As a student in the early 1980's at Floral Park Memorial one of the highlights
of the school year was the annual floor hockey tournament held by Mr. Dan Sackman, a Health Teacher/Softball Coach each June.
He called it The Burly Cup and it was completely up to the students to organize
and submit team names and rosters in order to participate. It was a lot of fun playing in front of all of your classmates
and it was a good sendoff into the Summer.
Fast forward to December 2001, after 10 years of playing Dodgeball in the New
York City School Systems I thought it might be fun to try it at Carey High School since the Winter months kind of drag
along. We had no Dodgeballs so we used Volleyball Lightweight Trainer balls instead. The positive response was
immediate. In fact it was so good, Terry Huang, a three sport athlete at Carey asked if I would run a Dodgeball Tournament
at the end of the year for all of the classes.
With Mr. Quinlan's permission, 11 teams entered and the first tournament went without
a hitch as 120 people watched the perfectly, and egotistically named, 1st Annual Dodgeball Champions, Captained by Terry Huang
and his football cronies take home the first championship. Their prize was a trophy, shirts and $20 for pizza.
Now as each year comes to a close, the excitement of Dodgeball can be felt throughout
the school starting in about April as nearly everyone, boys and girls participate and the crowd usually swells to near 1000
people as the battle for Dodgeball supremacy and bragging rights take hold.
