COMLEROY Road Public School played host to a dodgeball tournament, set up by a Hawkesbury fitness instructor.
Bowen Mountain man Ty Malouf set up the Dodgeball Gala Day, which had 85 children participate.
Maraylya Public School beat Ebenezer Public School in the final, while Maroota Public School and Hawkesbury Independent School also entered teams.
Mr Malouf said it was fantastic to see the students having fun and smiling as they played dodgeball.
‘‘I was ecstatic and I was so happy that it worked,’’ he said.
‘‘We had a couple of schools that didn’t win many games but they didn’t care because they had so much fun.’’
Mr Malouf said he wanted to encourage children to enjoy exercising and the tournament was a way to make it fun.
‘‘You always get the kids who are good at footy or soccer and are good at everything but there are some kids that aren’t as good,’’ he said.
‘‘I always played football when I was younger, and I was into sport all the time and I was always active.
‘‘But as I’ve got older I’ve seen the other side of it and I think it is very important to be involved no matter how good they are.’’
Mr Malouf said he had run fitness programs for school students for a number of years and the idea for dodgeball came to him last year.
‘‘I ran a fitness program at Ebenezer Public School, and dodgeball was one of the games I played there,’’ he said.
‘‘The kids absolutely loved it and I thought why not have a day about it.’’
Mr Malouf said this would be a trial run and he hoped to have more dodgeball tournaments in the future.
‘‘I’ll play music throughout the whole day to make it really fun,’’ he said.
‘‘I want the students to enjoy themselves so much that they don’t realise they are exercising.
‘‘In dodgeball it is never the strongest or fastest kids who are the best at it and in fact the biggest kids are often out first for some reason.’’