The beach boardwalks of sunny San Diego have come to Caiman Hall with this year’s new Spikeball Club. The popular pickup game is no longer reserved for swimsuit-clad tourists with no hand-eye coordination — and it has taken Classical Academy by storm.  

The club is the brainchild of seniors Steven Fuson and Cody Cavalle. Since they began playing during their freshman year, the pair has been in talks of creating a club devoted to the game. Though the suggestion began as a joke between friends, their growing excitement for spikeball finally sparked the club’s inception.

“This summer is when [our interest] really took off,” Fuson said.

“We would just call each other up [saying] ‘let’s go play some Spikeball,’” Cavalle recounted. “We’d meet up, go to Emmanuel Faith and just play and get really good … so then we were like, ‘yeah, we could make a club out of this, it would be really fun!’”

For all its modest roots, the club grew big. And fast. Within weeks of club rush, Spikeball Club became one of the largest student body organizations in the school — second in membership only to FCA. Was this some trick of social media publicity or plastered posters about the school? It’s unclear. But Cavalle attributes the popularity of the club to mere grassroots. And, of course, shameless self-promotion.

“At the [Back to School] Barbeque we had a spikeball tournament … and it got super hype. And at the end [of the tournament] I gave a little sponsor” (over the Caiman Hall microphone, no less) “like, ‘Hey guys, you know, Spikeball Club’s starting up soon if you wanna sign up. Just come up to us.’ And … lots of people signed up. So that tournament definitely helped a lot.”

Senior Christina Jauregui, the Publicity Manager of Spikeball Club, says that she joined the group primarily due to the enthusiasm of Fuson and Cavalle. “[They] were really interested in it, and I was like ‘wow they make it seem like it’s really cool.’ So I decided that I should get into something like that,” she said. “It’s a fun game! You can play on the beach, you can play it in your Caiman Hall, you can play it in your backyard! I think it’s just a really versatile game that really caught my eye.”

For those students that are intimidated by the intricacies of the sport, fear not. Steven Fuson has a few words of wisdom for you: “It’s a very simple sport.” 

Fortunately, Cavalle has more applicable advice. “Definitely play a lot. Play as much as you can, go to Spikeball Club, then you’ll get really good. Trust me on that.”

Still unconvinced? Jauregui might just win you over as she calls out to students in the doorway of Caiman Hall before each club meeting. Her cries of “Come to Spikeball Club!” have been known to draw in the timidest of newcomers. Encouragingly, her enthusiasm is well-founded in her opinions on the club.

“I think it’s just a fun place!” she said. “At lunchtime, you can just let loose, play some games, get all sweaty and get all your energy out, and just meet with people who wanna play Spikeball too. It’s a club that doesn’t necessarily have an ultimate goal, it’s just a place to come and have fun.”

And that’s all that really matters, isn’t it?