Kickball Rebel Alliance

Kickball is a national sport. And national sports lend themselves to national tournaments and national championships. But such events require organization. Such organization, however, does not necessarily have to be heavily centralized and controlled. Or so it has been proposed.

The folks over at the Little Rock Kickball Association have put forth the idea of a "Kickball Rebel Alliance." If you check out their site, you'll see that the thrust of such an alliance would be to "unite for the purpose and promise of good times, community, charity and in the hopes that Kickball will once again be a game enjoyed by all."

If you read further, you will see that a good chunk of the "KRA" idea is based on reacting to the current for-profit kickball "empire." In my opinion, the "Rebel" part is not all that necessary. Yes, some kickballers feel like they can't play national kickball without playing with WAKA. But the idea of a Kickball Alliance has always been possible--even when WAKA was just a glimmer in its founders' eyes. So it doesn't have to be about Rebelling. It has to be about Allying.



I can envision a loose collective of kickball leagues (each doing things their own way and maybe even playing with varying sets of rules). This collective or alliance would not be constricted by any overwhelming corporate structure. Further, these leagues could unify/ally maybe once a year to hold some sort of tournament.

Rules (and seasonal timing) would be the big issue. But it could be done. Olympians do it all the time, switching between their native rules and international Olympic rules. What needs to happen is a Kickball Congress, in which the various independent kickball leagues get together and agree on a tournament structure, a schedule, and common tournament rules (to bunt or not to bunt? distance between bases? etc.). Moreover, those rules-for-tournament could be made publicly available and free (open source, if you will) to anyone who wants to use them to start their own kickball league--with the potential of one day playing in the Kickball (Rebel) Alliance Tournament.

Again, it doesn't have to be about WAKA. It's about leveraging what is already there into something with national potential. Independent kickball divisions will continue to emerge, populated by people who do not want or need a more corporate kickball template. And some of those who play in such leagues will want to interact beyond their division. A kickball alliance is a solution.



Ultimately, such an alliance would be about choice. Some leagues will want to stay insular and not bother with tournaments and interleague play. But others, especially those in close proximity to other leagues, might want to test their mettle against their brethren across state lines. In a way, the model I envision is a lot like the "states' rights" model envisioned at the founding of our country: strong local governance and a weak central government acting more or less like glue to keep the whole alliance together and to provide some commonality where necessary.

So let the alliance begin! All that's needed is a little energy. And you kickball Jedis already know where to find that, don't you? Just use the Force (and the force play where applicable). So do or do not. There is no try.