‘Pair up’ and ‘stick together’: Annual LA Fleet Week dodgeball game brings out camaraderie

Army players compete in the military dodgeball tournament on Sunday, May 26, 2024, at LA Fleet Week in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

Forget the hardships of basic training. About 48 men and women from the U.S. Navy, Army, Marines Corps and Coast Guard battled gym-class memories of childhood dodgeball games on Day 2 of LA Fleet Week on Sunday, May 26.

The third-annual dodgeball tournament is a highlight of the multi-day, Memorial Day celebration of America’s Armed Forces. Fleet Week activities include an expo of military and first-responder displays and equipment and tours of active-duty ships.

Shawn Ellison, also known as “Fit Boss,” led his team to back-to-back victories early in the tournament. His group, made up of enlisted and civilian members from the USS Carl Vinson,  stood or crouched, poised to bolt in any direction to avoid body shots, and focused on catching speeding dodgeballs thrown with baseball intensity.

“Our game plan is to pair up and make sure we stick together,” said Ellison, a fitness coordinator and a civilian, federal employee on the nuclear aircraft carrier stationed in San Diego. “What do I love most about it? The camaraderie. We’re just hopeful we do well and above all, have fun.”

The Carl Vinson team also made time for other Fleet Week activities, including attending a comedy show, Dodgers and Angels games, “and hanging out here and walking around the Expo,” said Rachel Behymer, a fitness coordinator on the ship.

An early crowd favorite, the Carl Vinson crew later fell to another Navy team. Their boss, Lt. Melissa Gonzales, still cheered loudly for her group.

“We’re here to enjoy ourselves and have fun, show the locals how awesome the Navy is,” Gonzales said. “At the end of the day, we’re all one big team. We’re all part of the Department of Defense.”

Teams sized each other up across the center line and huddled over last-minute strategies: “Just duck,” one player said. Spectators needed some game tips too, such as stay alert, lest they “get one in the face,” as volunteer Rob Rausch of Cypress said.

“You just have to watch out because you can get beaned, some of these shots are like bullets,” he said. Rausch volunteers at Fleet Week interviewing service members and uploading the videos online to be shared with family and friends.

“(Fleet Week) is all about giving to these guys, meeting the soldiers and sailors and thanking them,” Rausch said.

Courtney Ramage and her two sons drove up from San Diego to support her husband, Lt. Cmdr. John “Jack” Ramage, a training officer on the USS Carl Vinson. In one game, Ramage was the last man standing, a development that thrilled his family.

“I admire his pride for the country, he is so loyal to his team and everyone on the ship, he’s hard-working and dedicated,” Courtney Ramage said.

Their 7-year-old son Jackson used a yellow megaphone to cheer his father on, adding he wanted to be a “Navy boy” when he grew up.

This is the family’s first Fleet Week visit. Other celebrations happen in Miami, New York, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon. Aside from tours of the active-duty ships, there were flyovers from Coast Guard and police helicopters as well as F-18s. Thousands are expected to go to the L.A. Waterfront for Fleet Week activities.

The dodgeball finals came down to a head-to-head game between the Army Desert Donkeys and the U.S. Navy Body Shots.

The defending champion Army team arrived on the field with a game plan complete with offensive and defensive line assignments and a determination to keep the championship cup in Fort Irwin. Team captain Sgt. First Class Carlos Diaz said their practices include throwing the balls in unison, making it easier to tag opponents out.

“We take this seriously, we fight hard,” Diaz said.

Sgt. Zacmichael Manglona threw a game-winning double whammy to propel the Army team to the finals. He pitched two balls and knocked his opponent down with hits to the ankle and shoulder.

“You have to learn to shoot and you have to communicate,” he said.

In the end, his fellow Army Desert Donkeys bested the Navy Body Shots. The squad from the USS Iowa, led by 13-year-old Colton Williams, earned the GOAT Award for embodying the best of dodgeball.

Colton, the son of Jonathan Williams, the president of the Battleship Iowa as well as Los Angeles Fleet Week, said dodgeball success all boils down to “practice and having a good team.”

Already a veteran of many Fleet Weeks, Colton said he likes “how there’s so many nice people and how there’s so much fun things to do.”

Ellison and the Carl Vinson team went home with the Spirit Award.

The back-to-back Army champions savored their victory as they prepared to head back to their desert post at night. But first, their post-game plans include wandering the waterfront and finding a meal for champions: steak and eggs.

“We’ll be ready again next year,” Manglona said.

Fleet Week continues on Monday, Memorial Day, at the L.A. Waterfront in downtown San Pedro with active-duty ship tours, military displays and equipment demonstrations, concerts, neighborhood parties, a “Military has Talent” show and cook-offs between Navy, Army, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Air Force and Army chefs. Admission is free.

For more information, visit lafleetweek.com.