MavBall is many things to many different people; it’s a way to come out and have a great time, a way to freely throw dodge balls at teachers, and a way for everyone to come together to have a great time. But, for Junior Anthony Dawson and his team, “Bark! Bark! Woof! Woof! Who’s in the Basement?,” MavBall was a chance to prove that you don’t have to be the oldest team on the court to be the Champions of MavBall.

On Thursday March 8, history was made when “Bark! Bark! Woof! Woof! Who’s in the Basement?” became the first nonsenior team to ever win MavBall. “It was expected,” said Dawsonwith a complete serious face.

The team included energetic, eager players: Dawson, Juniors Lane Andrews, Scott Cazbon, Kyle Monagle, Paige Smith, Connor Walters and Sophomore Anthony Varleese, and Junior Coach, Ramsey Saeed.

Not only were they the youngest team to win MavBall, but they were also the team with the longest name.  “Bark! Bark! Woof! Woof! Who’s in the Basement?” is an extremely long name for a dodge ball team that was inspired by teacher Robert Hamilton. Apparently, while taking a practice ACT essay about dogs, a classmate of Dawson and Walters used an attention grabber of “Bark! Bark! Woof! Woof!” and thus, the name spawned.

Each year, the players take this competition very seriously.

“We practiced in my basement, all day every day,” said Dawson. “We lined the girls and Kyle up against the wall and threw some balls at them.”

The most threatening competition for the Champions was the Gym Rats and the Purple Gators. When playing the Gym Rats, Bark’s! win against them was due to the hard work attributed by the girls of the squad, Andrews and Smith, who stayed alive to run the clock down, which made them go  into overtime sudden death, ending in a Gym Rat defeat.

“People always think that the two girl members are weak, but during one game [against the Gym Rats] when only us two girls were left, Lane and I helped our team come away with the win and helped us advance,” said Smith.

The team’s hard work and practice finally paid off in the final round when they defeated “Ball So Hard University.”  But because of the tournament rule of double elimination, they not only had to beat them once, they had beat them twice. They did this successfully, resulting in an exciting win.

“Ball So Hard University was a joke,” saidDawson. “They balled so soft.”

A major factor in the team’s success was their coach, Saeed.

“Ramsey and I, we put the team on our backs,” saidDawson.

Saeed pumped his team up before each game and scouted out the other teams. Saeed also contributed by coming up with the strategies for each game.

 “When you have Anthony Dawson on your team,” said Dawson, “you know you’re going somewhere.”

That somewhere was all the way to the trophy ceremony where the team signed the trophy and were given championship t-shirts.

The next MavBall will be very exciting. It will be the first time a student champion team has an opportunity to once again step onto to court and claim the victory.

“For next year, we will most likely have the same team and same strategy and I will pull some bigger tricks out of the book,” said Saeed.

Bark! Bark! Woof! Woof! Who’s in the Basement? is looking forward to next year’s Mav Ball tournament to show the school once again that they are the champions.

“Next year,” said Dawson“I guarantee a win.”