NSSC kickball kickoff at Merle Logan Field. (Dan Marshall/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Dan Marshall

Kids Games Revisited

Nanaimo Sports and Social Club builds community connections

Jun 20, 2019 | 7:53 AM

NANAIMO – A co-ed club formed to give adults a chance to play kids games like dodgeball and kickball is seeing great success.

The Nanaimo Sports and Social Club sees registration per sport sitting around 300 people.

For the most popular game – dodgeball – there are closer to 400 signups.

The club was started by longtime friends Chuck Hocker and Jamie Kuhn after they asked themselves why people seemed to stop playing fun playground games once they left elementary school.

“There’s lots of baseball leagues and soccer leagues but it’s a lot of people that have experience playing those sports,” Hocker said. “At the Nanaimo Sports and Social Club we really want people to feel like there’s no intimidation factor, that they can out out with their friends, meet people, and socialize.”

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They said they saw people be reticent to play is they’d been away from sports for awhile or considered themselves novices.

“The age range is 19 to

Hocker is a teacher who asked himself the question of why people seem to stop playing fun playground games after elementary school.

Further to that there aren’t many activities that combine athletics and an opportunity to meet people and make friends.

This is especially true for those who have been away from sports for a while or consider themselves to be at a novice level.

Hocker and Kuhn realized there wasn’t a sports and social club in Nanaimo so they decided to start their own.

“The age range is 19 to 60,” Hocker said. “We have a huge range of different experiences as far as athletics go which is what we love. We want people not feeling intimidated. There’s lots of baseball leagues and soccer leagues but it’s a lot of people that have experience playing those sports.

With different sports and both indoor and outdoor options, the NSSC has to rent a number of facilities from Merle Logan field to school gymnasiums.

Those costs make it so the registration fee for an individual is typically in the $70 range for an eight to nine week session.

From advertising through facebook, and word of mouth through the local sporting and business communities the club has grown very quickly.

Hocker said the winter session of dodgeball had 24 teams, and the recently concluded spring season had 16.

This week the NSSC started up a kickball session.

There were three evening time slots at Merle Logan Field, with both fields in use for the early games and one field for the late games.

Hocker said some people call it California kickball or foot baseball but it boils down to being baseball with your foot.

“You can kick the ball into the field anywhere and if it’s caught it’s an out just like baseball,” Hocker said. “One big difference is you can throw the ball at a player, shoulders down, that’s an additional way you can get them out.”

There are three skill divisions from beginner to advanced, with the season going until August 12 and then playoffs August 19 and 26.

Hocker said with this being just the second season there are a lot of new players this time around and he encourages them to ask a lot of questions.

To find out more about the Nanaimo Sports and Social Club there is contact info and details about each of the different sports on the their website and facebook page.

dan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On twitter: @danmarshall77