Six Balls. One Dream: Dodgeball Domination.
It's the advertising campaign that's sweeping Waltham High School and one that members of the school's sports and entertainment marketing class are hoping will drive interest in their dodgeball tournament on Saturday.
The project started as an offshoot of a collaboration with Bentley University Professor Karen Osterheld's course that teaches marketing students about corporate social responsibility. After the students concluded the 10-week session, which included a presentation at Bentley, Bentley student Scott Rosen offered to take the hypothetical project a step further and plan a real event with the Waltham High students.
Proceeds from the event will be donated to the Boston Medical Center Ovarian Cancer Fund in memory of Tina Duca, who was a leading member of the lacrosse booster clubs for many years before recently passing away.
While the planning and promoting of the event has involved a lot of real-world work for the students, the nature of it has provided plenty of enjoyment as well.
"It's going to be a lot of fun,'' said senior marketing class member Viondy Merisma. "Everyone likes dodgeball, so it should be a good event.''
The student sold candy to help raise funds for the project and Rosen helped them seek out corporate sponsors. The biggest promotional boost, though, may have come from two 60-second spots the class created under the direction of senior Peter Blackburn.
The ads, which air on Waltham Education Television and were shown in the cafeteria during lunch, include a takeoff on the NBA's "Where Amazing Happens'' campaign and a dramatic confrontation under the mission statement "Six Balls. One Dream: Dodgeball Domination.''
"I had the idea and thought it would be pretty fun and easy to do those,'' said Blackburn, who takes a senior production class at Waltham High. "Most of the kids are willing to do stuff like that. Most of them like to see themselves in commercials.''
Blackburn said the spots have been a hit.
"Most everyone who saw them thought they were pretty good,'' he said. "A few kids kept going back and playing them over and over again.''
For Blackburn, who plans to study communications at Endicott College in the fall, this was a case of classroom work meeting practical work experience.
"It's definitely something that I am looking to pursue and go on with next year,'' he said. "It's been a fun project. It's something that has an interest to a lot of kids in the school. It's been seen by a lot of people, so that makes it really fun.''
Fun is the operative word in both getting students, faculty and alumni interested in participating in the event, as well as fueling the Waltham students' interest in putting it on and promoting it.
"It should be really exciting,'' said sophomore class member Stephanie Oliveri. "We're hoping to make it an annual thing after this. I hope everyone comes.''
Still, the students have learned there is a lot that goes into staging a successful event.
"We learned about promotion, and advertising, and profit and revenue,'' Oliveri said. "Creating the event, we had to deal with all that.
"It was a lot more work than we thought it would be,'' she added.
Oliveri, who made T-shirts for her team of fellow sophomore athletes this weekend, said the class was hoping for 22 teams to sign up for the event. With a week to go, it is almost there. With a last-minute promotional and word-of-mouth push, they are confident they will reach their goals.
"It will be pretty well put together and will be a good time,'' Blackburn urged. "It's not much money, so everyone should do it.''
The games begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Waltham High gymnasiums. Registration forms can be obtained in John Maguire's Room 274 classroom at the high school.
(Scott Souza is a Daily News staff writer. He can be reached at 781-398-8006 or ssouza@cnc.com.)
