Regina dodgeball teams gearing up for 1st ever World Youth Open tournament

Young Regina athletes have their sights set on a gold medal at the World Dodgeball Federation's first ever World Youth Open.

Regina Youth Dodgeball is sending four squads to face teams from the U.S., Mexico, Malaysia, Hong Kong and more at the tournament in Calgary next month.

Charlee Grover is a Grade 9 student who has been playing dodgeball for the past three years. She said her team has been training a lot for the event.

"It's going to be super fun going out there," she said. "Knowing that this means something to a lot of people, it makes me feel a lot better about myself."

Grover said she didn't know a lot about dodgeball when she started, but hard work and training allowed her and her team to confidently play against teams from all around the world.

"It makes me really excited," she said. "I'm hoping we can all bring our best game and we just play how we play normally, because that's when we do best."

She is hoping to bring home a medal from the tournament, but said she will be satisfied just knowing they played well and worked together as a team.

Cohen Padley, another player, said his team has been learning new drills, situations and strategies with the goal of bringing home a gold medal.

"It's really like a dream come true," he said. "Representing my city, my province and even my country is just really outstanding to me and I can't wait to do it."

Padley said being a part of the team and meeting new people has been amazing.

"I'm really hoping we can do some damage down there and really just go all out, have fun and try our best to win that gold," he said.

Jenn Smith Nelson from Regina Youth Dodgeball will be coaching the youth at the event.

She said dodgeball has changed in the past couple of decades from a schoolyard game into a sport that teaches fundamental skills like agility, balance and teamwork.

"These kids are highly conditioned," she said. "It is no longer just if you can throw a ball well. You need to be able to jump and drop and catch and block, and there's just so many more skills that they practise that we never did growing up."

While they want to win, Smith Nelson said it's not the be-all end-all.

"We just want them to go out there and play their games, use the strategy they've learned along the way, and have so much fun — that is most important to us."