Before every home game, Syracuse plays a game of dodgeball in the locker room. The rules are simple: goalies and defense play the forwards.

The tradition started four years ago when senior Holly Carrie-Mattimoe was a freshman. At the time, nobody knew if the game would last.

“I don’t know how it started, but people probably just started throwing balls at each other,” Carrie-Mattimoe said. “So we said, ‘Why don’t we play dodgeball in the dressing room?’ And it’s stuck ever since.”

Syracuse  (19-14-1, 13-6-1 College Hockey America) has set a new program record for conference and overall wins. One reason why is the odd tradition that helps the team bond before every home game. The team’s improved performance might not be directly tied to the dodgeball games, but forward Shiann Darkangelo thinks it helps.

“I think it’s good because it gets everyone rowdy and woken up,” Darkangelo said.

But the dodgeball games don’t just wake up the team.

Head coach Paul Flanagan said the first time he heard the game from his office, he had no idea what was going on.

“First night I heard it, God knows what I thought was going on. I really had no idea,” Flanagan said. “A lot of things raced through my mind, and then I asked someone what the heck is going on and then I found out it was dodgeball.”

Flanagan said even though he has never seen the game in person, he thinks it helps a little bit. He’s heard cheering and laughter emerge from the locker room, and doesn’t think that could hurt his team on the ice.

On the flip side, players admit it isn’t always a happy and fun game.

Carrie-Mattimoe said even though the game pumps up the players , they do occasionally get angry at each other. But in the end, the most important thing to them is getting ready for the game.

“It gets pretty heated, some shots to the face,” goalie Kallie Billadeau said. “It’s kind of scary how much we get into it.”

But if getting into it is what it takes to win, Billadeau and the rest of the defense are doing something right. At the end of the regular season, the defense and goalies emerged victorious by a slim margin of 8-7.

Two of the team’s best dodgeball players are on defense, according to goalie Jenesica Drinkwater.

“I think for us, (Brittney) Krebs and (Billadeau), they’re two big ones for us, they keep us in,” Drinkwater said.

As for the offense, Emily Auerbacher is probably one of its best players, Drinkwater said.

Though she never specifically said they were the best, Darkangelo mentioned a moment between Auerbacher and Krebs as one of her favorites.

“Last week, it was striker (Auerbacher) and Krebsy versus each other, and it went on for like five minutes, so that was fun,” Darkangelo said. “It got everyone going.”

While one-on-one matchups are fun to watch, forward Margot Scharfe said the point of the game is to get the whole team ready to go.

“We have a tally on our board. It gets us really pumped, some close calls, some dodgeballs to the face,” Scharfe said. “But it’s a good way to get us pumped for every game.”

Flanagan agreed with Scharfe, and said he doesn’t know how anything that gets them pumped up for the game can be a negative.

At the same time, Flanagan wants to make sure the team isn’t getting rid of all of its energy before it hits the ice.

“I guess the only thing I worry about is there’s a lot of energy in that room, and I know it’s not like ‘Monsters, Inc.,’ with screaming and yelling, generating energy,” Flanagain said, “but I want to make sure that they at least keep some in the reserve to carry on to the ice, because it sounds kind of crazy.”

The games do get crazy, and in the end, Drinkwater said she only has one goal in mind when they play.

Said Drinkwater: “Basically, I just try not to get hit.”

Published on March 5, 2013 at 1:18 am

Contact David: dlauterb@syr.edu