Manitoba climbs to top of dodgeball mountain

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This article was published 05/07/2024 (791 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ontario is no longer on top of the podium at the Canadian National Dodgeball Championships — thanks to New Era, a Manitoban men’s dodgeball team.

New Era, co-captained by Nick Grenier, owner of Dodgeball Winnipeg, was formed four years ago.

After years of training and close finishes, New Era made sure Manitoba was the first team outside of Ontario to place first at nationals, beating B.C’s Hard as Foam team last weekend.

New Era has come close before, taking home silver in 2023 in Montreal and bronze in 2022 in Edmonton.

This year there was no mistaking Grenier’s team who went on a dominant 14-0 run in the tournament to solidify their victory beating Hard as Foam.

“We made our team designed to try and win it,” said Grenier. “It was pretty exciting for us.”

Dodgeball is a growing sport in Manitoba with roughly 780 members in the Dodgeball Winnipeg league. It’s a tight community that was proud of New Era for bringing gold to Winnipeg.

“In the past, Ontario’s just been dominant,” said Grenier who started dodgeball after his baseball career ended. “That’s where dodgeball, I shouldn’t say originated, but they started playing more competitively before Manitoba, so they kind of had a head start on us. But in the last few years, we really caught up to the. And I think finally with a gold medal, it’s just of kind of proven that we’ve gotten to that point where we’re equivalent, if not better than their program now.”

New Era, made up of eleven players, was one of nine Manitoban teams sent to Nationals. Five men’s and four women’s teams participated — the most in the organization’s history.

On the women’s side, Rogue, a Manitoban team co-captained by Catie Brady, took home silver for the third year in a row. Brady was named Most Valuable Player of the Women’s tournament.

“We played great as a team,” said Brady. “It’s mainly against the same team every year, but this is the hardest we fought against them.”

Rogue lost 8-5 to the Ontario Reckless team in the gold-medal game.

“Every year we hope to improve,” said Brady who played on Team Canada last year. “We put in a lot of hours of practice, and each year we will continue to do as much as we can.”

“After years of practice and dedication, it was great to see both New Era’s and Rogue’s hard work pay off and see them take home their respective medals,” said Adriana Mingo, president of Dodgeball Manitoba in a press release. “This is a huge accomplishment not only for both these team, but for the sport in our province. We’re so incredibly proud.”

“It’s competitive,” said Brady on the atmosphere of the tournaments. “Everybody wants to take on the title. It’s fun, it’s interactive, it’s team building, it’s the community.

“People think dodgeball is a very individual sport. It’s not. It’s based on your team and what you guys can do together.”

Manitoba will be sending seven athletes and one coach as part of Team Canada to the 2024 World Dodgeball Championships in Graz, Austria from Aug. 11 to 17. Grenier will be there competing as assistant captain of the team.

zoe.pierce@freepress.mb.ca