Happy Gilmore gets surprise call up

When Brook Gilmore was told he'd been selected as the foundation member of the inaugural 2011 Speight's Black Keas New Zealand Dodgeball Team, he thought his leg was being pulled.
The Mid-Western and Northland rugby player was having a laugh with his mates at the recent rugby sevens in Wellington when he was chosen as the foundation member of the team - which will attend the eighth annual Dodgeball World Championships in Las Vegas in August.
"I was down at the sevens and they had a bit of a competition going and my mates put a team in," he said.
His team was outfitted in Scottish kilts which made his eventual selection even odder.
"It was bizarre, when they said it was an all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas it was pretty hard to believe at first... apparently it's even a professional sport over there," he said.
Before last month, he thought dodgeball was a sport that was played in PE at high school when it was raining outside.
"We used to play it at school but I don't think I've ever played it properly, with all the rules," he said.
The 2004 comedy Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story starring Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn didn't help him take the sport more seriously but in just over a week the Speight's Summit National Dodgeball Series starts and Gilmore will be watching the results with interest.
His teammates will be selected from four tournaments in the series with Dunedin the first stop in the national search for the New Zealand Dodgeball Team. The quest for seven more dodgeballers will also stop in Wellington, Palmerston North and Auckland.
"It's been the hardest story to tell everyone because no one believes me," Gilmore laughed.
It's real enough now for the 21-year-old building apprentice but he said he'd rather be a professional rugby player than a dodgeball pro.
Gilmore has struggled with injuries in his rugby career, keeping him from reaching his potential.
The outside back has regularly played sevens for Northland and earned a few caps for the senior squad during the 2009 ITM Cup season.
He is perhaps best remembered for his 80m intercept try that won the match against North Harbour at Albany that year.
For anyone else keen on joining Gilmore in Las Vegas, the Auckland Dodgeball tournament will be held at Herne Bay-Ponsonby Rackets Club on April 2. To register a team online visit www.summitdodgeball.co.nz