Dodgeball: It's more than a scream-generating schoolyard game.
Nowadays you can compete for the National Amateur Dodgeball Association championship in Schaumburg, Ill.
You can go pro with the new World Dodgeball Association.
Or you can play it on your GameBoy or PlayStation.
Indeed, the game has gone Hollywood.
A spring celebrity tournament raising $90,000 in a children's AIDS benefit featured the likes of Brendan Fraser, Amanda Peet and Matthew Perry and the winning team of "Survivor" participants. Zoo Productions is shopping a 13-episode "Ultimate Dodgeball" TV series. A feature film is in the works.
But the retro playground staple is also somewhat controversial — grade-school kids, after all, become "targets."
You remember the game: Opposing sides throw balls at each other. Players are "out" when hit by a throw or when their throw is caught on the fly by an opponent. The last team standing wins.
Yet criticisms and defenses are hurled back and forth with as much vigor as any red rubber ball.
The National Association of Sport & Physical Education has come out against dodgeball, with schools and districts in Maine, Texas, Virginia and Massachusetts among the first to ban it.
Vanity Fair, on the other hand, proclaims dodgeball to be "in." Sports Illustrated and Time columnists have opined on its behalf.
Critics point to nicknames of "bombardment," "killer ball" and "murder ball" as evidence of the game's violent nature, saying the human-target mentality leads to injuries, humiliation and liability. Those with less skill and physical ability are often the first eliminated, forced to watch from the sidelines, opponents add.
Neil Williams, an Eastern Connecticut State University physical education professor and oft-quoted antagonist, says stronger kids target the weak in a game of questionable cardiovascular benefit that has become "the last refuge" of a lazy teacher. He includes dodgeball in his P.E. Hall of Shame, along with musical chairs, red rover, and duck, duck goose.
In a March 2002 memo to Utah superintendents, principals and physical educators making school and district curriculum decisions, P.E. curriculum specialist Martha Hyder of the Utah State Office of Education provides alternative activities and references — as well as her doubts and concerns — regarding dodgeball.
Defenders point to the game's simplicity and popularity, saying it enhances coordination, reflexes and strategy. Softer balls decrease risks, and rules prohibit throws to the head or above the waist. The game's "human-target" nature is no different from football or a water-balloon fight, they add, and is no more competitive than grading a class or conducting a spelling bee.
"We would never put a child at risk, and we use discretion in playing games like dodgeball," said John Paras, a fourth-grade teacher at Sandy's Crescent Elementary with 20 years of complaint-free competition in his classes. He cites more problems at recess with football, basketball and rugby-like soccer.
"Dodgeball has been around forever and will continue to be," he added. "It is only one particular game in a series of many."
E-MAIL: taylor@desnews.com