Gay dodgeball players find a league of their own

By Alyssa Galella

Dodgeball has long been considered a controversial childhood game, favored by bullies and dreaded by less athletic children everywhere. But ever since the 2004 blockbuster comedy Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, starring Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller, adults have increasingly been reclaiming the sport for themselves.

However, the only adult dodgeball leagues in New York City cater mainly to heterosexuals, and those in the gay community may feel understandably apprehensive about the possibility of being pelted with rubber balls thrown by homophobic players. With this in mind, Mark Marraccini founded Big Apple Dodgeball, a new LGBT-friendly dodgeball league in Manhattan founded on the principles of tolerance, acceptance and diversity.

You hear about dodgeball and think about the horrors of public school, said Arnold Plotnick, a veterinarian who owns Manhattan Cat Specialists, on the Upper West Side. It's seen as a juvenile, humiliating sport, but now it's empowering, he added.

The league, which kicked off on Oct. 15, was specifically designed as a place where members of the gay community could play a fun team sport in a safe, tolerant environment. The rules expressly forbid slurs against race, religion, ethnicity or gender, and any trash-talking is purely in jest.

We're sending the Big Booty Ballers home in body bags! joked Jason Saft, a member of the Spread Eagles team, playfully taunting the opposition. (When the Ballers later won the game, Equinox trainer Shaun Bradley rebutted with an enthusiastic Bodybags, what?!) Saft, whose team uniform consists of denim cutoffs, leather cuffs and a black T-shirt with the logo of S&M-themed gay bar The Eagle, is also the secretary of the league.

I'm the secretary, so I show up to everything with two sharpened No. 2 pencils, Saft laughed.

But creating an eight-team, 104-player dodgeball league from scratch required a lot more than just No. 2 pencils. Marraccini, known as the commissioner of the league, admits he didn't really know what he was getting into when he had the idea to start an LGBT-friendly dodgeball league.

It was like a full-time job, said Marraccini, an athletic 38-year-old TV producer living in Chelsea who also bartends at The Eagle at night.

Dodgeball is banned in all New York City public schools, so Marraccini was unable to rent out any school gymnasiums for games. He finally found space at the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center in the West Village, which required incorporating Big Apple Dodgeball as a non-profit organization, filing taxes and obtaining insurance. Marraccini also found local businesses to sponsor the teams for $300 each, distributed fliers to publicize the league, and taught himself how to design a Website in order to create BigAppleDodgeball.com.

The resulting interest from the community was so great that during registration night at GYM, a gay sports bar on Eighth Avenue that sponsors a team called The OB-GYMs, the line was out the door.

People were lined up two hours early, ready to register, said JosT Rojas, the owner of Big Booty Bread Co. on West 23rd Street and the league's treasurer. However, the benefits of the league's success have not been monetary for Marraccini, who also referees all the games.

I put $8,000 of my own money into this, and I'm just now getting it back, said Marraccini, who chooses not to profit from the league because he wants the focus to be on the community instead of on himself. The entire $100 fee that players pay each season goes toward the maintenance of the league, including custom team T-shirts (matching tube socks or sneakers, sported by many of the teams, cost extra).

In fact, the Big Apple Dodgeball league grew out of Marraccini's desire to spread his personal love of sports to the community.

I started this because I know what sports have done for me, he said. A team sport does wonders for your life, and it's a great way to meet people.

Marraccini began playing dodgeball on the Mariah Scareys, the only LGBT-centric team in the league coordinated by the New York City Social Sports Club, an organization that manages several different co-ed recreational sports.

The NYCSSC's dodgeball league was really good to us, said Marraccini, who is currently unable to play due to a shoulder injury. We came into the league as the only gay team, and they welcomed us, he added.

Playing in a mostly heterosexual league didn't faze Marraccini and his teammates, including Saft and Rojas, now the sponsor of the Big Booty Ballers team. However, Marraccini worried that other members of the LGBT community might not feel comfortable enough to sign up.

I feel like a lot of gays and lesbians might be afraid to play in the straight league, Marraccini said. A lot of people probably wouldn't take that chance like we did, so that's why I started this.

Many players in the league feel grateful that they have a safe place to have fun and meet new people without going to a bar or club.

It's a wonderful opportunity for the gay community to get together outside of bars without any stigma, said Eric Leven, a 26-year-old TV producer from the East Village who also writes a blog called KnuckleCrack. I probably wouldn't have hung out with half of these people if it weren't for this.

Although Leven is on the Spread Eagles team, he heard about the league from his best friend, Eyal Feldman, the sponsor of the Butter Balls team, on which he also plays. Feldman, a statuesque 29-year-old, founded Boy Butter, a personal lubricant popular in the gay community.

I thought Boy Butter and the league would be a great combination, Feldman said of his decision to sponsor a team. Plotnick, who sponsors and plays on the Manhattan CATastrophe team, also saw sponsorship as an excellent marketing opportunity.

It's great advertising for me, Plotnick said. There are eight people running around with my logo on their shirts, he said of the dark green T-shirts bearing the Manhattan Cat Specialists logo.

I love all of the other businesses that are sponsors, Feldman added. The other sponsors include David Barton Gym, which has a location on West 23rd Street, Manhunt.net, a gay social networking and dating Website, and Splash, a gay bar on West 17th Street.

Although the league is made up of mostly gay men, there are also some lesbians, transgender individuals, and straight men and women on the teams. To encourage diversity, the rules state that at least two women must play on each team during every game.

I didn't want it to be all men, because I feel like gays and lesbians never really cross paths, Marraccini said. The diversity of the teams has helped many of the players meet new people and form friendships. Kelly Lawten, a Hofstra University graduate student who lives in the East Village, found the league while surfing the Internet for sports to play, and made some new friends at the launch party at GYM.

Everyone's so nice, she marveled.

Dave Zumbrennen, a 29-year-old former cheerleader who works for the U.S. Olympic Committee, just moved to Queens from Colorado and has already made some friends in the city from playing on the Manhunt Misfits team.

I loved dodgeball as a kid, Zumbrennen said. Although, it's almost more fun watching everyone else, he admitted.

In February, there will be a lot more people to watch. Marraccini plans to double the size of the league for the next season, since he had to turn some people away after this season's rosters quickly filled up.

Plotnick attributes some of the popularity of the campy concept to possible bad childhood memories, although many of this season's players said they don't remember playing dodgeball as youngsters.

We've embraced the sport that may have humiliated us years ago, Plotnick said. But I was never humiliated¶well, until the game last week.

source: http://www.chelseanow.com/cn_59/gaydodge.html