Hacky Sack Comeback As you walk down the halls or scurry to class, there are always groups of people standing around. But have you recently noticed several circles of students playing hacky sack? Hacky sack in the hallways slowly gained popularity ever since the beginning of the second nine weeks when Junior Jarek Melvin brought the first one to bring a hacky sack to school this year, according to Junior Adam Shawger. “It’s a good way to pass the time. It’s considered a sport somewhere, but it’s a good, leisure thing. You have 10 minutes between classes; it’s just fun to do,” Shawger said. Sophomores, juniors and the occasional senior are the majority that play in his circle, which is called Edapalooza, named after Junior Eddie Barlow. The slogan of Edapalooza is “Don’t get selfish with the sack.” Normally, the number of players range from five to 10. Most of the time, the circle doesn’t get in the way of students. Students are careful not to hit ceiling tiles. However, when the players are trying to get a hack–kicking the sack without using their hands or letting it touch the ground–they sometimes hit the wall, kick each other or fall; these occurrences are occasionally due to players trying to do trick kicks–kicking the ball behind you opposed to in front. “We play every chance we get, as long as we have a sack,” Junior Evan Mengel, whose personal best number of hacks is 32, said. Mengel said one of the smoothest occurrences during a game was when Junior Mike Ross kicked the hacky sack down the hallway, with Mengel later picking it up and throwing it back to Ross, only for it to land in his pocket right after Ross did a spin. Just One of Many On the other side of the hallway is the sophomore hacky sack circle, or Sophomore Sackers. It recently started about a month ago just a little to the right of Mr. Hickey’s room when circle founder, Sophomore Scott Jacobs, found a random hacky sack lying in the gym. “Hacky sack hasn’t always been something I was good at; but since my dad used to play a lot with his friends, one day I just wanted to play, so I picked one up and played every single day until now. Hacky sack is so fun and very addicting,” Jacobs said. Similar to Edapalooza, the Sophomore Sackers play in between classes and consist of two to 10 people, with some passersby occasionally jumping in the circle. This particular circle doesn’t normally get in students’ paths when they play unless their circle expands too much, which it has done in the past. To date, the hallways have not been congested to the extent that students’ mobility has been impeded. One funny experience within the sophomore’s hacky sack circle is when Matt Pavlick and Kurt Kitzman were playing hacky sack in the wrestling room; Kitzman kicked the sack so hard that it got stuck on the beam on the roof. It ended up taking several taped broom sticks and a half an hour before finally retrieving the sack. Speaking of fun and games, the Sophomore Sackers play a game called ladder, which is when the first player hits the sack and passes it to another player in the circle. Jacobs said that he and Sophomore Matt Pavlick have gotten around 41 hacks before. According to numerous members of the circle, the best players are sophomores Scott Jacobs, Matt Pavlick and Jesse Herzog. The player with the most sacks is Sophomore Matt Pavlick with 104 hacks. “Hacky sack is just an all-around, fun thing to do in between classes,” Sophomore Matt Feits said.