Former Bridgeport High School softball Coach Larry “Rabbit” Snider arrived as my physical education and health teacher back in 1978. I believe I was in the third grade at the time when Snider became part of what I still call an all-star teacher lineup.

 

This was back when I was going from grade 1 through grade 9 at North View Junior High School. In those days, if you had gym class, you pretty much had it about every day. And if you  had gym class in most schools in Harrison County, and probably all across the country, there was a good chance you would be playing dodgeball.

 

Remember the game? It was a staple of my youth and, based on a quick social media search, it appears it was the same for many others.

 

A brief refresher on the game, or at least how we played it in junior high – all the way up to my freshman year. Teams would be picked, the bright red dodgeballs of various sizes, would be sat at mid court, and the whistle would blow. Once the whistle blew you raced to try and grab a dodgeball and then return back to the ball on your side of the gym.

 

From there, chaos ensued. The goal was to eliminate your opponent by hitting them with a ball or managing to catch one that was thrown at you – again the rules we played by.  

 

At North View there were balls the size of a volleyball and ones plenty smaller. Snider certainly remembers the game.

 

“We even had those little balls, the red ones, just a bit bigger than a softball that most of the kids could grip, and we also had the ones the size of a soccer ball,” said Snider. “I remember the small ones I could throw pretty hard, just like a softball.”

 

I remember drilling many of my classmates. I also remember getting drilled myself, including a couple of times going head over heels trying to jump an incoming dodgeball missile. It was, by all my accounts, a lot of fun – even when getting blasted.

 

“The kids loved it,” said Snider. “It was so much the game of choice we had to, at times, tell the kids we had to do something else.”

 

Current Bridgeport High School Physical Education teacher Robert Shields remembers playing it as a youngster. He, too, said he loved it and recalls it being called knockout.

 

“We played at the St. Mary’s gymnasium. Man, it was tough because it was a small gym and you had these gigantic guys like Pat George and Mark Mazzie winging those balls at you really close,” said      Shields. “Looking back, I know it helped with how you reacted and helped with lateral quickness. I also remember, for whatever reason, we didn’t play it at Notre Dame (High School) when I went there.”

 

Here is the thing. When I left NVJHS and headed to Liberty High School for the 1983-84 school year as a sophomore, I never played dodgeball again. The run was over.

 

Snider does not remember when his classes no longer featured the game. He said he does not remember any specific mandate, but that it was no longer being played. He estimated the time frame to be about the last 1980s, where he had already was well into a teaching career that spanned decades full-time and continues today on the substitute list for the last 21 years after retiring in 2002.

 

Oddly, while there is plenty of news and information regarding the banning of dodgeball in states across the nation with a quick Google search, I could only find one bit of information on it regarding West Virginia. Ironically, it was a Fox News clip from 2010 talking about it being banned in West Virginia public schools. The reason for the ban was, according to the report, that the game caused “physical and emotional harm.” 

 

Although I do not fall into the category of being harmed by the game, it would be unfair for me to say how it impacted others.  That said, I could have sworn it was banned prior to 2010. Apparently, I am wrong. At the same time, I never played it after I started high school and Snider, who swung between multiple schools and often found himself back as a PE teacher, never utilized it – at a minimum – from the 1990s through today.

 

As for the physical and emotional harm, Snider said he could not rule it out, but did not think it was an issue.

 

“I didn’t think kids were getting bullied or hurt. Everyone, to my recollection, enjoyed it,” he said. “What I remember along with it being fun is the kids that were really good at it usually protected the ones that weren’t. Looking back and how things go now, I’m not surprised it’s no longer played.”

 

Shields is in the same camp.

 

“There is no way you could play that game today because of the formality of things,” said Shields. “It’s viewed by some as bullying today, and I get that. Back when I played it, it was viewed as something everyone enjoyed.”

 

Snider said there were other things besides dodgeball taken away. Some due to safety reasons, and some he never understood why.

 

“They did away with the trampolines, the peg boards and ropes that kids climbed,” said Snider. “I imagine some of that had to do with safety concerns, but things changed.”

 

One thing Snider said has not changed – whether dodgeball is ever played again or not.

 

“The kids haven’t changed from when I started in the 1970s teaching. Society changes, people change, but the kids don’t. Kids will do what you want them to do. You respect them and they’ll respect you. I guess I’ve been around long enough to know eliminating things isn’t always the right answer even if I don't know the answer," Snider joked.

 

He has been around quite a while. Long enough to see the rise and fall of public school system dodgeball. For me, at least, it was fun while it lasted.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows a game of dodgeball under way, while the second photo is familiar to many who played the game many years ago. Bottom photo, by Ben Queen Photography, shows former BHS Softball Coach Larry Snider, who used to oversee dodgeball during his teaching days.