Rachel Seymour

Tim Bartlett, 18-year-old Topeka resident, prepares to throw the ball at a league dodgeball game at the Rice Community Center in Topeka on March 20. Barlett is part of the Sunday night dodgeball league in Topeka, which consists of eight teams. Lawrence will have its own dodgeball league through the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department in April.

After several school districts in Texas and Virginia banned dodgeball for its violence, it has made a comeback as a recreational sport for adults who yearn to hurl balls as hard as possible at one another.

The Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department is starting a dodgeball league April 6.

“We did kickball last year, and during the course of putting that on, we got a lot of inquiries about dodgeball,” said Tim Laurent, staff member at Lawrence Parks and Recreation. “So we just went with it.”

With the success of dodgeball programs in nearby cities and requests for it from the public, Laurent said he had good reason to be confident that Lawrence could field a league.

The parks and recreation department in Lee’s Summit, Mo., has a league with 18 teams, and Topeka’s Rice Community Center has three leagues.

Despite its blood sport reputation, dodgeball is relatively safe.

None of the interviewed leagues had any serious injuries during their games, and all except the Rice Community Center league use National Amateur Dodgeball Association approved balls.

None of the leagues allow head shots as well.

Modern dodgeball is less painful than it used to be thanks to softer balls.

The National Amateur Dodgeball Association guidelines specify that soft, rubber-coated foam balls measuring 8 inches should be used instead of the playground balls commonly associated with the sport. But not everyone is happy with the new balls.

Many players remember their days in gym class playing dodgeball with stiff, heavy playground balls that could be thrown hard and stung the skin of slothful players.

Doug Thomson of the Blue Springs, Mo., Parks and Recreation Department said that some of the players in his league wanted to use the traditional rubber balls, and Laurent of Lawrence Parks and Recreation said players for the new league had also requested to use traditional balls.

But the new ball style hasn’t deterred players from filling leagues, and the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department plans on having leagues for male, female and coed teams.

Laurent said he was fairly confident that enough teams would sign up to form at least a men’s league.

“It’s not uncommon, especially in adult sports, for it to all come pouring in during the last week or two,” Laurent said.

— Edited by Azita Tafreshi