Reagan Bucholtz earns Team Impact honor, pushes for bigger season

Reagan Bucholtz won Dodgeball Club-UWP’s Team Impact Award, a teammates’ vote that goes to the player who brings energy, keeps the group steady and helps carry the season through its highs and lows. Bucholtz said she felt very honored by the recognition and treated it as the award she would want most, which fit a category built around trust and daily buy-in more than box score production.

Her value showed up in ways that never make highlight clips. The club credited Bucholtz as the team’s honorary doctor during the season, a role she used to support teammates off the court while still giving everything she had on it. UWP’s seasonal materials also listed her as a co-captain and noted her photo credit for team coverage, underscoring how much she contributed beyond play. She also entered the season with a competitive résumé, earning a spot on the 2nd Team Women’s All American Rookie list for 2025-26.

The broader backdrop helps explain why that kind of impact mattered. NCDA’s third annual Women’s National Dodgeball tournament in Akron, Ohio featured 58 players from nine schools spread across eight teams, and the association’s preview noted that women’s collegiate teams can range from as few as four players to as many as nine. In a sport built on small rosters, chemistry, communication and support can matter as much as throwing power.

Bucholtz’s favorite moments from the year reflected that same mix of pressure and connection. She pointed to overtime games against the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s women’s team, Northern Kentucky University in bracket play at women’s nationals, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the co-ed consolation title game. UWP’s nationals recap said the overtime crew won the 2026 consolation bracket with a 4-3 victory, and the NCDA’s central-region recap noted that the team took the consolation bracket for the second year in a row.

Looking ahead, Bucholtz said she wants UWP to be more connected and more competitive next season. She wants the club to break into the winner’s bracket after two straight consolation-bracket runs in co-ed play, and she hopes the no-sting team can reach the final four again at nationals. She also pointed to recruiting, saying graduation will create turnover and the roster has to keep building depth. Her message to younger players was direct: master the basics, clean up form to avoid injuries and be a good teammate before trying to be the flashiest player on the floor.