Too Old for Kickball?

I recently spotted this news item about two South Carolinian senior citizens, Ed and Christine Shephard, who, in their 70s, decided to take up the sport of kickball. All broken-hip jokes aside, it makes me glad that older people are invading the sport. "Adult" kickball, in its relatively short life, has quickly become a hypercompetitive sport.

Ed Shephard

Adult kickball (at least in the Washington, D.C., area) started out as an answer to the hypercompetitiveness found in sports like softball, soccer and ultimate. But, among some kickball leagues, the ferocity of spirit and growing focus on athleticism have put kickball on par with the "more serious" sports. These days, unless you excel at kickball (unless you are a kickball jock), the fun of kickball can fade fast. (It all leaves me wondering ... Why don't these jocks, if they are going to be so damn serious, just go play a serious sport instead?)

Christine Shephard

I don't foresee the kickball jocks leaving any time soon. But there is hope for the sport. Welcoming and retaining new not-so-jock players such as the Shephards into kickball offers a solution to the ultra-seriousness that is invading the sport.

Kickball is a game for kids. When we play it, even as "adults," we should leave some of our adult hang-ups (super-seriousness, for example) at home. Kickball has always been about playing, not so much about winning. (I can recall lots of kickball plays from my youth, but I never bothered to keep up with which team won and which team lost.)

Amazingly, the Shephards, kickball virgins, understand the true spirit of kickball from the get-go. "It just gets you out and mixes you with other people," Christine says in the article linked in this post. And adds Ed, "It's fun, that's the name of the game." Those are refreshing words to hear, and it's somewhat ironic that those who are farthest chronologically from childhood could have the most to teach us about this kids' game we call kickball.

Here's wishing Ed and Christine all the best.