ASU seniors host dodgeball tournament fundraiser for honors project

Arizona State University seniors Blaine Aberra and Sarah Minton will be hosting a fundraiser dodgeball tournament for their joint Barrett, The Honors College thesis project.

The event, the Responders and Rivals Dodgeball Tournament, will be a friendly rivalry between police officers and firefighters as members of the Phoenix Police Department and Phoenix Fire Department, along with community supporters, compete in a bracket-style tournament for bragging rights.

The event is set from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 19 in the MAC Gym at the Sun Devil Fitness Complex on the ASU Tempe campus. People can sign up to play dodgeball for free through the Responders and Rivals website, or they can be a spectator of the event cheering on the teams from the stands.

Aberra, a senior majoring in chemical engineering, and Minton, a senior majoring in marketing and sports business, are members of the ASU Women’s Lacrosse Club team. Aberra plays defense, and Minton is a midfielder. With a common love of sports, the pair teamed up to collaborate on a creative project for their honors thesis and decided to make sports the centerpiece.

The honors thesis is the culmination of Barrett students’ honors experience. It is an original project developed by a student under the guidance of a committee and an opportunity to work closely with faculty on important research questions and creative ideas. The honors thesis, which can have either a research or creative focus, enables students to design, execute and present an intellectually rigorous project in their chosen field of study. It provides tangible evidence of research, writing and creative skills to prospective employers and can serve as a writing or research sample for graduate school applications.

Aberra and Minton enjoy playing dodgeball, and Aberra’s mother is a sergeant in the Phoenix Police Department, so they created a dodgeball tournament to raise funds for Phoenix police and fire departments and worked with the Phoenix Police Foundation and Phoenix Fire Foundation to organize the event.

“We really wanted to give back to first responders, do something with a service component, bring it to ASU and highlight our community affiliations,” Aberra said.

The tournament will be all in good fun, and money raised will be split evenly between the Phoenix Police Foundation and the Phoenix Fire Foundation, which support the unmet capital needs of their respective city of Phoenix departments.

Aberra said they plan for the tournament to consist of seven bracket-style games, with teams representing police officers on one side and firefighters on the other. Participants do not need to be police officers or firefighters or have a premade team to play. There will be up to eight teams total, and each team can contain around 10 to 15 people. The final number of teams will depend on how many people register to participate. 

Aberra said anyone over 18 years old may play in the tournament, which is free for players and spectators. Donations will be accepted. Tournament t-shirts will be available to the first 50 people present at the event who make a $20 donation.

More information about the tournament is here. Make a donation here. Tickets are available here.