Sunrise – As event organizers, we can’t control the weather… Although if we could control the weather, we would’ve had it EXACTLY how it turned out to be for Saturday… Cloudy with a chance of perfection (and competition)!

7:00am – The board of directors arrive… Coaches and teams started rolling in shortly after… We saw teams networking with each other, discussing strategies, and sharing tips & tricks… That’s the battle spirit (before the real battle begins ????).

8:45am – The road starts here with Obstacle Course and everyone hears instructions for the mystery event… Did the clues help? ???? Three teams “rolled” through the course like an exercise ball… Reynolds & Reynolds Army army-crawled to 1st place with an incredible performance of 2:05.65. Reynolds & Reynolds Gold took silver (2nd place) with 2:12.97, while Eastway came in 3rd at 2:18.56. Fun fact: Four teams were within one second of each other, all came in at 2:42:xx. Every milli-second counts! ????

9:45am – Wanna guess who won Wind Sprint Relay without looking at the results? Hint: Their name has “speed” in it! ???? Looking at you Speedway! You couldn’t really see them running, you just saw a cloud of dust. They took 1st place with an astonishing 52.23 (average of 13 seconds per runner per 100 yards). Reynolds & Reynolds Army took 2nd with 53.33 seconds while Eastway came in 3rd at 54.87. What’s nuts – teams that came in 4th, 5th and 6th were within 0.22 seconds of Eastway… How crazy is that?!!

10:45am – Punt, Pass & Place Kick “kicks off”. Once again, teams were able to use a “mulligan” with a $10 donation to Special Olympics. “No, sir, you can’t buy or use 12 mulligans, they are one per team”. Yes, this conversation actually happened. ???? One team literally went above and beyond, with every punt pass and place kick. This team was the only team with a total distance of over 600 feet, at 624 feet, average of 104 feet per person per punt/pass/kick. Wanna guess who? They have the word “Ball” right there in their name. ???? In 1st place, Ball Aerospace!!! Then, American Cutting Edge took 2nd place with a total distance of 599 feet (come on guys, couldn’t someone get one extra foot? ???? J/K – solid performance!), while Oerlikon came in 3rd place with 541 feet.

12:00pm – CEO Water Balloon Toss. Hopefully some of you got to laugh at your bosses while they got splashed. Although please note you are NOT allowed to take water balloons into the office on Monday and throw them at your boss (if you do, please send us a YouTube link ????). Fun event but crazy result this year, three teams tied for first place! Congrats to Aerotek, CareSource – Vitality and Mont Co Job & Family Services on their 10 points. Everyone else who participated got 5 points.

12:30pm – Soccer Dribble also “kicks off”. Aren’t we supposed to wait 30 minutes after eating lunch before playing soccer? Or is that only for swimming? Well, this team must have carb-loaded well, because they rocked it (and rolled it ????)! Once again, they have the word “ball” in their name, and now we all know why ????… Ball Aerospace smoked it in 1st place at 2:18.25. Cargill took 2nd place with 2:38.18. Speedy Speedway finished one second behind Cargill, at 2:39.75. Although these teams had an amazing display of skills, lots of cheering from these teams and others was directed towards the Special Olympics team, who also had a great display of skills. We appreciate all of you cheering for our Special Olympics friends!

1:15pm – All good things must come to an end… So we end an amazing day and incredible display of performance, skill and fun with our last event, Sack Race. Hopping up and down (with the occasional dive and roll at the finish), the following three teams hopped like the Energizer bunny! Reynolds Army came in 1st place with 48.68 seconds, Ball Aerospace took 2nd with 51.39, while Taylor Communications was only 0.08 seconds behind, in 3rd at 51.47. Way to leap into victory, guys and girls! And same here, the Special Olympics team had an excellent sack race with lots of cheering from nearly every team.

2:00pm – Events end and rain starts! ???? So how cool was it that it rained between the field day events and the after party, but not during either one? Maybe we do control the weather ????… Have an event coming up? I’ll get you good weather for a $20 donation to Special Olympics! ????

Alright, the moment you’ve all been waiting for… Overall results!!! In case you missed the party, or won the booze barrel and forget the results we announced, let’s go over them more one time…

Starting with our top story, Reynolds & Reynolds Army claims the title of 2019 grand champion with 1127 total team points. Congratulations guys! #reyreylife ????

In Division I – Reynolds & Reynolds Navy came in 1st place with 956 points. Speedway , participating in their first ever Battle, came in 2nd with 919 points and LexisNexis in 3rd with 873 points.

In Division II – Ball Aerospace won 1st place with exactly 1000 points on the dot (I would watch out for this team next year). Cargill came in 2nd with 850 points, while Coldwell Banker took 3rd with 737.

In Division III – WilmerHale was in the lead all week, but Eastway had an amazing field day and came back to win division 3 by 17 points with 914 points. Vivial – Prime came in 2nd place with 776 points, while Oerlikon took 3rd with 709 points.

Here we go, Division IV – the division that’s always the closest. ???? American Cutting Edge came in 1st place with 856 points, CAVU had 775 points, claiming 2nd place. And wait for it, Ellipse & Aerotek tied for 3rd place, but both only one tiny point behind CAVU with 774 points. BANANAS!!!

Category winners: Reynolds & Reynolds Gold claimed the winner title for Computer Companies with 924 points. Synchrony came in 1st among Financial Institutions at 821 points. Mont Co Job & Family Services won the Government category with 702 points. Premier Health Team 1 came in 1st in Healthcare with 918 points. In Manufacturing/Retail, Taylor Communications claimed the title with 950 points. Finally, WilmerHale became the winner of the Professional Services category with 897 points!

Whether it’s to keep the title they won, or get their revenge and reclaim a title they had, we know many teams are counting days until the 2020 Battle of the Businesses. As the board of directors, we are just as excited as you are, and love seeing the healthy competition between our Dayton area businesses. As you all know, there’s more to Battle of the Businesses than the competition piece. While every team demonstrated great spirit during Battle week, three companies went above and beyond, taking the Spirit Award in 2019. They are Kettering Police Department, Oerlikon and Synchrony. Technically, it was a tie between Kettering Police and Kettering Fire… But the police dept gives out speeding tickets and the fire dept does not ????.

We love supporting the Special Olympics, along with all of you. This year, we announced at the after-party, that we raised over $70,200 for the Special Olympics of Greater Dayton (then the dancing started and everything became a blur ????). With all of your fundraisers, contribution and support, we hope to raise even more next year. If you helped raise $1 for the Special Olympics this year, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. A special thank you to those companies that reached their division goal: Aerotek, American Cutting Edge, Cargill, CAVU, Ellipse, LexisNexis, Mont Co Jobs & Family, Oerlikon, Reynolds & Reynolds, Southpaw, Synchrony, Taylor Communications and Verso. We hope to see this list grow in 2020!

Alright, time to rest, catch up on one week’s worth of sleep, think of fundraising ideas, and practice for next year. Only 355 days till the 2020 Battle of the Businesses, but who’s counting, right? ????

Volleyball Final Four:

Should we tell you what happened? Or do you have the final four games on DVR? If you do, get ready to watch some of the best volleyball you’ve ever seen. It all started with two incredible semi-final matches, both as competitive as can be. On one side, American Cutting Edge took down Ball Aerospace for a trip (one court over) to the final match. While on the other side, after nearly 100 thrilling points, LexisNexis won a very intense match against Reynolds & Reynolds Army. All four teams showed us some amazing plays, but they weren’t done yet, neither was the audience.

Once again this year, we held a match to determine 3rd place. With all the cheering from their siblings Navy and Gold, Reynolds & Reynolds Army took 3rd place after winning a very close second set (25-23) against Ball Aerospace. Now let’s talk about the electrifying final match. Have you ever seen a set go all the way to 30 points? Yep, American Cutting Edge won the second set 30-28, but lost the third set 12-15. And with that, LexisNexis took the title as the 2019 Battle of the Businesses volleyball champion. Congratulations LexisNexis!!!

Overall Results (Through Today):

So once again, we tallied the overall results, and here’s where we stand… DRUM ROLL………… Reynolds & Reynolds Army is in the lead with 384 points. Ball Aerospace has 2nd place with 338 points. CareSource Vitality is only 1 single point behind, in 3rd place, with 337 points. In the battle for division championships, WilmerHale is currently leading division 3 with 320 points, while Verso is leading division 4 with 277 points. But it’s still anyone’s game!

Join us at Thomas Cloud Park on Tuesday at 6:30pm for Team Ski and Tug-of-War. Bring your family & friends to cheer you on, and don’t forget to cheer for our mutual BFFs, the Special Olympics team! ???? Now stop thinking about Battle and try to get some work done. ???? See you in a few hours!

Some see the glass half empty, some see the glass half full, very few see the same glass 100% full (50% water, 50% air) ????. The forecast for Saturday showed 90% chance of thunderstorms, which meant 10% chance of beautiful weather… And that it was! A bit warm, or perhaps the right amount of heat to fuel an exciting Battle field day.

8:00am – Teams setting up canopy tents while discussing strategies, veterans sharing tips & tricks with rookies, but our favorite part, teams networking with other teams, getting to know one other, and borrowing hula-hoops to practice “skin the snake”.

8:45am – We start calling teams for Obstacle Course. After awkwardly positioning exercise balls in places they’ve never been placed, three teams “blazed” through the entire course in under three minutes. Get the hint? Reynolds & Reynolds BLAZE came in 1st place with a blazing 2:36.53. LexisNexis took 2nd place with 2:51.00, which Montgomery Country Job & Family Services came in 3rd, less than one second behind LexisNexis, at 2:51.92.

10am – Wind Sprint Relay is next. Just like in the cartoons, some runners were so fast, you didn’t see them running, you just saw a cloud of dust. Referring to you, Reynolds & Reynolds Inferno. They took 1st place with an astonishing 48.83 (average of 12.2 seconds per runner per 100 yards). In other news, how can you win Tug-of-war and also be super-fast? I feel like it should be one or the other, not both. But somehow, superheroes Synchrony took 2nd place here with a very fast 52.27 seconds. Reynolds & Reynolds Blaze was less than one second behind at 53.26 seconds.

11am – Punt, Pass & Place Kick “kicks off”. New this year, teams were able to use a “mulligan” with a $10 donation to Special Olympics. A few teams asked if they can purchase 60 mulligans. ???? We saw these mulligans get put to good use (most of the time). One team literally went above and beyond, with every punt pass and place kick. This team was the only team with a total distance of over 600 feet, at 619 feet, average of 103 feet per person per punt/pass/kick. In 1st place, Oerlikon!!! Then, Reynolds & Reynolds Inferno took 2nd place with a total distance of 588 feet, while Aerotek came in 3rd place, one tiny foot more than WilmerHale, with a total distance of 577 feet.

12pm – CEO Water Balloon Toss. Hopefully everyone had a good time laughing at their boss while they get splashed, although I’m sure that water explosion felt really good on a warm day like Saturday. Fun aside, Oerlikon must have had a magic balloon, or magic fingers, as their balloon never popped, putting them in 1st place with 20 points. Maybe we should auction their balloon for battle bucks for next year? ???? Aerotek and Ellipse Solutions tied for 2nd place with 7.5 points. Everyone else who participated got 5 points.

12:30pm – Soccer Dribble also “kicks off”. Left, right, left again, right again, teams finding the right balance of going fast, yet not accidentally kicking the ball on the wrong side of a cone. Well, ask these three teams how they did it, because they rocked it! Reynolds Inferno came in 1st place at 2:16. Reynolds Blaze took 2nd place with 2:21. Eastway finished one second behind Reynolds Blaze, at 2:22. Although these teams had an amazing display of skills, lots of cheering from these teams and others was directed towards the Special Olympics team, who also had a great display of skills. We appreciate all of you cheering for our Special Olympics friends.

1:30pm – We figured a three-legged race would be too easy. Why would we add a leg, when we can take a leg out? Instead of a three-legged race, our last event is sack race. Hopping up and down (with the occasional dive and roll at the finish), the following three teams rocked (and rolled) it. ???? Wait for it…… It was the three Reynolds & Reynolds teams!!! Inferno in 1st place, Blaze in 2nd, and Ignite in 3rd!!! Way to leap into victory, Rey Rey!!! And same here, the Special Olympics team had an excellent sack race with lots of cheering from nearly every team.

Okay, show of hands, anyone else took a 20-minute power nap between field day and the awards party? How about an hour rubbing aloe on sun burns? Hey, be proud of those tan lines, they are your battle scars!

Alright, the moment you’ve all been waiting for… Overall results!!! In case you missed the party, or all the dancing made you forget the results we announced, let’s go over them more one time… Starting with our top story, Reynolds & Reynolds Inferno claims the title of 2018 grand champion, AND breaks the Battle record for with 1167 total team points, the most ever scored in Battle. Congratulations guys!

In division 1, Reynolds & Reynolds Blaze came in 1st place with 1054 points. Premier Health Blue came in 2nd with 920 points and LexisNexis in 3rd with 897 points.

In division 2, wait for it, Montgomery County Job & Family Services won 1st place, by one tiny little single point, with 875 points. Taylor Communications had 874 points (they won the Manufacturing/Retail category, see below). Cargill came in 2nd place in division 2 with 858 points, while Coldwell Banker took 3rd with 631. If you think one point was the closest battle we had this year, keep reading… ????

In division 3, Eastway had an amazing year, and was finally able to claim the division 3 championship title from WilmerHale, who has kept that title for 3 years (2015, 2016 & 2017). Eastway also took 3rd place overall, with 961 points. Way to go Eastway! Oerlikon came in 2nd place with 721 points, while Winsupply took 3rd with 623 points.

Here we go, division 4, the division that had board members rubbing their eyes, double and triple checking results over and over. The winner of this division claimed the title of division champion by HALF A POINT. That’s right, half! Aerotek came in 1st place with 833.5 points, while ATI & Microtek had 833 points, claiming 2nd place. American Cutting Edge took 3rd place with 811 points.

Category winners: Reynolds & Reynolds Ignite claimed the winner title for Computer Companies with 922 points. Synchrony came in 1st among Financial Institutions at 809 points. Kettering Police won the Government category with 714 points. CareSource came in 1st in Healthcare with 943 points. In Manufacturing/Retail, Taylor Communications claimed the title with 874 points. Finally, WilmerHale became the winner of the Professional Services category with 884 points. Will WilmerHale reclaim the division 3 title from Eastway next year? There’s one way to find out… Wait till 2019 or build a time-machine! ????

Rookie awards: Among new businesses that joined us for the first time in 2018, Clark Schaefer Hackett took 1st place with 796 points. Kettering Fire Department came in 2nd with 642 points. Greater Dayton Premier Management came in 3rd with 578 points. We loved having you guys and all new companies. We hope all of you will invite your friends at other Dayton-area businesses to consider joining us in supporting the Special Olympics in 2019.

Whether it’s to keep the title they won, or get their revenge and reclaim a title they had, we know many teams are counting days until the 2019 Battle of the Businesses. As the board of directors, we are just as excited as you are, and love seeing the healthy competition between our Dayton area businesses. As you all know, there’s more to Battle of the Businesses than the competition piece. While every team demonstrated great spirit during Battle week, three companies went above and beyond, taking the Spirit Award in 2018. They are Synchrony, Aerotek and Reynolds.

We love supporting the Special Olympics, along with all of you. This year, we announced at the after-party, that we raised over $68,000 for the Special Olympics of Greater Dayton (then the dancing started). With all of your fundraisers, contribution and support, we hope to raise even more next year. If you helped raise $1 for the Special Olympics this year, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. A special thank you to those companies that reached their division goal: Aerotek, American Cutting Edge, ATI & Microtek, Cargill, Oerlikon, Reynolds & Reynolds, Sogeti, Synchrony, Taylor Communications and Verso. We hope to see this list grow in 2019!

Alright, time to rest, catch up one week’s worth of sleep, think of fundraising ideas, and practice for next year. Only 355 days till the 2019 Battle of the Businesses, but who’s counting, right? ???? Well, it took me half a day to write this email, and it probably took you half a day to read it, so 354 days left now! ????

-Recap by Peter Qumsiyeh

Battle Teams:
If you missed the final four matches last night, you may want to build yourself a time-machine, go back in time, and watch some of the best volleyball you’ve ever seen.

It all started with two incredible semi-final matches, both as competitive and intense as can be. On one side of the UD RecPlex, Vivial – Team 1 took down Premier Health – Blue for a trip to the final match (a trip to the other side of the RecPlex ????). While on the other side, after nearly 100 thrilling points, Sogeti won a very intense match against Reynolds & Reynolds – Inferno. All four teams showed us some amazing plays, but they weren’t done yet, neither was the audience.

New this year, we held a match to determine 3rd place. With all the cheering from their siblings Blaze & Ignite, Reynolds & Reynolds – Inferno took 3rd place after winning a very close second set (26-24) against Premier Health – Blue. And finally, after another electrifying match, Sogeti took the title as the 2018 Battle of the Businesses volleyball champion, after getting their revenge from Vivial – Team 1 (Vivial – Team 1 actually beat Sogeti when they played during pool play on Saturday). What a battle, what an adventure!

With that, we tallied the overall results, and here’s where we stand… DRUM ROLL………… Reynolds & Reynolds – Inferno is in the lead with 392 points. Their slightly younger twin Reynolds & Reynolds – Blaze has 2nd place with 354 points. Premier Health – Blue is only 6 points behind with 348 points.

In the battle for the division 2 championship, Cargill and Taylor Communications are tied for 1st place with 303 points each. For the title of division 3 champion, Eastway is leading the defending division 3 champ WilmerHale by a mere 13 points. For division 4, Aerotek is currently leading at 302 points, only 12 points over American Cutting Edge. But it’s still anyone’s game!

As you can see, the competition is getting fierce. Join us at Thomas Cloud Park Tonight at 6:30pm for Team Ski and Tug-of-War. Bring your family & friends to cheer you on and don’t forget to cheer for our mutual BFFs, the Special Olympics team! ???? See you tonight!

-Recap by Peter Qumsiyeh

Battle Teams:

Volleyball:
It’s the mostttt, wonderful tiiiiime, of the yeeeeear… Nope, not Christmas, Battle week!!! And volleyball is always a great way to kick things off. Competition was so intense on Saturday, and some teams were so evenly matched, that we had to dig into the rule-book to resolve 3-way ties, including ties in wins, losses AND total point differential… What are the odds!

At the end of the day, this was a year of surprises, because three of the final four teams are different in 2018 vs. 2017. Sogeti surprised everyone this year with an awesome team, taking the first final four spot. Vivial was another surprise this year, barely edging out Reynolds & Reynolds Blaze for a spot in the final four. Reynolds & Reynolds Inferno had both siblings, Blaze and Ignite, cheering them on as they took the third final four spot. Finally, after Taylor Communications won a very close game against WinSupply, they fell just short in their next game, giving the last final four spot to Premier Health Blue. What a battle!!!

Join us at UD RecPlex on Monday, June 4 at 6pm to cheer on the final four, and find out who will be the 2018 volleyball champion. Sogeti will play Reynolds & Reynolds Inferno while Vivial will take on Premier Health Blue. New this year, we will have a match to determine 3rd vs. 4th place. No need to cut your fingernails, because we expect every game on Monday to be a nail-biter! ????

Miniature Golf:
Even though the initial forecast for Sunday morning showed a chance of thunderstorms, the only thunder we heard came from the echo of all the holes-in-one. Competition was fierce, yet members from four different teams played together on each hole as if they were one team. That’s our favorite part about battle!!!

And while we were all distracted with team spirit, good sportsmanship and all the colorful shirts and golf balls, BOOM, these three teams snuck in and claimed the top three spots: Reynolds & Reynolds Inferno came in 1st place with an amazing 169 combined score. Their twin Reynolds & Reynolds Blaze took 2nd with 176 and (no, not the third Reynolds team), Aerotek came in 3rd with a team score of 177 (yep, only one tiny point difference).

Swimming & Inner Tube Relays:
After a cup of coffee on Sunday afternoon (or 17 cups of coffee, depending on how much sleep you had between volleyball and mini golf ????), Battle of the Businesses continued with Swimming and Inner Tube. Our favorite part of the evening was seeing all the battle teams, put their intense competition aside for a minute, to loudly cheer for their new best friends, the Special Olympics team. After that minute was over, the battle continued.

Reynolds & Reynolds Inferno was certainly on fire, claiming 1st place in both swimming and inner tube, with a flaming fast 1:16.51 swim (six seconds from the 1:10.47 record set by Wright State in 2003) and 2:13.57 inner tube (only three seconds from the 2:10.53 record, set by Reynolds themselves in 2011). Then, you know how they say “every second counts”? Well, in this case, every 0.01 second counts… LexisNexis swam their way into 2nd place at 1:27.25, while Premier Health Blue took third with a time of 1:27.28… A difference of 0.03 seconds!!! Kettering Health Network – A came in 2nd place in inner tube at 2:19.19, while Reynolds & Reynolds Ignite was not far behind, taking 3rd place with a total time of 2:26.29.

With that, we end a wonderful and eventful Battle weekend. If you think the fun is over, think again, the forecast is heating up, and so is the competition. The Battle is always more intense when we start seeing scores. Come join us and cheer on your favorite team, (or cheer for all of them so you can’t lose!!!). Either way, see you then! ????

-Recap by Peter Qumsiyeh

Start dusting off your cleats because the Dayton Battle of the Businesses returns Saturday June 2, 2018 to Saturday June 9, 2018. Sign-up information will be out soon.

2017 was one of our best Battle’s yet! No matter where your team placed in each event, every team won first place in our Special Olympians’ hearts, by raising $86,059 for Special Olympics of Greater Dayton.

That is a life-changing amount that every participant contributed to. Our Olympians thank you, our Battle board of directors and executive staff thank you. Thank you!

A bit on the warm side, but with no 90s and no rain, it was a beautiful & sunny field day on Saturday. After a spectacular show of events from all teams and all participants, here are the results:

• Grand Champion: Reynolds & Reynolds Nitro, working on a new streak, held onto the top spot and took the Grand Champion trophy for the second year in a row.

• Division 1: Reynolds & Reynolds Diesel and LexisNexis were following close behind the Grand Champions as Reynolds & Reynolds Diesel captured the Division 1 trophy.

• Division 2: Coldwell Banker Heritage took the Division 2 title from Cargill by only 10 points.

• Division 3: WilmerHale, for the third consecutive year, raised the Division 3 trophy.

• Division 4: This division came down to the wire with Marsh & McLennan Agency taking the prize by a mere 9 points over Aerotek.

As promised, it was a fun and competitive Battle in all divisions and categories.

Thank You to all of our Major & Minor Sponsors, Coaches and Battle Teams, Battle Board Members, Executive Staff and Volunteers,. Without all of these great people, Battle of the Businesses would not be possible!

354 days until the 2018 Battle, but who’s counting? See you then!

2017 Battle Results
2017 Battle Photos