First Spikeball Tourney in Minnesota a Huge Success

As part of the 2015 International Spikeball Day, Nick Cedergren, and the twenty-five teams that gathered in Arden Hills, made history.  This large group that assembled at Perry Park on Saturday took part in the first-ever official Spikeball tournament in Minnesota.  Cedergren organized the event with proceeds going toward Special Olympics Minnesota.  Over 100 games of Spikeball were played throughout the hot and muggy afternoon, but the heat sure didn’t affect the skilled competition.

As someone who has recreationally played the fantastic game of Spikeball, and what I thought of as competitively, I was in for a quick wake-up call as to just how good of players are out there.  Let’s just say it was a humbling experience.  My wife and I, or Spiked EC (as we so creatively called ourselves), had the goal of winning at least one time on the day.  Not only did we come up painstakingly short on that goal, but we also didn’t even have the pitied luxury of taking home a raffled-off door prize.  As for our playing, there was no doubt that we were clearly outmatched.  I gave Nick a hard time for placing us in the “Group of Death,” as three teams from our pool advanced to the quarterfinals, and two of those made it to the semi’s.  The domination of some of these teams further solidified the need for a recreational division and the more competitive division in future tournaments.

On the grand scale of things, the tournament was a huge success.  Cedergren couldn’t have been more pleased with how smooth the day went for it being the first one that he organized, let alone the first in the state.  As the final days leading up to the event, we picked up our promotional efforts a bit and truly didn’t know what to expect.  Once Saturday arrived, the delightfully surprising number of teams had shot up to twenty-five, spanning from Iowa to Minnesota to Wisconsin.  As each of the teams were eliminated, and the field trickled down to the final two in the championship, it was common to see players come shake Cedergren’s hand, thank him for organizing the exciting event, and ask him to do it again next year.

While the plan is to make this an annual event, Spikeballers from the Midwest won’t have to wait until next summer for the opportunity to compete in a tournament again.  Not only can you find tournaments all across the country on Spikeball’s website, but there likely will be another popping up on there come October.  It is my intentions to host a tournament of my own here in Eau Claire, tentatively scheduled for Saturday, October 3.  So keep your eyes peeled for information on that in the near future.

To conclude this post, I would like to congratulate the winning team from the event, “Dragon Thunder.”  While we didn’t cross paths in pool play or the bracket (thankfully), you certainly proved your worth and earned the title of Minnesota’s best.  What a day this was.  Spikeball likes to use #JoinTheMovement to promote the sport, and a movement in Minnesota definitely began this past weekend.  My next question for you is this: Will you join?

(To learn more about Spikeball, click here)