Issue date: 2/5/08 Section: Slice of Life

Media Credit: Craig Swaisgood HEY WHOA! | Wagner student Craig Swaisgood and his kickball team will advance to the national championship tournament in September.

When talking about kickball, Craig Swaisgood has trouble stifling his laughter.

"It's just weird; it's a game we played in elementary school," said Swaisgood, 26. "Now, here I am in graduate school playing kickball again."

Swaisgood, a second-year student in the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, is in the middle of his second season playing in the World Adult Kickball Association. After beating the first- and third-place teams at a tournament in Miami on Jan. 18, his kickball team, Hey Whoa!, will advance to the national championship tournament this September in Las Vegas.

But WAKA kickball isn't much like the elementary school game. A competitive game often ends with low scores - similar to baseball games.

Stronger pitchers, like Swaisgood, develop different pitches, varying speeds and top spins to throw the batter off-balance. Swaisgood has mastered a curveball that dashes to either side of the plate and a fastball that can travel up to 40 mph. WAKA's rules only require a pitch to bounce before the plate and cross within one foot of it, staying below the batter's knee to be called for a strike. In Hey Whoa!'s last tournament in Miami, Swaisgood shut out two teams and struck out multiple batters.

Swaisgood has played intramural soccer at NYU and participated in Wagner's orientation dodgeball game. After seeing Swaisgood's competitive nature during sporting events, Jared Walkowitz, Wagner student association vice president and captain of Hey Whoa!, invited Swaisgood to join the team.

"I laughed at first," Swaisgood recalled. "I said, 'Yeah. Why not?' "

Walkowitz started playing in 2005 while living in Washington. For him, kickball was a way to have fun while meeting new people.

"Kickball is how I made friends when I lived in D.C.," Walkowitz said. "When I moved to New York, I found a league and started playing."

WAKA has over 32,000 members in 27 states. Hey Whoa! has eight men and five women, all between the ages of 23 and 34. Some are teachers, a few are pursuing master's degrees and others hold day jobs. The team travels across the country to play in tournaments whenever 11 players can get away from work.

But whether Hey Whoa! is playing in a tournament or for fun, kickball has become a way to let off steam and compete against people their own age.

"In ordinary Wagner/NYU interactions with Craig, you'd never imagine that this cheerful, well-mannered fellow turns into a terrifying force of nature on the kickball field," said Rogan Kersh, associate dean for academic affairs at Wagner. "As the heart and soul of a team that's risen from obscurity to the nation's top kickball echelon, Craig's an inspiration for all ex-athletes nearing middle age who still seek an outlet for their burning competitive drive."


Marc Beja is a contributing writer. E-mail him at etcetera@nyunews.com.

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