By DREW GRANTHUM/Sports Editor

COLUMBIANA — Things are starting to get intense in the Columbiana United Methodist Church Youth’s TRIBES competition on June 11 and 18, as the summer-long recreational league’s teams vied for valuable points.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” CUMC Director of Youth Ministries Drake Roberts said. “Things are picking up.”

On June 11, the three teams (Death from Above, Vicious and Delicious and Captain Krunch and the Cereal Killers) squared off in a game dubbed “Assassins,” where each of the three teams’ members entered a taped off area where they had to dodge objects such as dodgeballs, Angry Birds plush figures and Nerf balls thrown by the vacation bible school students.

The three squads then took each other on in a massive game of dodgeball. Although tricky to set up, Roberts said the teams adjusted quickly.

“It was standard rules, except one-versus-one-versus-one,” he said. “It made for quite an interesting evening.”

Roberts said the arena was divided into thirds, making for some interesting strategy.

After the evening was over, Team Death From Above extended their point lead to seven, with 18 total points compared to Team Vicious and Delicious’ 11. Team Captain Krunch and the Cereal Killers held third place, one point behind second place.

On June 18, the teams faced off in a competition called “Humans versus Zombies.”

Each team member started off with a ribbon on their back. The goal of the game was to avoid losing the ribbon to a person dubbed a “zombie.” If the ribbon was removed, the player became a zombie and then began attempting to remove other players’ ribbons. To start the game off, each team’s coach dropped affiliation and became a zombie.

At the end of the night, Team Captain Krunch and the Cereal Killers made up ground on the two teams in front of it.

“(They) did well,” Roberts said. “They outscored (the other teams) 5-2-2.”

With that performance, the squad moved into second overall. At press time, Team Death From Above still holds a seven point lead, with 22 points to Team Captain Krunch and the Cereal Killers’ 15. Vicious and Delicious fell to third, but remains just one point out of second.

The teams get back after it June 25. For more information, visit cumcyouth.org.