Aurora firefighters win dodgeball gold

Scenes from the Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller movie “Dodgeball” were dancing through the heads of eight Aurora-area firefighters during a recent trip to New York City.

Red balls. Purple spandex. Mustaches. Zany costumes.

And for good reason.

The men were about to compete in a dodgeball tournament of their own at the World Police and Fire Games, held Aug. 26 to Sept. 5 in the Big Apple.

“The first thing I thought of when we first got there and started playing was that ‘Dodgeball' movie,” said Mike Kaufman, an Aurora fire private and dodgeball team member. “That is absolutely what I thought of the first few minutes. I was like ‘Wow, this is unbelievable.'”

Believe it or not, even without holding a single practice, the team of seven firefighters from Aurora and one from North Aurora took home the gold medal, besting 39 teams representing major cities and even entire countries.

“We played South Australia for the championship game,” said Aurora fire private and team member Matt Acuff. And by that time, it wasn't so much about representing the City of Lights, or even Illinois. “It came down to more USA vs. Australia.”

But the Fox Valley's own fire-fighting, dodgeball-chucking athletes didn't head east with such grand expectations. They wanted to visit Ground Zero before the 10-year anniversary of Sept. 11 and needed a fun team sport to play at the World Police and Fire Games to give them a reason to make the trip, Kaufman said.

“I think we were looking for something that we could all compete in as a team that would be fun, something that you didn't have to really have a lot of skill in like baseball or golf … and something that we've all played,” Kaufman said. “I think that's probably why it fell on dodgeball.”

And while most team members have past athletic experience and continue to stay in shape, their dodgeball experience didn't continue past elementary or middle school. That left team members originally feeling their odds of succeeding were slim.

But after playing about 25 games, Aurora's team built up steam and made it to the final round against South Australia.

Playing six-on-six with two substitutes, the games were over when one team pegged all six members of the other team with a foamy, volleyball-sized dodgeball. Knocking their opponents out took the Aurorans between 22 seconds — their shortest game — and about four minutes, the length of the championship game.

By the title match, hundreds gathered to fill the convention center hosting the dodgeball tournament with cheers for the competitors.

“The first couple games it was slow and then all of a sudden people started realizing what it was,” said Kevin Hoffman, an Aurora fire private and dodgeball team member.

And then the crowds became like the rest of the championship dodgeball experience — crazy.

“I thought it was pretty crazy for dodgeball,” Acuff said. “At one point we had the New York bagpipers and drummers playing for us before the games.”

When the Aurora Fire Department team came away victorious, they scored a trip to the winner's stand.

“And New York's chief gave us our medals,” Hoffman said.

None of the dodgeball players had competed in the World Police and Fire Games before their recent gold-medal trip. But Aurora Fire Chief Hal Carlson has attended in the past to compete in running, stair-climbing and other events. And at least three others from the Aurora police and fire departments participated in this year's games.

But with a dodgeball title to defend, team members say they've set their sights on the next Police and Fire Games in 2013 in Ireland.

“Now it's on the calendar,” Kaufman said.