One of the newer additions to the storied athletic rivalry between the student/athletes from Pinkerton Academy and Londonderry High School is the annual “Dodgeball Mack Plaque-Style” event that generates lots of excitement within the communities at the two local schools.
And after losing the first three annual competitions, the Pinkerton Academy Astros finally won the much-anticipated event by busting a 2-2 tie and pulling out a victory in the tourney-closing all-star match. The fourth Dodgeball-Mack Plaque Style event was held at the Derry school Thursday, March 20.
The event served as a fundraiser for both schools, and it’s fair to say that there were plenty of funds raised at the 2014 event, as a good-sized and spirited crowd was in attendance to watch the best dodgeball teams from PA and LHS battle it out in earnest.
The Londonderry High folks were undecided regarding where their percentage of the funds would go, but the Pinkerton folks were quite sure of where their money would be headed.
“This year, the Pinkerton portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Bill Cofrin Scholarship Fund,” said Pinkerton intramural sports director – and Londonderry High graduate – Kerry Boles. “Bill was a longtime athletic trainer, teacher, and coach at Pinkerton, who lost his life two years ago to brain cancer.”
Cofrin was beloved and respected in all of his roles at the Derry school, and his influence is still felt heavily at the academy. His widow Nancy was in attendance and introduced to the crowd at the dodgeball event.
Londonderry and Pinkerton both held big preliminary tournaments – involving hundreds of dodgeball players and dozens of teams – prior to the tournament night to determine which four teams would represent each school.
The Lancers were represented by teams creatively called Thug Life, Monopoly, Messing with Sasquatch, and Not in the Face. The opposing teams from host PA were inventively named Dodge Squad, The Spartans, Business Casualties, and Wolfpack.
Those contingents included some of the top varsity athletes from both schools, including Londonderry hockey/lacrosse star Eric Coburn, hockey/baseball standout Brett Evangelista, and track and field stalwart Starlin Ortiz, and Pinkerton football/track star Manny Latimore and football/lax stalwarts Matt Madden and Isaiah Backels.
The fourth, third, second, and first-seeded teams from each school played one another in that order, with each of those matches lasting 12 minutes. The teams played as many games as they could within those 12 minutes – usually two or three – with the team winning the most games taking the match.
Once those four matches were over, Pinkerton had won two and Londonderry had won two, so the customary all-star match – featuring two players from each of the competing teams – was set to break the match tie and crown the 2014 champion.
And the academy crew claimed the championship trophy and bragging rights by winning the all-star match in two games.