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http://www.coreweekly.com/summerguide_05.htm#kickball

Too drunk for softball? Try kickball
BY TIM CIGELSKE
Volume 1, Issue 44
June 23rd >> June 29th, 2005

Shawn Dugan faced an uphill battle four years ago when he wanted to start an adult kickball league in Madison.

“Back then it was unheard of,” Dugan said. “Everybody thought I was stupid. I actually got an e-mail that said, ‘Dude, what’s next? Foursquare?’”

But it didn’t take long for kickball to become a thriving centerpiece of Dugan’s recreational Legends Sports League. Soon teams were signing up with names like Too Drunk for Softball and The Gonads and showing up for games with costumes, face paint and beer. Lots and lots of beer.

“Some teams drink while they’re in the field,” Dugan said.

So that’s allowed?

“Sometimes it’s required,” he explained.

Dugan will have about 45 co-ed kickball teams this summer, and the Midwest Unconventional Sports Association, which started kickball a year after Dugan, plans on having around 30 summer kickball squads. League play begins soon but interested teams or individuals can still sign up for both leagues.

The sudden popularity of kickball seems to owe mostly to those in their 20s and 30s who get hooked on the nostalgia aspect as well as the camaraderie of the “casually competitive” atmosphere.

“If you let your guard down for five minutes and play some kickball,” Dugan says, “I guarantee you’ll have some fun.”

Clearly, most teams don’t take themselves too seriously. Dugan himself is on a team that occasionally replaces outfielders with blow-up dolls. Another team was on the losing end of a 40-0 shellacking, but they didn’t seem to mind one bit.

But Dugan also splits up the summer leagues to separate the purely recreational players and the more serious athletes. As serious as one can get in kickball, anyway.

“We get some college soccer players who can kick the ball up to 200 feet – that’s a pretty good wallop,” Dugan said. “We’ve had a couple of guys who have kicked it and the ball popped on impact.”

The MUSA league that operates in Madison also has summer kickball, though on a smaller scale than its spring and fall schedules, said Mike Glass, director of Madison operations for MUSA.

Glass said the league emphasizes a fun atmosphere, and excessive competitiveness is considered poor form. In other words, that means “no dickheadedness.”

“Probably less than 1 percent of people out there are dickheads,” Glass said. “And once they look at the sport they’re playing, they’re usually pretty apologetic.”

As with Legends, MUSA features some zany themes – leather and lace night, for example – and some creative team names. Quite a few squads have been inspired by Napoleon Dynamite, including the Cage-Fighting Ligers, a team with a Liger logo and two teams calling themselves, simply, The Ligers.

And, of course, alcohol plays a key role in the festivities.

“Drinking is encouraged,” Glass said. “Well, I wouldn’t say encouraged. But we certainly don’t frown upon it.”

For more information or to sign up:

Midwest Unconventional Sports Association: www.musakickball.com/index.htm or 347-9910