We were lucky to catch up with Erik Zander recently and have shared our conversation below.
Erik, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about growing your team – how did you recruit the first few people, what was the process like, how’d you go about training and if you were to start over today would you have done anything differently?
Our organization is unique in that it is entirely run by volunteers. This includes alumni and current players still playing college dodgeball. None of us get paid for the work that we put into the league. For most of us, we put in the work because of our love for the sport and we love seeing it grow and want to be a part of that. In terms of recruiting more volunteers, a lot of times they will reach out to us because they can’t get enough of dodgeball. Sometimes it is just getting to know our current players and realizing that they would be helpful to our team and asking them to join our staff! Our biggest thing is that we make sure that when we add a volunteer to our staff that we find an area that they can achieve at. It is important that they keep interested in what they do as this will help us with our mission of continued growth.
Erik, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Anyone that does not know my name is Erik Zander, Treasurer of the National Collegiate Dodgeball Association (NCDA). The National Collegiate Dodgeball Association, Inc. (NCDA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of dodgeball clubs and student organizations of North American colleges and universities, a governing body for collegiate dodgeball. The league was founded on April 9, 2005. This is a student operated and managed organization, with a few alumni mixed in to provide content writing, legal counsel, and reliable officiating.
For as long as I can remember, I have been playing dodgeball. From my elementary and middle school days to playing in college, dodgeball has been a part of my life. When I attended the University of Wisconsin Platteville, I was lucky enough to find out that they had a dodgeball club and from that point on I knew that was what I was going to do in college. It was a great way to get some exercise, make friends, and just take some stress out after a long day. I enjoyed dodgeball so much that I not only got involved as a staff member of the NCDA but I’m also the coach of the Platteville Dodgeball Club!
What makes dodgeball great is the fact that everyone that plays has the same love for the sport as you do, and it is great to be able to talk dodgeball whenever and make friends from all over the country. Another thing that makes it great is the fact that it is a sport for everyone, I have played or coached people that were baseball, football, and basketball players, to people who were wrestlers and runners. Also, even band and choir individuals who never played sports. College Dodgeball has so many different positions, you have throwers, blockers, catchers, dodgers, and individuals that provide pressure and coverage. It gives everyone that plays a spot on the court that they can excel at. My goal with helping grow college dodgeball is to provide a better game experience for the players that have come after me as well as help them become the best players that they can be!
Besides collecting money and paying the league expenses, I also help run and organize tournaments throughout the NCDA season. I help with individual and team registrations as well as connecting teams throughout the country. I help with creating content such as articles and figuring out video streams for tournaments on YouTube. Another area that I help with is finding sponsorships for our biggest tournaments like our national tournament. With these sponsorships, we promote local businesses on our video streams and social media platforms to those who help support our league and its players. If an individual or business is interested in being a sponsor or creating a partnership, they should reach out to our league, and we can discuss what we could offer each other and see if teaming up is a good fit.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
To build our audience up on our social media platforms, it is important for us to develop a structure that every one of our staff can easily follow. For each of our dodgeball tournaments, we have material that we post for every event such as schedule, streaming, and results graphics as well as preview and recap articles. This allows our audience to know what to expect and be able to follow our league throughout the year. It lets them know which teams are doing well and to see who the top players in the league are. For our alumni, current players, and players’ parents it allows them to easily keep up with the league. They can be fans without having to actively be involved. This allows us to make consistent content that fans like and want to see.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I think what has built our reputation to what it is today, is the team that we have been able to build. Everyone that helps with video creation, graphics, website development, streaming, refereeing, and coaching, want to see the sport grow and be in a better place than it was for us when they played. It is important for us to make our sport look professional and put on a product that is fun and entertaining for all involved. We also put our best efforts into whatever we do because we want it to be something that we can be proud of. The NCDA wants to see this be the next big sport and our team is all working to achieve that goal!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ncdadodgeball.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ncdadodgeball/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ncdadodgeball
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ncdadodgeball
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ncdadodgeball
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ncdadodgeball
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@ncdadodgeball