Intramurals Spike Up at Whitman
September 19, 2018
Intramural (IM) Sports is adding another sport to the mix.
IM Sports is a Whitman student-run program that 70 percent of the student body participates in. Students can join either as individuals or as part of a fraternity, sorority or residence hall. Spikeball has joined volleyball, basketball, football and many others on a long list of IM Sports that Whitman students have to choose from.
Spikeball has become increasingly popular this year all across the country and especially on Whitman campus.
Spikeball is a two vs. two game that involves a hula-hoop sized trampoline net and a soft yellow ball. The game begins with one player serving the ball off the net to the other team, who has three hits amongst their two players to bounce the ball off the net and back to the other team.
The sport has been compared to volleyball in the way that you have three hits to get it back to the other team and can score if the other team fails to return the ball.
Senior Shane Casey started playing Spikeball as a first-year when he saw a game set up on Ankeny and has been playing ever since.
“It’s a very easy game to play,” Casey said. “But as with all things, there are certain skills that help to develop and improve the game.”
Sophomore Matthew Dahlstrom also started playing spontaneously and fell in love with the game easily.
“I saw a bunch of people on Ankeny one day all playing it and I knew a lot of them so I went over and started playing with them,” Dahlstrom said. “The game is pretty easy to learn and once you’ve got it down it can be a really intense game.”
Spikeball is a popular and easy game to set up on Ankeny Field for students, especially during the spring of last year when weather permitted outside activities. Heading into finals week, Spikeball provided a fun and easy study break for students as well.
As it becomes an official IM sport at Whitman, students can now play the fun game while also carving out their competitive edge.
While Spikeball is usually played without the intense competitive factor, Casey has begun to find a way to beat out his opponents.
“I’ve recently started practicing hitting the ball into a pocket, where the ball bounces off the net and back to me,” Casey said. “It’s almost impossible for the other team to recover from that, because the ball bounces back to my side and they have to run all the way over to try to keep it in play.”
As Spikeball has spiked in popularity over the recent years on Whitman’s campus, it is hard to imagine growth stopping. Especially since it has become an IM sport, it allows students to be a part of a team while still playing a fun game that everyone loves.
