In an attempt to combat the dread that comes with the looming presence of a new Monday, Gavin Doig PO ’27, a co-founder of 5C Spikeball Club, recommends that people consider joining them for a game, asking, “Why not take a few hours [to] get your wiggles out, reset and then head into Monday like a champ?”
Every Sunday from 3 to 5 p.m., the Spikeball Club sets up its nets at Walker Beach to bring together new and seasoned players of the sport. Founded by Doig, Fox Kloske PO ’27, Matthew Lewis PO ’27 and Jalen DeLoney PO ’27, the club made its debut this semester to bring spikeball, also known as roundnet, to the 5Cs.
Despite being relatively new, the club has already become popular among the student body, with overwhelming interest from attendees at the 5C Club Fair on Sept. 3. According to the captains, a consistent number of eager players have been showing up each meeting.
“We’re a growing club,” Lewis said. “It’s been nice to see a bunch of new faces and make friends across grades and schools … having them bring their friends and really building a very inclusive spikeball environment.”
Before the idea of starting the Spikeball Club came to fruition, Doig, Kloske, Lewis and DeLoney originally played the sport together at Marston Quad, using it as an opportunity to escape from their other commitments.
While their games were initially just between them, they eventually caught the attention of passersby who asked to join. When including these people, some of whom they had never met before, the co-captains felt rewarded by how the sport connected with more students.
“We thought [it] would be great if we could meet some new people through the game of spikeball … so we decided to start the club,” DeLoney said.
As part of their mission to build a community around the sport, the captains are prioritizing creating the club as a space where members can take breaks from their busy lives as students. Therefore, the co-leaders chose Sunday to host their weekly meetings so that members could decompress before starting the following week.
“As juniors, [we are] starting to understand the importance of a work-life balance,” Doig said. “Taking time out on Sundays every weekend, to pause and spend some time outside with our friends, is really the goal.”
In addition to their weekly meetings, the Spikeball Club is working to collaborate with clubs across campus. On Friday, Oct. 17, the Spikeball club, along with the Scripps Advocates and Tiernan Peer Health Educators, collaborated with the EmPOWER Center for the Picnic of Power.
Held at the Bowling Green Lawn at Scripps College, the event served as a discussion where people shared ways to stand up against coercion and manipulation that can occur in all types of relationships.
To go with Nothing Bundt Cakes and Trader Joe’s drinks, the Spikeball Club brought their nets for a collaborative activity that promoted wellness and brought participants closer together. With the positive experience of this joint effort under their belt, the club hopes to continue hosting events with other spaces across the colleges.
“We really want to reinforce spikeball as a positive communal activity and we’d love to do that with lots of clubs around the 5Cs,” Kloske said.
The club is still in its infancy, but the founders have many plans in store for the future. In addition to their regular meetings and scrimmages, where members have mainly been playing casual games so far, the co-captains hope to embark on more competitive ventures through organized tournaments and intercollegiate competitions.
To jumpstart that effort, according to Kloske, the team is planning a bracket-style tournament among the Claremont Colleges, with winners walking away with a $500 cash prize. In addition to providing a more competitive experience, the club leaders hope that students in the audience with little to no spikeball experience will consider giving the sport a chance.
When the club can gather enough students interested in playing competitively, it aims to form a spikeball team to compete against other institutions across Southern California, including USC and UC Irvine.
While many of these plans are still in development, 5C Spikeball Club has already established a loyal community in the short time it has been around. Most importantly, the club hopes to keep growing so more people can experience the sport’s positive effects.
“We’re really excited about the membership we’ve got going … and [we are] looking forward to [continuing to] host these Sunday gatherings,” Kloske said.
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