So…six weeks ago or so I was invited to play on a charity kickball team. The ACEL Kickball Tournament has become a very popular fund raiser here in the Gainesville area so I was excited to participate. Each team selects a charity they are playing for and the top six teams win between $500 and $3000 to donate to their charity.

We started practicing about four weeks out and I have to admit, the muscles used in kickball aren’t muscles I normally use…I’d be sore for days. Teams needed to have at least 7 players with 3 of them being female and could have up to 15 on a roster. We supposedly had our roster set but 48 hours before Tournament Day, we lost one of our female players and thankfully my sisters Karen stepped in. My team didn’t know it but Karen was about 100x better than the girl she replaced.

On Tournament Day, Karen showed up at 9AM and promptly went and ran 5 miles…silly triathletes. We had a first round bye and were able to watch the two teams play before us…of whom we would play the winner of. We were feeling pretty confident after watching them play. Our first opponent ended up being the Tutoring Zone team who were a great group of girls and guys…we really enjoyed playing them. We started off the game strong when I drove in our first run of the game with a big kick to the outfield. The TZ team was calling me sleeveless because I had cut the sleeves off my shirt and were just giving me a hard time. Unfortunately for the TZ team they didn’t read the rules and received out calls for a bunt and for using an improper lineup.

In the history of the tournament, there had never been a tie…well guess what? We ended up tied 1-1 with the TZ team. Games were 30 minutes long and after 75 minutes the ref forced us to play rock, scissors, paper to determine a winner…which sucked ass. I was totally against this and sure enough we lost. The tournament is double elimination but still…why leave a win to luck?

Speaking of luck, the second team we played had it…just all bad. In their first game they lost a player to a broken arm and in our game, about ten minutes in, one of their players fractured their tibula and blew out their ACL while kicking! Horrible, horrible circumstances and I hope their player recovers ok. They decided to forfeit the game.

Our third game was against Rebuild Gainesville and we got destroyed. I had warned our Team Captain that they had some big kickers and that fear along with my strategy fear were both realized. The smart teams were kicking down the third base line often getting players to first, second, and sometimes third before driving in runs. Our players just kicked the ball for the most part with only a couple of us actually getting on base. My other concern was in having female players in the outfield for fear of balls going over their head…and this is what happened leading to two scores. We eventually lost the game 3-0.

Despite being super competitive, I had a fantastic time…it was so fun! I stayed after our games to watch other teams play and to help the organizing committee clean up Diamond Sports Park which had kindly donated their playing fields for the day.

One of the more amusing things to me was how mad some of the teams got at times…the refs were volunteers and a little spotty at times but when it comes down to it, this is a charity event. The biggest consistent whiners in my opinion were on the 352 Media team. Maybe they had a legit argument…I don’t know…but once again it is a charity tournament so chill out.

The winner of the tournament was Frankel Media Group which came out of the Losers Bracket to win two games in a row over and undefeated Charles Perry Construction team to win the event. Frankel Media Group had some bad ass female athletes on their team…including two ex-UF soccer players and an ex-UCF basketball player. The women were really the keys to that team winning.

I can’t wait until next year when I plan on sponsoring my own team, using my strategies, and stacking it with athletes that I know.