?
Jarrett: If you wear glasses we require that you wear goggles, just so you won’t get hit in the glasses, the ball. Other than that there are no real dangers involved. It is a physical activity so obviously things could happen.
Ben: But for the most part it’s pretty safe.
Jarrett: It’s safe.
Ben: I don’t think a lot of people would imagine that you could actually go to a tournament in Vegas and play dodge ball. How long has that tournament been going on? Do you know? Is it brand new or has it been going on for awhile?
Jarrett: It’s been going on for a couple of years now. We had a team go in 2012, actually go out to California and play. This year our local qualified team, they missed out by a couple of Facebook votes to actually go to the tournament, so they didn’t get a chance to play this year. But hopefully the league that we do now, will have a team from one of those leagues will come out in June, next summer, kill it and they’ll represent us in the tournament next year.
Ben: Awesome. Do teams name themselves?
Jarrett: Correct.
Ben: In Lawrence they play kickball super competitively . It’s an all day affair; meeting up in the morning, doing weird haircuts, wearing funky clothes. It’s an all day affair and then it’s hanging out afterwards. Are people that competitive?
Jarrett: Yes.
Ben: How so?
Jarrett: Yes. They come in with uniforms, team haircuts and have Facebooks. The team name that I like the most so far is Athletics Up. They have uniforms and they tuck their shirts into their shorts. It looks kind of their distinguished and they’re actually one of the better teams that play in the league. They have their odd uniform.
Ben: They’re unassuming. You don’t really take them too seriously.
Jarrett: You’ll look at them. You’ll want to say, “Oh those aren’t a bunch of super athletic guys.” But they’re a great dodge ball team; they’re one of the best in the league.
Ben: Are there any all men or all women teams?
Jarrett: Athletic Up is mainly an all male team, but there’s plenty of co-ed teams and plenty of women’s teams. The women’s teams are actually pretty good. We haven’t had one actually win the tournament yet, but some of them have come very close.
Ben: Pretty agile I bet. Awesome Jarrett, we will definitely check and see what’s cooking at Sky Zone in the near future. Go ahead and make sure you check with Sky Zone on their Facebook and their dot coms. That way you guys can find out about some of the information that they’ve got so you can get signed up to do some ultimate 3D dodge ball. Thanks again Jarrett.
Jarrett: Thank you.
Keyword: Kansas City Trampoline Dodgeball
Photos Courtesy of http://www.skyzone.com/KansasCity
