Marissa Dionne, of Team McCulloch, squares off against some of her teammates from the Kwantlen women's soccer team. Team McCulloch won the Movember Dodgeball Tournament. (Photo by Jeffrey Yip)

Students filled the Surrey campus gym ducking, diving and dodging their way to dodgeball fame on Friday night.

With more than 15 teams participating, Kwantlen’s Movember dodgeball tournament was unquestionably a huge success for the KSA and Kwantlen Recreation, who collaborated to host the event.

“Our goal initially, because we’ve never done one, was if we got eight to 10 teams we would have been happy and we got 15. We also got a lot of singles who came in and tried to pick up teams. It definitely exceeded our expectations,” said Eddie Lee, who coordinated the event.

“It’s one of those things that snowballs. You do as much as you can and some things are going to work and some things aren’t and you kind of just have to roll with it. Not everything you do or plan is going to work out the way you anticipated. This is one of those successes that hopefully we can build on.”

The KSA has not always had a lot of success promoting events — the Oct. 2 street hockey tournament was cancelled due to lack of interest — but the dodgeball tournament was an unbridled success.

“It was a lot of fun. We’re just happy to come out and play and support a cause,” said Amy Basi, winner of best female moustache.

Perhaps the best part of the day was that everyone was there for more than just dodgeball. Exact numbers for the fundraiser, for cancer research, will take some time to add up but organizers seemed happy with the donations made by students.

“We all knew it was for Movember, and we just came back from nationals, so we all said, ‘Let’s do this and see if we can raise some money,’ so that’s what we all came out for,” said Courtney McCulloch, who captained her team to victory in the championship.

The win for McCulloch’s team was no small victor,y either. Competition was fierce through round robin play and intensified once the knockout round began.

“It was a tough run. Eventually our team decided to settle down and took it for the win,” said McCulloch.

What has to be exciting for the KSA is the enthusiasm that the event brought. The Surrey gym was filled with participants and spectators and the crowd really seemed to be enjoying the event.

The KSA’s marketing coordinator, Nathan Griffiths, said they were excited for future events after the success of the dodgeball tournament and that it was good to see Kwantlen developing that university spirit. He also said that after interest shown in the event this year they could probably have 10 more teams next year.

Sean Mitchell , of the DeMOlishers, warms up before the start of the tournament with some throwing and catching. (Photo by Jeffrey Yip)

From left to right, Nathan Griffiths, Tonya Myhedyn, Reese Motzek, Shawn Mitz and Chelsea Campbell, of the Hairy Lipped Eagles, get in some good stretching before the start of the Movember Dodgeball Tournament at the Kwantlen Surrey campus on Nov. 19.

The tournament's winners, Team McCulloch, captained by Courtney McCulloch (centre, back row). (Photo by Jeffrey Yip)

Eddie Lee, Health & Recreation Manager for the KSA, believes the new model for fitness classes on the Richmond campus will turn the budget around. (Photo by Matt Law)

The Blossoming Lotus yoga studio at Kwantlen’s Richmond campus took a financial hit during its first year of operation.

According to a June 24 budget update from the Kwantlen Student Association, the studio had accumulated a net loss of $6,855 while generating only $1,887 in revenue.

“We definitely took a loss this year; it was unanticipated. It was the first year of doing it, we’ve never really done fitness classes out here before. We were trying a couple of different models and it’s reflected in the losses,” said Eddie Lee, health & recreation manager of the Kwantlen Student Association.

Most of the expenses for the studio came from instructor fees which totalled $6,060. Other expenses included marketing and administrative costs, which came to $969, and general operating expenses (cleaning, signage, postage), which came to $1,713.

According to Lee, lack of student participation in the classes was a big factor.

Lack of student participation was a major factor in the Blossoming Lotus’ first year losses (Photo by Matt Law)

“Students want to take classes but it interferes with their classes, so for that reason they can’t participate. But it’s not for a lack of interest,” Lee said.

“We’ve priced ourselves to be affordable to students, which means we’re typically lower than the community centres, the studios, the fitness clubs, things like that. We’re not here to profit off the students.”

The cost for individual classes is $25 for students on the health and dental plan and $35 for students who are not. Community centres in both Richmond and Surrey also offer drop in classes at costs ranging from $4.25 (with student discount) to $5.50.

To help mitigate losses, the KSA has created an online registration system using Paypal. This will enable courses to be run when there are enough students to fill them. The KSA has also changed some instructors and opened classes to the community to make them more cost effective.

“With the reduction in instructor fees and going to this online registration, we’ve definitely seen a growth in the numbers and attendance, which obviously combined with the reduced instructor fees are taking us closer to that break-even point.” said Lee.

The next budget will be released in January 2011 and Lee is positive things will have turned around.

“I’m confident in saying that the losses have been significantly reduced and we’re hoping to break even or come in with a small profit margin by next year.”