Kickball’s Back!
Kickball, the sport Isle kids grow up playing with red rubber balls and baby bouncy pitches, is being reclaimed by adults. “Friends keep telling me, ‘Kickball, that’s the thing back in the day,’ ” says Ixchel Kealoha, team captain for Team MidWeek and Friends, one of eight teams competing in the inaugural season of an adult kickball league for charity.
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Kickball, the sport Isle kids grow up playing with red rubber balls and baby bouncy pitches, is being reclaimed by adults.
“Friends keep telling me, ‘Kickball, that’s the thing back in the day,’ ” says Ixchel Kealoha, team captain for Team MidWeek and Friends, one of eight teams competing in the inaugural season of an adult kickball league for charity. “We cannot baby bounce, but it’s real fun.”
Kealoha scored her as-yet only home run with the help of MidWeek publisher and columnist Ron Nagasawa, a first baseman and outfielder, who won’t let her forget his awesome assist. “He keeps reminding me,” she says, ‘I brought you home!’ “
Now heading into the home stretch, the season caps off with a tournament Oct. 23 followed by finals Nov. 14 at 6:40 p.m. at Crane Community Park, where the top two teams will earn their share of the $1,000 prize for the charities of their choice - and only one will walk away with the trophy.
“I wanted to create something that’s beneficial to Hawaii’s community, and I wanted people to have a place where they can play sports in a fun environment,” says 808 Sports Leagues founder Yvonne Jones, a Castle High grad who plays for league sponsor Hoike Technology. Only Hawaii-based charities may benefit, she says, “because I want to keep the money in the land.”
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The league, which hosts week-night games under electric lights, has attracted soccer players, downtown workers, teams fielding names like Big Ballers and Alvah Scott School Kickas, and transplants from the Mainland, where adult kickball has evolved into a way of life with game-day barbecues and some creating player cards with stats. “Kickball in Portland has been going on for three, four years so the level of pitching is really crazy competitive,” says Tara Brouwer, who plays for the undefeated Float Beverages team, another sponsor. “One of the leagues we were in had 70 teams this summer. Kickball in Hawaii is coming up to speed so fast. Everyone’s getting really competitive, really good.”
Brouwer and her boyfriend, Tony Lusk, moved to Hawaii to house sit for a friend deploying to Iraq. “The first thing we did was Google ‘kickball in Hawaii,’ and we found 808 Sports Leagues, and we were so excited,” she says. The couple contacted Jones and has been helping any way they can. Both referee games, along with Lee Harper, and asked friends in Portland to send regulation-size 10-inch balls, which weren’t available locally.
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The top-ranked Float Beverages edged out one opponent 24-10 in a league where scores are more commonly 6-4, 16-9 and 10-11. “We’re following our own secret formula for the kicking order, and it seemed to work,” Brouwer adds.
Besides friendly competition, networking and new friendships have also sprung from the co-ed league, which organizes post-game, discounted gettogethers at Jose’s Café & Cantina, Tiki’s Grill & Bar, Chili’s and Top of the Hill.
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“As this organization gets bigger I’d like it to be islandwide eventually,” says Jones.
Another season of kickball will start Jan. 14 (registration begins late November) with more sports to be added, including flag football in the spring and possibly dodgeball in the fall.
“I’d love to play flag football - that’d be great,” says Randy Holmen of the Price is Right team, wearing a light-blue uniform bearing Bob Barker’s likeness.
This season, Holmen, a second baseman, has played through rain and broke his right thumb colliding with his shortstop, but neither experience has dampened his competitive spirit.
“I think we’ll do it as a team again,” says the 45-year-old business manager from Mililani.
The highlight for Holmen?
“Hitting people with the ball,” he says. “That’s the only reason I’m here.”
For more information and to register: www.808sportsleagues.com
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