Last year, sophomore Spencer Becker made a habit of hackey sacking during his free hour, and found out how difficult it was. “I just wanted to do it for fun, but I quickly realized that hackey sacking was way harder than I had thought. Luckily, Mr. Hansen started teaching me so I started to become better,” Becker said.

As his hackey sack skills improved, Becker wanted to spread his love for hackey sacking throughout the entire student body, so he decided to establish the Hackey Sack Club. “I guarantee that I can teach any child over the age of ten to hit the ball two or three times. After that, I’m not sure, but I know I can try,” Becker said.

Mr. Bill Cheney is the club’s advisor. Cheney’s background in hackey sacking began in high school, when before homeroom, a group of his friends would circle up and toss around a hackey sack. At the University of Minnesota, Cheney continued to use hackey sacking as a way to destress from college’s heavy workload, to socialize, and to meet new people.

The club meets every other Friday after school, and any student is welcome to join. The meetings usually consist of hanging out and spreading out into groups to play games. “It’s a good way to destress and meet new people,” Cheney said. Only a handful of students have been showing up to the meetings regularly, but Becker knows that more people will continue to join the club down the road as their schedules open up. Becker hopes to introduce a lettering system for the club as an incentive for more people to join.

The Hackey Sack club’s main goal is to be available as a fun outlet for kids who might not be able to be involved in another sport or activity at BSM. The founders want to offer students a free activity in which they can just have fun with friends. The Hackey Sack Club is not looking to participate in any tournaments; however, they do have some friendly competition between the members when they play competitive games. Right now, the club is mainly focusing on teaching members how to hackey sack, but they have introduced some beginner-level games.

The club was highly influenced by the Table Tennis team, with a similar atmosphere and mission. Just as the Table Tennis team has grown substantially in numbers over the last several years, the Hackey Sack Club hopes to develop into one of BSM’s most prominent activities.

The friendly and casual culture surrounding the activity makes the Hackey Sack club a perfect fit in the BSM community. However, with winter fast approaching, the club is faced with finding a new practice venue. As of now they’ve been utilizing the baseball field, but when the weather turns too cold and snowy, the group will be forced to move indoors. Becker is currently brainstorming some new practice venues. “Mr. Pettinger and I have been ‘kicking around’ a few ideas for [places] to practice,” Becker said. “It looks like our best option will be the commons.” 

The Hackey Sack Club is looking for new members. You do not need any prior experience hackey sacking to be a member. If you are interested in joining, contact Spencer Becker.