BEVERLY – Gymnastics lessons. Basketball leagues. Competitive dodgeball. You can get them all at the Greater Beverly YMCA. With a recent movie about the – ahem – sport on the video store shelves and no fewer than two governing bodies trying to write rules for that most anarchic of playground games, dodgeball is making a comeback.

And now the YMCA is getting into the act. The organization has set up an adult dodgeball league, complete with uniforms, teams and official rules. The players – about 60 men and women in their 20s, 30s and 40s – have been meeting every Tuesday evening since late November to recapture part of their childhoods while getting an adult sized workout.

According to Melissa Hazzard, the YMCAs sports director, the game still has the same basic point: Peg as many people as possible with a rubber ball. But as with every adult take on a childhood classic, the rules have been made a bit more sophisticated.

"We do have specific rules. You can't hold two balls at one time, for instance," Hazzard said. "So there are some tactics involved."

The YMCA hopes to start a second league in the spring. If that doesn't work out, we were wondering if an adult kickball league might be possible.

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