Laughter bubbles through the air as a group of students play Spikeball in the quad.
A person watches and wants to join in.
Luckily, Spikeball sign-ups are a thing of the past! Instead of it being tournament style, this week there was Spikeball in the quad just for any student who saw it and wanted to play.
“We found that the success rate of the tournament was not always determined by the people who signed but by the people who signed up and wanted to play,” said Kyle Dimick, ASB member and one of the organizers. “So now we have the Spikeball in the quad just to let anyone who wants to play participate.”
There were fewer people who played the open spikeball in the quad, but that was to be expected given the free-flowing nature of the activity. Those who did play still enjoyed themselves because it is a fun game and they weren’t restricted by sign-ups.
“It’s nice and uncomplicated to be able to just show up and have some fun for a little bit with friends,” William Castro-Ramirez, a junior, said.
Even though having no sign-ups this year was a new idea, the low participation was predicted by those who came up with the idea because just having Spikeball there means that no one is obligated to play it, so many don’t.
“We thought that signing up means that you’re forced to do it,” Dimick said. “That’s not really all that fun, but when you have the Spikeball here, anyone can choose to do it whenever they want.”
The spectators who sit in the quad at lunch were able to watch the fun and exciting games of Spikeball throughout the week, even if some were a bit confused about the rules of the game.
“While I watched, I was kinda confused on how many times you could touch the ball, but I eventually understood the gist of the game,” Ava Brukner-Kockel, a sophomore, said.“I thought it looked pretty fun. I would join if I could play with a group of friends I knew well because it looks kind of intimidating just to randomly join in.”
Spikeball in the quad had been an event for the past two years and will continue to be an event in coming years to just let students let loose and have a bit of fun.
Dimick said, “Spikeball definitely isn’t a normal game but it’s a game that I found people have a lot of fun playing together.”
