Signs of Progress
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/aznightbuzz/200715
Not a great article, but a damn good start. Photos and media accompany this one. Also, if you look hard enough (on the video portion) you see the Octocorp logo. Interesting.
"Published: 09.13.2007
Playing like kids again
Tucson adults are rediscovering the joys of playground games kickball, dodgeball
By Coley Ward
CWARD@AZSTARNET.COM
How to join
WAKA
The World Adult Kickball Association plays its games on Wednesday evenings at Menlo Park, which is on North Grande Avenue near West St. Mary's Road.
To sign up, visit www.kickball.com.
Dodgeball at the YMCA
Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. Free for YMCA members. $2 for everyone else. 60 W. Alameda St. 623-5200.
Dodgeball at Himmel Park
Wednesdays at 7 p.m. Free. Himmel Park tennis courts, at Tucson Blvd. and Speedway.
COED Naked Dodgeball Tournament
Bladeworld, 1065 W. Grant Road. Sunday, Sept. 23, from 3 to 8 p.m. Register a team at www.blade world.com. $120 registration fee. Minimum six players per team (and yes, you keep your clothes on).
Wiffle Ball
George Hakim, a local elementary English teacher, wants to start a wiffle ball league. E-mail him at gm.hakim@gmail.com.
The Rules
• Kickball - It's just like baseball, but instead of hitting the ball with a bat, you kick it, and you can hit the runners with the ball to get them out.
• Dodgeball - Two teams, one on either side of the court. Try to hit the opposing players with one of the four balls. If you're hit, you're out. Catch a toss in midair and the thrower is out. First team to eliminate all of the other team's players wins.
• Wiffle Ball - No base-running. The field is divided into zones: singles zone, doubles zone, triples zone and home run zone. Ghost runners are used as place-holders. Each team gets three outs per inning. Three strikes and you're out. Balls caught in the air are an out. Balls fielded cleanly and thrown to the pitcher are an out.
Equipment
• Kickball - WAKA provides T-shirts, bases, plastic cones and a ball. Bring your own sneakers (or soccer cleats) and beer.
• Dodgeball - Wear sneakers. Knee pads are also a good idea. Balls available at the YMCA.
• Wiffle Ball - Plastic bat and at least three slotted plastic balls (you don't want to be chasing wild pitches all day). A folding chair or some other device to serve as a backdro
strike zone. Don't forget sunscreen, a hat and shades.
Numbers
• Kickball - WAKA rules require teams to field at least eight players and no more than 11.
• Dodgeball - Six vs. six. In formal competition, each team can have up to four substitutes.
• Wiffle Ball - Minimum two vs. two. Maximum five vs. five.
It's 7:30 on a Wednesday night and 20 or so grown men and women are racing around Menlo Park on the West Side, kicking a red rubber ball. Sliding in the grass. Tripping over their feet. Carrying (and spilling) their beer on their way around the bases.
Kickball has come to Tucson.
Meanwhile, Downtown, another group of adults has gathered at the YMCA for an evening of pickup dodgeball. They are frantically diving to avoid enemy fire, leaving streaks of sweat on the gym floor.
Wherever you look in Tucson, adults are playing kids' games. Sports that were once relegated to recess are now vehicles for exercising, flirting and reliving gym-class glory.
Adam Forsythe is a kickball convert. By day, he's a server and pizza maker at Old Chicago, a restaurant and bar on North Campbell Avenue. But on Wednesday nights he puts on his team T-shirt, pulls his socks up high and puts a 12-pack of beer on ice (enough to share).
Last season, Forsythe's team, the Brew Crew, won the league championship. That qualified the team for a national tournament in Boston, but, unfortunately, not enough players could take time off from work. The next national tournament will be held closer to Tucson - in Las Vegas. And Forsythe said his team is already making plans to attend.
"We're looking at flights right now," Forsythe said. "We will definitely be going to Vegas next year."
Steven Damon, a manager at the Lohse Family YMCA, also has his sights set on Las Vegas. That's where the Dodgeball World Championship is held. Damon started playing dodgeball with his friends 3 1/2 years ago. Today, he and about 40 locals play in pickup games at the Downtown Y on Wednesday evenings. A club team he's assembled, Team Evil, plays in tournaments around the Southwest.
"It started with five or six friends," Damon said. "We were hanging out and somebody threw out the idea to play medic (a type of dodgeball). We went to Wal-Mart and got some balls and before we knew it we were playing for five or six hours. We started at 8 p.m. and didn't stop until almost 2 a.m."
National phenomenon
Adults playing kids' games? The whole thing would seem ridiculous if it weren't so widespread. But there are leagues in cities across the country for every playground sport you can imagine. Kickball. Dodgeball. Wiffle ball. Rock, paper, scissors. Even staring contests!
Some of these leagues can be big business. The kickball game going on in Menlo Park is sanctioned by the World Adult Kickball Association, which has 200 divisions in 27 states. WAKA doesn't release information about company profits, but there are 12-26 players per team, more than 2,000 teams, and each player pays $65 a season. You do the math.
WAKA spokeswoman Tiffany Ficklin said the company, started 10 years ago by two guys who just wanted to do something silly, is going strong.
"Currently, we have about 20 full-time employees," Ficklin said. "And in every city we have a part-time regional representative - about 50 total."
Christopher Noxon, who met his wife while playing kickball, has written a book about adults' obsession with indulging their inner children, titled "Rejuvenile" (Three Rivers Press, $13.95). He said that "kickball is the biggest of the playground sports" because it is the most accessible.
"You don't have to be particularly athletic to play," Noxon said. "You can be old, slow or clumsy and still have a good time. You can also be drunk. That big, red playground ball acts as a great equalizer."
While WAKA is, according to Noxon, the largest and most successful of the playground sports leagues, it's got competition. There's the National Association of Staredown Professionals, a semipro league devoted to the staring contest.
There's the National Dodgeball League, which has both amateur and pro teams. And there are two rock, paper, scissors leagues - one in the United States and one in Canada. Not to mention the various wiffle ball leagues scattered across the country.
Play for romance
WAKA estimates that 51 percent of its players are female and 49 percent are male. The league bills itself as a "fresh-air alternative to Match.com."
Locally, that hasn't proved to be the case. So far, there are no reported couplings in the Tucson WAKA league. But that seems destined to change, considering the league's growing popularity. Kickball players meet up for postgame beverages at The Hut, a North Fourth Avenue bar, where they are eligible for drink specials ($2.50 pints of any microbrew).
There's no drinking at dodgeball (the YMCA won't allow it and the majority of league players don't seem too interested anyway). But there has been more frequent romancing on the hardwoods at the Y. There are at least three kickball couples.
Play for exercise
WAKA claims that kickball is good exercise, despite the fact that players spend most of the game standing around.
According to the league, "during a typical 50-minute kickball game, the average 220-pound guy will burn 582 calories, and a 135-pound girl will burn 357 calories." That may be true, but consider this: There are 110 calories in a 12-ounce can of Bud Light. So if that 220-pound guy drinks three beers, he's only burning 252 calories. And that's not taking into account postgame beers consumed at The Hut.
So kickball is really only a "calorie-torching weekly workout" if you refrain from drinking. And how many players are doing that?
Dodgeball, on the other hand, is constant movement in an alcohol-free environment.
You will get sweaty.
And bruised.
And maybe a little slimmer.
Kickball and me: representin' crunkball
Christopher Noxon, author of "Rejuvenile," said adults play kickball for two reasons: either they love the game, or they enjoy being ironic. I have little doubt that when my friends and I started playing kickball we fell into the latter group. But it wasn't long before it stopped being funny and started being fun.
I recently moved to Tucson from Atlanta, where my regular game was less structured than what WAKA offers.
During games we drank beer. We were fortunate to have two players who worked for beer distributors, so the beer was free and often high gravity. (Years from now, I'm sure I'll look back at my association with these well-connected friends as a stroke of great fortune.)
Some players took the game more seriously than others. "Intense" Chris didn't stumble upon his nickname by accident. He would often coach players on the proper way to kick the ball, or call his teammates over for a mid-inning strategizing session.
Jodie, who worked in a furniture store, would spend hours a day coming up with models for what players should do in different situations, like whether or not to advance from second base to third on a pop-up to left field. Gavin, who worked in a women's clothing store, mostly worried about what trendy athletic apparel to wear.
In July 2006, we were invited to play in a tournament in Brooklyn, N.Y. Other teams from leagues in Providence, R.I., Washington, D.C., and Toronto were playing in the tournament. Feeling compelled to represent the South, we accepted. We called our team the Dirty South Crunkball All-Stars, a tribute to Atlanta's hip-hop legacy.
After a laugher against the Toronto team and a few tough games against D.C. and Brooklyn, we advanced to the finals, where we were defeated (rather soundly) by another team from Brooklyn. The loss was humbling, but the postgame beer was soothing. More important, we had accomplished our mission. The North now knew the truth: the Dirty South Crunkball All-Stars could play.
Now that I'm in Tucson, I miss the Crunkball All-Stars. But I'm not about to stop playing kickball. I've signed up for WAKA and I'm looking forward to my team's first game. And I've got some bad news for Adam Forsythe: His team may have won last season, but this year there's a new kid (at heart) in Tucson. And he plays crunkball.
How to join
WAKA
The World Adult Kickball Association plays its games on Wednesday evenings at Menlo Park, which is on North Grande Avenue near West St. Mary's Road.
To sign up, visit www.kickball.com.
Dodgeball at the YMCA
Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. Free for YMCA members. $2 for everyone else. 60 W. Alameda St. 623-5200.
Dodgeball at Himmel Park
Wednesdays at 7 p.m. Free. Himmel Park tennis courts, at Tucson Blvd. and Speedway.
COED Naked Dodgeball Tournament
Bladeworld, 1065 W. Grant Road. Sunday, Sept. 23, from 3 to 8 p.m. Register a team at www.blade world.com. $120 registration fee. Minimum six players per team (and yes, you keep your clothes on).
Wiffle Ball
George Hakim, a local elementary English teacher, wants to start a wiffle ball league. E-mail him at gm.hakim@gmail.com.
The Rules
• Kickball - It's just like baseball, but instead of hitting the ball with a bat, you kick it, and you can hit the runners with the ball to get them out.
• Dodgeball - Two teams, one on either side of the court. Try to hit the opposing players with one of the four balls. If you're hit, you're out. Catch a toss in midair and the thrower is out. First team to eliminate all of the other team's players wins.
• Wiffle Ball - No base-running. The field is divided into zones: singles zone, doubles zone, triples zone and home run zone. Ghost runners are used as place-holders. Each team gets three outs per inning. Three strikes and you're out. Balls caught in the air are an out. Balls fielded cleanly and thrown to the pitcher are an out.
Equipment
• Kickball - WAKA provides T-shirts, bases, plastic cones and a ball. Bring your own sneakers (or soccer cleats) and beer.
• Dodgeball - Wear sneakers. Knee pads are also a good idea. Balls available at the YMCA.
• Wiffle Ball - Plastic bat and at least three slotted plastic balls (you don't want to be chasing wild pitches all day). A folding chair or some other device to serve as a backdro
strike zone. Don't forget sunscreen, a hat and shades.
Numbers
• Kickball - WAKA rules require teams to field at least eight players and no more than 11.
• Dodgeball - Six vs. six. In formal competition, each team can have up to four substitutes.
• Wiffle Ball - Minimum two vs. two. Maximum five vs. five.
All content copyright © 1999-2007 AzStarNet, Arizona Daily Star and its wire services and suppliers and may not be republished without permission. All rights reserved. Any copying, redistribution, or retransmission of any of the contents of this service without the expressed written consent of Arizona Daily Star or AzStarNet is prohibited."
Not a great article, but a damn good start. Photos and media accompany this one. Also, if you look hard enough (on the video portion) you see the Octocorp logo. Interesting.
"Published: 09.13.2007
Playing like kids again
Tucson adults are rediscovering the joys of playground games kickball, dodgeball
By Coley Ward
CWARD@AZSTARNET.COM
How to join
WAKA
The World Adult Kickball Association plays its games on Wednesday evenings at Menlo Park, which is on North Grande Avenue near West St. Mary's Road.
To sign up, visit www.kickball.com.
Dodgeball at the YMCA
Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. Free for YMCA members. $2 for everyone else. 60 W. Alameda St. 623-5200.
Dodgeball at Himmel Park
Wednesdays at 7 p.m. Free. Himmel Park tennis courts, at Tucson Blvd. and Speedway.
COED Naked Dodgeball Tournament
Bladeworld, 1065 W. Grant Road. Sunday, Sept. 23, from 3 to 8 p.m. Register a team at www.blade world.com. $120 registration fee. Minimum six players per team (and yes, you keep your clothes on).
Wiffle Ball
George Hakim, a local elementary English teacher, wants to start a wiffle ball league. E-mail him at gm.hakim@gmail.com.
The Rules
• Kickball - It's just like baseball, but instead of hitting the ball with a bat, you kick it, and you can hit the runners with the ball to get them out.
• Dodgeball - Two teams, one on either side of the court. Try to hit the opposing players with one of the four balls. If you're hit, you're out. Catch a toss in midair and the thrower is out. First team to eliminate all of the other team's players wins.
• Wiffle Ball - No base-running. The field is divided into zones: singles zone, doubles zone, triples zone and home run zone. Ghost runners are used as place-holders. Each team gets three outs per inning. Three strikes and you're out. Balls caught in the air are an out. Balls fielded cleanly and thrown to the pitcher are an out.
Equipment
• Kickball - WAKA provides T-shirts, bases, plastic cones and a ball. Bring your own sneakers (or soccer cleats) and beer.
• Dodgeball - Wear sneakers. Knee pads are also a good idea. Balls available at the YMCA.
• Wiffle Ball - Plastic bat and at least three slotted plastic balls (you don't want to be chasing wild pitches all day). A folding chair or some other device to serve as a backdro
strike zone. Don't forget sunscreen, a hat and shades.
Numbers
• Kickball - WAKA rules require teams to field at least eight players and no more than 11.
• Dodgeball - Six vs. six. In formal competition, each team can have up to four substitutes.
• Wiffle Ball - Minimum two vs. two. Maximum five vs. five.
It's 7:30 on a Wednesday night and 20 or so grown men and women are racing around Menlo Park on the West Side, kicking a red rubber ball. Sliding in the grass. Tripping over their feet. Carrying (and spilling) their beer on their way around the bases.
Kickball has come to Tucson.
Meanwhile, Downtown, another group of adults has gathered at the YMCA for an evening of pickup dodgeball. They are frantically diving to avoid enemy fire, leaving streaks of sweat on the gym floor.
Wherever you look in Tucson, adults are playing kids' games. Sports that were once relegated to recess are now vehicles for exercising, flirting and reliving gym-class glory.
Adam Forsythe is a kickball convert. By day, he's a server and pizza maker at Old Chicago, a restaurant and bar on North Campbell Avenue. But on Wednesday nights he puts on his team T-shirt, pulls his socks up high and puts a 12-pack of beer on ice (enough to share).
Last season, Forsythe's team, the Brew Crew, won the league championship. That qualified the team for a national tournament in Boston, but, unfortunately, not enough players could take time off from work. The next national tournament will be held closer to Tucson - in Las Vegas. And Forsythe said his team is already making plans to attend.
"We're looking at flights right now," Forsythe said. "We will definitely be going to Vegas next year."
Steven Damon, a manager at the Lohse Family YMCA, also has his sights set on Las Vegas. That's where the Dodgeball World Championship is held. Damon started playing dodgeball with his friends 3 1/2 years ago. Today, he and about 40 locals play in pickup games at the Downtown Y on Wednesday evenings. A club team he's assembled, Team Evil, plays in tournaments around the Southwest.
"It started with five or six friends," Damon said. "We were hanging out and somebody threw out the idea to play medic (a type of dodgeball). We went to Wal-Mart and got some balls and before we knew it we were playing for five or six hours. We started at 8 p.m. and didn't stop until almost 2 a.m."
National phenomenon
Adults playing kids' games? The whole thing would seem ridiculous if it weren't so widespread. But there are leagues in cities across the country for every playground sport you can imagine. Kickball. Dodgeball. Wiffle ball. Rock, paper, scissors. Even staring contests!
Some of these leagues can be big business. The kickball game going on in Menlo Park is sanctioned by the World Adult Kickball Association, which has 200 divisions in 27 states. WAKA doesn't release information about company profits, but there are 12-26 players per team, more than 2,000 teams, and each player pays $65 a season. You do the math.
WAKA spokeswoman Tiffany Ficklin said the company, started 10 years ago by two guys who just wanted to do something silly, is going strong.
"Currently, we have about 20 full-time employees," Ficklin said. "And in every city we have a part-time regional representative - about 50 total."
Christopher Noxon, who met his wife while playing kickball, has written a book about adults' obsession with indulging their inner children, titled "Rejuvenile" (Three Rivers Press, $13.95). He said that "kickball is the biggest of the playground sports" because it is the most accessible.
"You don't have to be particularly athletic to play," Noxon said. "You can be old, slow or clumsy and still have a good time. You can also be drunk. That big, red playground ball acts as a great equalizer."
While WAKA is, according to Noxon, the largest and most successful of the playground sports leagues, it's got competition. There's the National Association of Staredown Professionals, a semipro league devoted to the staring contest.
There's the National Dodgeball League, which has both amateur and pro teams. And there are two rock, paper, scissors leagues - one in the United States and one in Canada. Not to mention the various wiffle ball leagues scattered across the country.
Play for romance
WAKA estimates that 51 percent of its players are female and 49 percent are male. The league bills itself as a "fresh-air alternative to Match.com."
Locally, that hasn't proved to be the case. So far, there are no reported couplings in the Tucson WAKA league. But that seems destined to change, considering the league's growing popularity. Kickball players meet up for postgame beverages at The Hut, a North Fourth Avenue bar, where they are eligible for drink specials ($2.50 pints of any microbrew).
There's no drinking at dodgeball (the YMCA won't allow it and the majority of league players don't seem too interested anyway). But there has been more frequent romancing on the hardwoods at the Y. There are at least three kickball couples.
Play for exercise
WAKA claims that kickball is good exercise, despite the fact that players spend most of the game standing around.
According to the league, "during a typical 50-minute kickball game, the average 220-pound guy will burn 582 calories, and a 135-pound girl will burn 357 calories." That may be true, but consider this: There are 110 calories in a 12-ounce can of Bud Light. So if that 220-pound guy drinks three beers, he's only burning 252 calories. And that's not taking into account postgame beers consumed at The Hut.
So kickball is really only a "calorie-torching weekly workout" if you refrain from drinking. And how many players are doing that?
Dodgeball, on the other hand, is constant movement in an alcohol-free environment.
You will get sweaty.
And bruised.
And maybe a little slimmer.
Kickball and me: representin' crunkball
Christopher Noxon, author of "Rejuvenile," said adults play kickball for two reasons: either they love the game, or they enjoy being ironic. I have little doubt that when my friends and I started playing kickball we fell into the latter group. But it wasn't long before it stopped being funny and started being fun.
I recently moved to Tucson from Atlanta, where my regular game was less structured than what WAKA offers.
During games we drank beer. We were fortunate to have two players who worked for beer distributors, so the beer was free and often high gravity. (Years from now, I'm sure I'll look back at my association with these well-connected friends as a stroke of great fortune.)
Some players took the game more seriously than others. "Intense" Chris didn't stumble upon his nickname by accident. He would often coach players on the proper way to kick the ball, or call his teammates over for a mid-inning strategizing session.
Jodie, who worked in a furniture store, would spend hours a day coming up with models for what players should do in different situations, like whether or not to advance from second base to third on a pop-up to left field. Gavin, who worked in a women's clothing store, mostly worried about what trendy athletic apparel to wear.
In July 2006, we were invited to play in a tournament in Brooklyn, N.Y. Other teams from leagues in Providence, R.I., Washington, D.C., and Toronto were playing in the tournament. Feeling compelled to represent the South, we accepted. We called our team the Dirty South Crunkball All-Stars, a tribute to Atlanta's hip-hop legacy.
After a laugher against the Toronto team and a few tough games against D.C. and Brooklyn, we advanced to the finals, where we were defeated (rather soundly) by another team from Brooklyn. The loss was humbling, but the postgame beer was soothing. More important, we had accomplished our mission. The North now knew the truth: the Dirty South Crunkball All-Stars could play.
Now that I'm in Tucson, I miss the Crunkball All-Stars. But I'm not about to stop playing kickball. I've signed up for WAKA and I'm looking forward to my team's first game. And I've got some bad news for Adam Forsythe: His team may have won last season, but this year there's a new kid (at heart) in Tucson. And he plays crunkball.
How to join
WAKA
The World Adult Kickball Association plays its games on Wednesday evenings at Menlo Park, which is on North Grande Avenue near West St. Mary's Road.
To sign up, visit www.kickball.com.
Dodgeball at the YMCA
Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. Free for YMCA members. $2 for everyone else. 60 W. Alameda St. 623-5200.
Dodgeball at Himmel Park
Wednesdays at 7 p.m. Free. Himmel Park tennis courts, at Tucson Blvd. and Speedway.
COED Naked Dodgeball Tournament
Bladeworld, 1065 W. Grant Road. Sunday, Sept. 23, from 3 to 8 p.m. Register a team at www.blade world.com. $120 registration fee. Minimum six players per team (and yes, you keep your clothes on).
Wiffle Ball
George Hakim, a local elementary English teacher, wants to start a wiffle ball league. E-mail him at gm.hakim@gmail.com.
The Rules
• Kickball - It's just like baseball, but instead of hitting the ball with a bat, you kick it, and you can hit the runners with the ball to get them out.
• Dodgeball - Two teams, one on either side of the court. Try to hit the opposing players with one of the four balls. If you're hit, you're out. Catch a toss in midair and the thrower is out. First team to eliminate all of the other team's players wins.
• Wiffle Ball - No base-running. The field is divided into zones: singles zone, doubles zone, triples zone and home run zone. Ghost runners are used as place-holders. Each team gets three outs per inning. Three strikes and you're out. Balls caught in the air are an out. Balls fielded cleanly and thrown to the pitcher are an out.
Equipment
• Kickball - WAKA provides T-shirts, bases, plastic cones and a ball. Bring your own sneakers (or soccer cleats) and beer.
• Dodgeball - Wear sneakers. Knee pads are also a good idea. Balls available at the YMCA.
• Wiffle Ball - Plastic bat and at least three slotted plastic balls (you don't want to be chasing wild pitches all day). A folding chair or some other device to serve as a backdro
strike zone. Don't forget sunscreen, a hat and shades.
Numbers
• Kickball - WAKA rules require teams to field at least eight players and no more than 11.
• Dodgeball - Six vs. six. In formal competition, each team can have up to four substitutes.
• Wiffle Ball - Minimum two vs. two. Maximum five vs. five.
All content copyright © 1999-2007 AzStarNet, Arizona Daily Star and its wire services and suppliers and may not be republished without permission. All rights reserved. Any copying, redistribution, or retransmission of any of the contents of this service without the expressed written consent of Arizona Daily Star or AzStarNet is prohibited."