Rules for Planning a Sports Event: Schools’ Dodgeball Tournament (Part 1)

Preface

In this 3-piece article series, I’ll introduce you to how I organized a kinda small-scale sports event—a student dodgeball tournament aimed at school students from grades 9 to 12. If you’ve ever thought about planning a sports event yourself, or even just any kind of event, this might give you some practical know-how from my experience.

One beautiful thing about experience and knowledge is that it’s adaptable. Whether you’re handling a high-budget sports event or a low-cost tournament, or any event, the core structure has similarities. And once you understand how that works, you can scale up or down with more confidence.

This whole journey will be split into three parts (separate articles):

• Part 1: The Idea – how the idea of this sports event was born, why it mattered, and what checkboxes had to be filled before anything could happen. This is this article.
• Part 2: Promotion – how we planned to get people interested in our student dodgeball tournament, involved, and signed up. Period of communication.
• Part 3: The Event – what went down on game day, what worked, what didn’t, and what we learned. During and after the event.

If this is your first time at Play of Values, here’s what you need to know: I’m currently a scholar in (sports) marketing, working on my PhD, but I strongly believe that knowledge without experience has no real use. If you want to teach something (and I do), you have to live it first. That’s why I mix academic research with hands-on projects like this one.

Before returning to the ways of science, I spent seven years helping build the biggest pop culture event in the Baltics—Comic Con Baltics—from scratch. At my final year, the event attracted over 30,000 people, and I was the marketing manager. So yeah, I’ve been around chaotic venues, worked with talent-bookings, I have good knowledge about prices of high-profile actors, dealing with agents, talking with sponsors, also seen some guest flops, last-minute poster disasters, flight delays moments before the event… all sorts of shit.

What I’m trying to say is—I do have some experience in organizing events of different scales, and I’m not here to drop theory from a PowerPoint. I want to show you how event-building actually happens. This student dodgeball tournament may not be a mega-conference, but it’s real. Real people, real logistics, real lessons.

So, let’s kick things off with the most important phase: the idea.

Where did it come from, what purpose did it serve, and how do you know when it’s actually strong enough to move forward?

TL;DR: Start with your strengths + honest situational check. Define your audience and what matters to them. Begin with a big idea, then build a low-risk first version. Create a strong visual identity that grabs attention. Secure ambassadors + sponsors to transfer trust (the play of values). Only then prepare: media and social media packs, website, etc.

NOTE: Your model might look different—especially if you need to handle things like staff or securing a venue, which usually comes somewhere between building your visual identity and locking in ambassadors. Of course, that’s where sponsors can really help, especially when you need budget flexibility. So, venue/sponsors part can go simultaneously, especially if you have people that trust your vision. In my case, it was easier—we already had both the venue and staff, which counted as part of our strength evaluationfrom the start.

The Idea of Planning a Sports Event

Birth of the Idea

Now, the idea—as an idea—is usually a bit chaotic. Unless you’re handed a task (and even then, it’s someone else’s idea, not really yours). In my and my colleague’s case, the dodgeball tournament was born from a mix of timing, context, and, honestly, just one of those “random office chats that suddenly get serious.”

We happened to be in some pretty favorable circumstances:

• I study and work at Vytautas Magnus University (VMU), and my job is at the VMU Sports Centre—the best student sports center in the Baltics.
• The Lithuanian Olympic 3×3 team trained here before winning bronze in Tokyo. The Football NT also uses our facilities.
• We’ve got the top baseball infrastructure in the region, and we hosted a Student World Modern Pentathlon Championship.
• VMU was ranked Top 10 in Lithuania for university sports performance last year.
• Over 10 current or former VMU athletes are headed to the Paris Olympics—which, for Lithuanian standards, is huge.
• Our sports studies program is supported by local Euroleague team Kaunas Žalgiris, and some of the lecturers are actual sports legends.
• Just before this, we had attended the National Sports Forum, where the data on Lithuanian youth physical activity was… awful. Most students can’t even do the basic physical exercises. That’s bad for public health, and bad for university recruitment.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that Matas Buzelis’ NBA shoes are just casually lying in the office cabinet. Has absolutely nothing to do with this story, but it’s cool—and kinda shows how deep our ties are with Lithuanian sports.

So all in all, we had:

1. Great sports infrastructure.
2. A university brand tied directly to elite-level sport.
3. A real national-level problem around youth inactivity.
4. A growing need to attract and inspire high schoolers.

So, during one of our morning espresso-fueled conversations—somewhere between sarcasm, mockery and swearing—we landed on the spark: let’s organize an event for school kids to get them moving, while also showing them how cool VMU is when it comes to sports.

But what kind of event? It had to be simple, fun, low-cost, and familiar to everyone.

Dodgeball was the obvious answer. Everyone knows how to play it. It’s fast, energetic, and fun. And to be honest, in a world of overcomplicated tournaments and expensive gear, there’s something beautiful about just needing a ball and some open space.

So yeah—student dodgeball tournament it was.

Turning Idea Into an Actual Sports Event

With all that groundwork in place, we moved from “wouldn’t it be cool if…” to actually asking:

a) Can we realistically host this thing?
b) And if yes—how do we promote it so people actually show up?

Planning the Hosting of the Sports Event

Let’s start with (a).

At first, we went big. Like, month-long tournament with dozens of schools kind of big. But then reality politely tapped us on the shoulder—and we scaled it down to a one-day event. The logic was simple: start small, prove the concept, and if it works, we’ve got something tangible to show future sponsors and partners. In other words, if it works, then we have a brand—and if we go back to basic brand theory, a brand is essentially a promise that lives in someone’s mind and trust. In our case, the promise is simple: we can pull off a dodgeball tournament, and it’ll be worth showing up for.

Only, then we can go big.

So, our main goal was to create a format that:

• Uses our own facilities
• Doesn’t depend on weather
• Works with tight school schedules
• Feels doable for teachers, students, and organizers alike

So instead of dreaming about 50+ teams on our outdoor soccer pitch, we landed on something leaner and smarter:

16 teams, 4 groups, 1 team from each group advancing to the semifinals.

Our basketball court setup helped too. We can split it down the middle with a net, which means two games can run simultaneously. Logistically, we were covered. Plus, we’ve got experienced staff on-site, and we’re used to running much more complicated sports tournaments. So yeah—the hosting part was pretty much locked in.

That’s when we moved on to the more complicated—and, frankly, more interesting—part…

Planning a Sports Event: The Promotion (Attracting attention, participants, sponsors)

We’ll break down the actual results of our communication campaign in the next part, but before you even start posting, emailing, or pitching, there are a few key checkboxes you need to tick. Because this is the moment where the real play of values begins.

It’s simple: if you want attention, you need trust.

And trust doesn’t appear out of nowhere—it needs to be transferred from someone (or something) that already has it.

So, we started with what we had: relationships. Personal credibility. The people in our network. Then we asked: Who can lend us their image, their value, and their influence to make this event feel legit?

That meant two things:

1. We need a visual identity—something that resonates with the audience.
2. We needed ambassadors—visible people who students would recognize and respect.
3. We needed brands—logos that signal quality and support.

Creating a Visual Identity of a Sports Event

This part came together pretty smoothly.

I had a trustworthy designer from my Comic Con Baltics days—someone who knew how to create visuals that pop without needing three rounds of handholding. I trusted him fully, and for good reason.

My colleague, who happens to have kids in our exact target group (9th–12th graders), helped us get a read on current visual trends. Based on what we saw—TikTok, gaming, anime, sports memes—we went with a Dragon Ball Z–inspired style. Bold lines, high energy, action-forward. It screamed movement and competition while still feeling fun and familiar.

Most importantly, it immediately communicated two things:

1. This is a sports event.
2. It’s for school students—not your usual dry, try-hard promotional poster.

When we got the final design, we printed the visuals on t-shirts—and yeah, we loved it. It looked badass. No other word fits.

The shirts alone became mini billboards. And if your promo gear makes people want to wear it after the event… you’re doing it right.

Choosing Our Ambassadors for our Dodgeball Tournament

We approached planning a sports event by using the same influencer logic I broke down in my Athlete’s Brand article: there are different types of influencers, and we wanted a mix that covers different corners of student attention.

The goal was to include:

• A regular influencer
• A sports influencer
• An influencer-athlete
• A sports celebrity

And here’s the kicker—they all had to be VMU students or connected to our university. That way, it wasn’t just about promoting a dodgeball tournament—it was also about showcasing our university’s sports ecosystem.

Luckily, VMU is stacked when it comes to recognizable sports figures. So here’s who we locked in:

• Regular influencer: Aistė Saprončikaitė. Uses our Sports Centre regularly, has nearly 100k followers across Instagram and TikTok, and represents the casual yet committed student-athlete vibe.
• Sports influencer: Vytenė Beleckė. Former pro volleyball player, now a coach and brand ambassador for various sports products. She brings credibility and a more mature coaching presence.
• Influencer-athlete: Dovydas Rimkus aka Rimkenzo. An active MMA fighter with a wild style and a massive following. He’s bold, loud, and hard to ignore—exactly what we needed to cut through the noise. With more than 150k followers and constant viral moments—he was our wild card.
• Sports celebrity: Dainius NovickasOlympic bronze-winning 3×3 basketball coach, head of all 3×3 basketball in Lithuania, and Lithuania’s 2024 Coach of the Year. His presence alone adds serious prestige.

This was a strong, balanced ambassador lineup that transferred a whole lot of value and legitimacy onto our event.

Locking in the Right Sponsors

Next up—sponsors.

The obvious move was to approach Žalgiris, our legendary Kaunas local basketball team. Their logo doesn’t just look good on a poster—it’s a seal of approval. Once our university’s vice-rector Simona stepped in to help with outreach, Žalgiris was on board.

After that, I tapped into my old influencer agency contacts and reached out to a few more brands—especially ones that already resonate with Gen Z. And to be honest, having Žalgiris in our corner made those conversations a lot easier. Their name opened doors.

What we ended up with was a credible base: a strong cast of ambassadors, recognizable sponsors, and a clear visual identity that felt fresh but grounded in trust.

This became our foundation for promoting the event—and from this point forward, we could actually start communicating. Posters, socials, reels, DM invites, school emails… now we had something real to sell.

Other Key Moments when Planning a Sports Event

After we locked in the basics—how we’d organize the event and how we’d create brand value through our ambassadors and sponsors—I was left with a few final tasks before we could actually hit “launch” on communication.

1. Creating the Website

The goal was clear: minimal, but complete. I wanted it to answer every possible question—what, where, when, who, how—without overwhelming anyone. Clean structure, fast loading, zero fluff. The final result? kvadratoturnyras.lt. Everything you need, nothing you don’t. Minimal, but has it all. MINIMALL, if you will.

2. Building the Communication Pack

This included everything we’d need for a proper rollout:

• Short-form videos with all our ambassadors;
• Posts copies for Instagram, TikTok and Facebook;
• A press release for local news outlets;
• Newsletter text tailored for schools and educators.

For an event of this scale, it was manageable. And once you’ve got the template right, the rest is plug-and-play.

3. Target Groups

Super straightforward here: students and teachers.

Influencer content would speak directly to the students (especially via TikTok and Instagram).

Meanwhile, newsletters and Facebook would handle outreach to teachers and school admins—still the gatekeepers when it comes to organizing field trips and filling up buses.

Planning a Sports Event: Student Dodgeball Tournament. Part I.

So yeah—that’s it for Part I of planning a sports event.

In Part II, I’ll break down how well this whole plan actually worked, and what adjustments we had to make along the way to hit our targets.

The goal was clear: get at least 32 teams registered within a 10-day window, from May 5 to May 15.

And just in case that didn’t work out, we had a solid Plan B—an education fair (studijų mugė) happening at our Sports Centre on May 16, with around 1000–1500 students expected to attend. That gave us one last chance to reach schools directly and generate extra sign-ups on the spot.

Make sure you check Part II—because planning is one thing, but getting results is where the real test begins.