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Adults get their kicks with child's game

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More than 300 grownups recapture a bit of their youth when they gather Thursdays for kickball.

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By DANIELA VELÁZQUEZ | TBO.com

Published: November 12, 2009

TAMPA - Near the end of every workweek, 25-year-old Brian Hartman gets to go outside and play with his friends.

Hartman and more than 300 adults who meet Thursday nights at the Police Athletic League fields in Tampa are reviving a game that many haven't played since grade school: kickball.

Thousands of grownups across the country - and in the Tampa Bay area - are part of a new kind of adult revival that has more to do with finding their inner child than their workout warrior. It's now possible to play kickball nearly every weekday with at least five leagues in the Bay area.

"You may be grown up, but you're not done growing. You still have can fun with a big, red playground ball," said Christopher Noxon, author of "Rejuvenile: Kickball, Cartoons, Cupcakes and the Reinvention of the American Grown-Up."

Hartman agrees. Donning a panda bear costume made by his mother as he refereed a game recently, he said he plans to keep refereeing - and playing - kickball for the foreseeable future.

"I'll probably do it until I'm 30 or my girlfriend makes me stop," said Hartman, who works as a transportation broker in Lakeland.

Why does kickball make happier grownups? Stuart Brown says it's because too many people have forgotten how to play.

Brown, the founder of the National Institute for Play, said play is an intrinsic part of being alive.

"To neglect play is to neglect a primal part of human need," Brown said.

"Play and imagination are the mechanisms with which we gain flexibility in a radically unstable world," Brown said.

Game has broad appeal

When we grow older, Noxon says, life becomes much more goal-oriented.

"Kids naturally know how to play and we unlearn it as we grow up. It teaches us about who we are and what we're good at," Noxon said.

With adult concerns such as jobs dwindling, banks failing, bailouts pending, careers changing, pensions fading and soldiers fighting, many feel overwhelmed with the stress and uncertainty in their lives.

When adults don't play, real consequences can happen, such as depression and increased rigidity in thought, Brown said.

However, adults are fighting back in the Bay area, one kickball game at a time. With its simple rules and emphasis on fun, the game appeals to a wide variety of players.

"The kind of people who play kickball don't want to deal with the stress of playing softball," said referee Cliff Welch.

"They want to have fun, be with their friends and get exercise. It's nice to win but it's not life or death," said Welch, who is affectionately referred to as "The Kickball Czar" by his city of Tampa co-workers.

Meanwhile, the rosters of adult kickball players in the Bay area keep growing. They play by mostly the same rules, but the various leagues try to distinguish themselves by each offering a different atmosphere, be it family friendly, young singles, competitive players.

Welch referees for the city of Tampa's league. It has about 80 players that play once a week this season but is expanding to twice a week next year, with talk of adding an over-50 league.

Adulthood, childhood meet

The Kickball Society of Tampa Bay was founded in April by Wayne and Rosemary Curtiss and Kermit Kauffman. It has about 600 members who play in Temple Terrace, Northdale and New Tampa.

Hartman plays with the largest league in town, the World Adult Kickball Association, with nearly 800 members in Tampa.

At her Memorial Middle School physical education class, teacher Aesha Bailey often stands at the intersection of adulthood and childhood.

She plays kickball with her students, but on Wednesday nights, she plays kickball with her friends on the "Fly Kicks" team in Tampa's league.

As a teacher, she knows some of her students might pick up a sport in their youth and play it for decades. Up until this season, she didn't view kickball that way.

"Now I'm seeing it as a lifetime sport."

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