By Staff Writer: Jada Boprie
The Friday before winter break, a group of Howell High School students will take part in a game of the modern day equivalent of the barbaric gladiator battles in ancient Rome, also known as dodgeball. While it is quite similar to gladiator battles, especially with the whole idea of nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, dodgeball can also be nicknamed as a smaller and less intense, but still dangerous Hunger Games.
With just the first book in the fantastic Hunger Games trilogy, created by Suzanne Collins, we can roughly blue-print how the dodgeball game will transpire.
Before the games even start, alliances will form. The giant guys who compare bicep circumferences will team up to dominate over the students who don’t have any kind of battle plan. While some of these alliances may not be as terrifying as the deadly, weapon-wielding Career group in Suzanne Collins’s book, facing anyone more than six inches taller than you is usually intimidating.
The lack of rules in dodgeball makes the game even more barbaric. With nothing more than a few flimsy, unwritten guidelines, players can get away with practically anything. Excuses like, “I didn’t throw it that hard!” will be accepted by impressionable referees (if there are any) who don’t have the grounds for a comeback. Similarly, the Hunger Games have only a few basic rules that come down to this: fight to the death. Except for the unspoken rule against cannibalism, the teenagers are set loose with no restrictions.
The HHS gym may be a barren, overheated wasteland compared to the dense forests of the Hunger Games, but the strategies for winning only differ slightly. Survival is key, and in both dodgeball and the Hunger Games, you end up either a hunter or a hider.
Hunters stalk their prey, threatening them with spears and knives they throw, or heavy rubber balls they pelt. Hunters refuse to feel fear, and whether real or fictional, are best avoided in the heat of battle.
Hiders can do their job safely in the Hunger Games with the geography of the arena. They hide in trees or caves, out of the way of the hunters. The students who make up Howell’s hiders don’t have this advantage. The emptiness and layout of the gym make it so the only objects to hide behind are . . . fellow hiders. This happens to be one way to break an alliance.
Throughout the entire battle, the rest of the student body and teachers will sit in the bleachers, cheering and booing right up to the bloody finale. While they root for their favorites and bet on the winner, much like the Hunger Games’ capitol, they cannot even imagine being a part of it.
For those brave souls competing in the dodgeball game, good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor.
