It was “dodge, dip, dive, duck, and dodge” for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) as they hosted the fourth annual black-light dodgeball tournament.

The event was held on November 30, at Morningstar Fellowship Church, with over forty students participating in the tournament. The FCA core team partnered with the Morningstar staff and youth pastor Taylor Boswell to plan the event.

“The church staff and Pastor Taylor were incredibly enthusiastic about it made it a lot easier for us,” junior and core team member P.J. Riddell said.

While the event took place a month before compared to past years, there was a strong turnout, especially from people who do not regularly attend FCA huddles.

Doors opened at 6 p.m., with many eager dodgeball players entering and beginning to play with the dodgeballs.

“It was a very successful and encouraging night,” senior and club president Hannah Ziegler said. “We had a great turnout with memories being created among the teens.”

The night began with the eight teams playing round-robin style games to determine the seeding for the tournament. Afterward, everyone gathered to hear a devotion from former FCA core team member and Boyertown Alumni David Ziegler, who graduated two years ago.

The devotion related dodgeball to pains of life and the Gospels. David began with describing moments in dodgeball where someone is the last team member left on the court and compared to feeling alone in life.

“You do not have to be alone if life,” David said. “Jesus wants a relationship with you. He doesn’t want you to live life without being supported from him.”

David went on to describe the purpose of Jesus’ crucifixion as a way to forgive all sins and that humans could have a pathway to Heaven.

“Before I end this devotion, I want to invite anyone who has not committed their lives to Jesus and who wants to do so, then see me or the core team members and we will help you,” David said.

Hannah believed that the devotion was great as it had the potential to strongly impact someone spiritually as the Gospel was shared.

While everyone was enjoying pizza, the fire alarm began sounding, forcing all to leave the building. After a few minutes, it was determined that a fog machine for a birthday party happening in another part of the building triggered the alarm. Everyone returned into the building, even though the alarm continued to sound for almost thirty minutes.

“In the moment, I thought it was going to be a real problem, but honestly I don’t think it affected the event much,” P.J. said. “You can’t tell me there was no divine intervention in the alarms going off after the lesson but before the actual tournament.”

Junior Alex Obarow believed didn’t impact the event.

“We didn’t let it ruin anything and kept playing dodgeball and having a great time together,” he said.

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