By Kevin Eckleberry

kevin.eckleberry@lagrangenews.com

LAGRANGE – For many of the participants in the Clockwork Games, there had to be some flashback to their school days as the balls were flying during the dodgeball competition.

That was just one of the events the dozens of men and women took part in during the competition that was hosted by Kane Bradfield, the founder of Clockwork Performance Training in LaGrange.

The event pitted personnel from Callaway and Hollis Hand elementary schools against each other in a number of events, including the dodgeball competition where they hurled rubber balls at each other until no one on the other team was left standing.

When all of the events had been completed, a champion was crowned, and it was the Callaway Elementary Fanniepacks getting the best of the Hollis Hand Hulks.

“A couple of them have been training here, but a lot of them just came to represent their school,” Bradfield said. “So it was good.”

Earlier this year, Bradfield hosted a similar event, but it was for all of his trainers.

Bradfield felt it was a positive experience so he wanted to give people in the community a chance to compete and test themselves.

“All the trainers competed against each other. It was fun for us,” Bradfield said. “So we opened it up to the community.”

Personnel from the two elementary schools participated in a number of events from the tug-of-war, to the wheel-barrow race, to the keg relay, to the aforementioned dodgeball.

“We thought it’d be fun, and it was fun,” Bradfield said. “It was fun to see those high fives. It was real good.”

Part of what Bradfield enjoys about his job is seeing people improve themselves physical and achieve things they wouldn’t have been able to before, and he saw plenty of that during the Clockwork Games.

“It’s what I wanted the games to represent, people doing stuff they thought they would never do,” Bradfield said. “People wanted to win, but as a trainer, I was glad to be able to see them do things they didn’t think they would do.”

While it was a good-natured competition, Bradfield said there was no doubt both teams wanted to win the championship belt.

“They started competing. It was all about the belt,” Bradfield said. “There can only be one champ, that’s what we talk about.”

Bradfield wants to continue to offer the Clockwork Games  in the future, and he’s hopeful that the videos he posted on Facebook will help ease the worries of some people.

“People didn’t know what to expect,” Bradfield said. “Now people saw the video, and they thought I want to do that. Hopefully there’ll be more teams to compete.”