Spikeball: The Rise and Fall
Rainer Arendt (10-1) & Leonard Vekker (10-4)
Photo courtesy of Leonard Vekker (10-4)
During the end of the year picnic in the spring last school year, the game quickly caught people’s attention, and the seed of the spikeball club was planted. Nate Kassahun (10-2), Ezra Beidler-Shenk (10-1), Rory Gonzalez (10-2), and Jocelyn Goldstein (10-2) unofficially founded the club early in September of this year, but there was never a teacher sponsor. The “club” met every day during lunch on the roof. Spikeball was a huge hit among sophomores, with almost everyone in the grade teaming up to play the high intensity game. People were passionate about bringing this up-and-coming sport to Masterman, and it quickly created a devout community.
For many, this sport seems very niche, and for someone who hasn’t played, the rules can be a bit confusing. There are four main rules to understand: the game is played with two teams of two who stand around the spikeball net; players have three alternating touches to get a shot on the net off; players can move in any direction to try to get their best angles to hit a shot off the net that isn't returned; and an unreturned ball is how a team scores, but a team can also gain a point if the opposing team hits the rim, the ground, or hits the ball to bounce more than once on the net. The rules are much more intuitive when in-game, whose fast pace is what attracts players. A high-level game will have speeding serves, behind-the-back hits, and layout dives.
With such a dedicated fan base, the spikeballers did everything they could to keep playing. Nets and balls were stored in the dean’s office so that the equipment was always at school. If it was raining, they simply would move to the basement. At the time, it seemed like nothing could stop the rise of spikeball. In fact, during one guidance period, 10th graders gathered in the third floor hallway to play. But with spikeball being played every day of every week, one can easily imagine how the players could burn out. The game that once captivated the whole of 10th grade began to slip in popularity.
There were a few major issues that caused the sudden disappearance of spikeball: the biggest one being the lack of growth to different grades. Spikeball is a sophomore dominated sport with only a few seniors participating, thus, it couldn’t keep growing to new people. Once the sophomores started to get bored and stopped playing, there was no one else to keep the club alive.
Space was also an issue as the weather started to get colder, and with more rain, the options for a playing field started to shrink. Students wanted to play inside, but it would only be a matter of time before teachers started complaining.
Because spikeball is essentially a community run sport, it was difficult for concrete schedules to be put in place, causing turmoil within the club as to who was the leader, and where and when it should be played. As Ezra Beidler-Shenk (10-1) said: “It’s sad, it kind of just died for reasons out of our control.” Spikeball came to an unfortunate end; however, there are plans to bring it back during the spring and summer. Nate Kassahun (10-2) states: “There is a lot of hope to bring things back. We are trying to make spikeball as big as basketball at Masterman. It has that potential; we just need to figure out [the] logistics.” It is clear that spikeball could have a bright future at Masterman, but will it be able to become relevant again in the spring, or will the winter cold snuff spikeball out?