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Worcester Brothers Earn Certificates For Fitness While Learning New Sport
Auburn, MA – Xavier and Brian Robles, both of Worcester, received certificates of accomplishment along with a complimentary scoring matters t-shirt for their participation in a series of weekend demonstration clinics for an interesting and locally developed sports concept called super scoreball. The brothers served as field commanders, or coaches for teams playing a sport that was tested and developed in Massachusetts over the past five years. The sport is played indoors or outdoors on existing athletic surfaces. Two-hour fitness events currently underway at Teamworks in Auburn are sponsored by Corvette City Auto Body, and City Welding and Metal Fabrication, both of Worcester. "Super scoreball is a lot of fun. It gets you tired from running and shooting the ball, but you feel good afterwards", said Xavier as he sat on the team bench recovering from an exercise drill involving launching the soccer ball toward the tower opening in an attempt to improve his shooting skills. The Roble brothers, ages eleven and ten years old respectively, are not currently signed up for organized sports, but seemed to enjoy encountering something new while getting a chance to run across the open field and play ball. The concept of super scoreball amounts to a mixed recipe of well-known athletic skills involving good old-fashioned running, plus skills of throwing the ball, kicking the ball, and passing the ball. But there’s more. The game includes the act of yanking on a rope as hard as you can, and working together with your team. Games begin with a former Olympic sport most commonly known as the tug of war. Everyone on both teams participates while parents and spectators smile and cheer. This unique meeting of young competitors has a noticeable purpose; it gets everyone involved and pumped-up, while determining which team will have the ball first. "I like the start of the game,"says Brian. "Everyone is trying. You pull hard and try to win. Sometimes you do, or sometimes you fall down. It’s fun" as the scoreball contest gets underway in front of people seeing it for the first time, it’s easy to figure out what happening. It’s basketball plus soccer with added fun. In fact, ball movement up and down the field is the same as in soccer. Play action becomes somewhat more interesting as players converge in front of the net where they are presented with a choice of how to score points. Players can boot the ball directly into the net for a two point score, or they choose to employ previously learned basketball skills, but they must first kick the ball up into the air so a teammate can catch it. It’s called a kick pass. Now one of their teammates catches the airborne ball, and action converts from soccer style maneuvers to basketball type spin and shoot play. According the rule book, the ball may never be picked up off the ground, so after catching the ball, and passing it back and forth while taking no more than three steps, players work closer toward the field unit structure. That structure (see picture below) includes two twelve foot high scoring towers, one set up on each side of the net. When a shot becomes feasible, a player with the ball takes aim at the tower, and tosses the ball skyward in the hopes of making a three-point shot. It the shot misses and falls to the floor, it’s back to soccer-style play. "It’s harder than it looks," according to fifteen year-old Louis Mejia who traveled with his father from Woonsocket, Rhode Island to check out the sport. "When you see the towers at first, it looks easy to score, but the top is slanted. I got it in a couples time in a row, but missed a bunch of shots." Super Scoreball is being introduced around the region this year by the World Super Scoreball Federation, and is available to schools, community groups, and corporations as a fund-raising or team building fitness event according to information available on the organization’s web site.
Corporate Game Ends With Score of 29-19
Rock Crushers Lose To LifeGuards
UXBRIDGE, MA -- Team Life Guard easily defeated the Rock Crushers of Central Massachusetts by a score of 24-5 during a super scoreball event this weekend. The first-time player game took place at the Habitat For Sports, a multi-field indoor facility located on West Street in Uxbridge. The game was preceded by an information session and training clinic. Youngsters came from as far away as Barre and Worcester for the three-hour event which was hosted by the World Super Scoreball Federation. Scoreball is an indoor/outdoor sport created in Massachusetts several years ago as a means of fighting childhood obesity while providing more fitness and leadership opportunities to its players. The game begins with a tug of war at center field, then offers players the option of scoring points by kicking the ball into the soccer net, or tossing the ball into the opening of one of the twelve-foot high towers that are placed on each side of soccer nets. During the game, the Rock Crushers came out strong, winning the game-opening tug of war. This gave them first-ball possession but their hopes of scoring right away were short-lived. Their first shot bounced off the wall near the tower opening, coming down onto the field. At this stage, the Life Guard team, led by Britnee Farland of Oxford, swiftly went into action, scoring on their first trip down field. Emily Trotta, who plays soccer on a regular basis, kicked the ball right past the defense, squarely into the net for the day’s first two points. She earned most valuable player honors during the game while scoring a total of eighteen points by making four successful tower shots, and three kicks into the net. As the Rock Crushers tried moving the ball down field to score, Shane Carneiro of the Life Guards put up a solid wall of defense which the Rock Crushers had difficulty getting past. When they did, they found their shots on goal blocked by Britnee Farland who played the tower watch position for her team. The Rock Crushers never gave up but the combination of good defense by Carneiro, and Farland, and scoring skills by Trotta and Eva Purdy of Barre were too much to overcome. When asked about her experience playing super scoreball, Trotta was excited about a chance to play again. "I definitely liked playing. This sport should be worldwide. It’s energetic. I loved moving the ball up field and having two ways to score." Carneiro agreed with Trotta, saying, "It was really fun, I want to play again."
AUBURN,MA -- Monty Python’s Holy Grail team, led by Field Commander Rick Rearick, easily defeated the Astros 29-19 during corporate-level super scoreball action at the Habitat for Sports in Uxbridge. Ron Perreault officiated. Scoreball is a team sport developed in Central Massachusetts four years ago. The majority of players during Thursday night’s game were playing their first super scoreball contest, limiting scoring during the first period. The game began with a tug of war at center field to determine which team would earn first ball possession and a possible scoring opportunity. The Holy Grail team yanked away to victory in a rope-pull contest that lasted just under a minute. As the rope was pulled off the field, the enthusiastic Holy Grail team began a game-long effort to keep possession of the ball. Tod Masterman scored the game’s first points with a shot into the tower. That quick toss for three points was just the beginning of a sustained effort by his teammates which kept the Astros busy defending their towers most of the night. Scoreball players employ the same athletic skills used in basketball and soccer when scoring or moving the ball up and down the field, but the point value is different in this hybrid game; A kick into the goal is worth two points, while successfully tossing the ball into a tower opening earns three points. Despite the constant pressure, Astros’ Field Commander Preston Wilmot, along with Jay Bucci, Jason Nourse, Chris Weagle, and Pat Redmond never gave in during the battle, some receiving minor injuries while keeping the defense strong. Jim Lowry of the Grail team suffered a split calf muscle, forcing him to leave the game for medical treatment. Despite the loss of Lowry, the Grail’s Tom Peltier, John Desplaines, and Nate Abzug carried out a scoring attack with Tod Masterman as their point man. At the other end of the field, teammate Matt Sroka displayed the skills of an accomplished tower watch by smothering the net to prevent successful two pointers, and by disrupting other scoring attempts on the towers by Astro players. The Holy Grail led at the end of the first period 9-0, and 19-7 at the end of two. They never looked back.