Ditchball Strikes Again
Morgan Modjeski, Staff
Since 1977, the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Architecture has held the proud tradition of holding a one-day event during which a hollowed-out, iced-down, huge pile of snow is placed at the front of the Architecture building. Students are able to engage in a strange ritualistic sport known as “Ditch Ball”— an event held this year on March 7.
The game is played with two teams; the field is a huge hole dug into a large snowbank. Two planks of wood are placed on each side of the tunnel. The point of the game is to get past the plank, out of the ditch, and put the ball safely in the hands of your goalie, on the top of the mountain.
The dressing room reserved for Ditch Ball was a student lounge, and all over the room there was hockey equipment and winter clothing scattered throughout. In the far corner of the room, a small girl was sitting on the ground working hard to make sure the rips in the huge ball were not releasing too much of the filling.
Outside, the place was going wild. Loud music was blaring from two huge speakers hooked up to a laptop that was located just inside the doors. Sitting behind the laptop was a tall young man, totally decked out head-to-toe in hockey equipment. That young man was Ricardo Brito, the social programmer for the Student Architectural Society.
Ricardo explained to me in a quick interview that Ditch Ball was much more than just random violence in an icy ditch, “It’s just our strange way of releasing some pent-up anger or stress that we have throughout the year.”
While leaving, I managed to get three seconds with a member of one of the teams. All he said was, “One of the best sports ever,” then he was g
