Moving around in rhythmic circles, the players bounce the ball back and forth off the net with ease. A group of senior boys have been playing spikeball at lunch since their freshman year. Recently, the increasing popularity of the sport has resulted in more students joining Spikeball Club.

Spikeball is a sport that involves spiking a small yellow ball down into a net. It is usually played in teams of two people, one team against the other, but there are a few individual games of one person against the other. The goal of the game is to score points by making the ball hit the ground after bouncing off the net and onto the opponent’s side. It is usually played to either 11 or 21 points, but players must win by two points. Many LASA students said they play spikeball for its versatility. The sport can be played anywhere there is a flat surface: on grass, sand, and even indoors.

Senior Marcus Tita, founder of Spikeball Club, started playing the sport at lunch freshman year. He and a small group of friends spent their lunches competing against one another.

“I was the original founder of the Spikeball Club,” Tita said. “It was just me, Frank, Mikey and Cormac. We were just four friends that started playing spikeball every day during lunch. We played it for like three weeks just the four of us and then we decided, ‘You know what? Let’s make it a club,’ because other people wanted to play.”

Junior Sam Whitlow believes the popularity of the sport at LASA has increased greatly in the past year. He said that during his freshman year it was mainly an activity for the students who are now seniors.

“When I was a freshman it was mostly just these senior fellas,” Whitlow said. “They’ve just been playing for ever you know, they used to have one net. It was nothing compared to what it is right now. My freshman year they were out in front of the school. They were out there sweating every day.”

Tita credited spikeball as one of his biggest hobbies. He has practiced and competed along with his friends at a high level since their freshman year.

“So it’s basically been a huge part of my life and then I learned that spikeball can be competitive,” Tita said. “And then I spent a lot of time practicing and trying to be competitive, and it’s probably my biggest hobby outside of school.”

Tita said he has seen Spikeball Club grow quickly. Tita and his friends made sure the club they were creating and the trend they were spreading was both inclusive and responsible. The group wanted to ensure that everyone felt invited to try it out.

“At first it was like four people, then eight and then twelve,” Tita said. “And over time we just had a lot of people come and they would stay and keep playing. This senior year we got a whole bunch of freshman and sophomores really interested in spikeball. So the club just exponentially exploded to like 60 people now.

Tita said that recently more players have been joining the club. He believes that this is because they see the others at lunch and want to join in.

“The reason everybody wants to play spikeball is cause we play every day during lunch in the courtyard, so everyone would just look at it and be like, “Damn, that’s cool,’” Tita said. “And everyone would want to come and try it out and they liked it, so now everyone is playing.”

Freshman Hays Turner said the sport has grown not only throughout LASA, but also around Austin. According to Turner, this means that more tournaments have been held and are planned for the near future. This gives Spikeball Club more opportunities to compete against other teams from around Austin.

“It’s becoming a bigger sport, and a lot more people are playing.” Turner said. “We play teams from other schools and you can go play and have fun.”

Not only do club members play during school hours at lunch, they also play over the summer. Whitlow started playing with the club before school began in August.

“I started playing over the summer actually,” Whitlow said. “Some of these boys, Marcus and Cormack, were texting me, ‘Hey man, come play at Zilker.’ They made a big tournament, so that’s really when I started playing. Now I just play weekly, probably a few times a week, with my friends.”

According to Whitlow, the senior boys are the reason for the sport’s popularity at LASA. He credits their contribution to the popularity of the sport to their games at lunch.

“Definitely all credit to Cormac, all credit to Asa [Flores], Marcus and Frank,” Whitlow said. “They have just been playing, every single day since I can remember. And they just absolutely love it, and now it’s just a big trend. They’ve been doing it for years and so now everybody has just gone off their hype train, for the most part. They’re just hitching onto the bandwagon. So now it’s just huge.”

According to Tita, Spikeball Club has brought a lot of people together who wouldn’t normally interact. Tita feels that the club is a good place to meet a diverse group of players with similar athletic interests.

“When we play competitive we really enjoy competition with each other,” Tita said. “So that’s really fun. It also is a way to kind of meet up during school and take a break, relax and play some physical games. It’s a way for all of us to bond.”