Rarely does one attend a sporting event where there could be more people on the court than in the stands, but that seemed to be the case this past week.
The community of Riverbank High School came together on Tuesday, Feb. 6, as part of the Winter Homecoming Week celebration for an all-out, no-holds-barred dodgeball game.
And the scene that evening, inside the older Bruin Gym, was controlled chaos.
With one team augmented by RHS teachers and coaches, onlookers might assume there was a built-in advantage, but the outcome showed a more balanced result: on the five games played they only won three. But they won.
Dodgeball as played here, as a team sport, gives players who are knocked out, a chance to be reinstated in the game.
If the ball hits you, of course, you’re out. It you catch the ball, the thrower is knocked out and a player on your team returns to the court. But as play wears on, each team on the court gets smaller and smaller, sometimes down to just one player apiece by the end.
Meanwhile, students on the campus of RHS also got to enjoy a variety of activities during their lunchtime period throughout the week. Activities Director Lezlie Acker along with the leadership class kept the school spirit flowing with a variety of activities and events for students and staff. During Homecoming Week there was an array of lunch time activities like musical chairs, soccer, bucket toss, and face painting. Those events were in addition to the Tuesday night dodgeball game and a school rally on Friday afternoon to get everyone excited about the big game scheduled later that night.
As part of the Homecoming festivities for the varsity boys basketball game on Friday, there was also a special performance by the cheer squad.
They quietly changed costumes during the second quarter, shedding their everyday cheerleaders’ uniforms and becoming a special unit dressed as soldiers.
During their contribution to halftime festivities, the RHS cheerleaders performed a slightly more regimented routine. Possibly, they were imitating the plastic toy soldiers of the movie ‘Toy Story.’
The Winter Homecoming Week’s activities had a theme of Pixar movies.
And it was the next to last opportunity for the squad to perform in front of the home crowd, since the final game scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 13 completed the 2017-18 Trans-Valley League season.
News reporter Virginia Still contributed to this story.
