If you have walked the halls of Upper Arlington High School, it is inevitable that you have seen groups of students laughing in a circle. When watching these groups, a yarn ball bounces off of someone’s foot, goes into the air, and lands again on someone else’s foot. This sequence of motions is the familiar game, hacky sack.
Hacky sack is a game that was originated in Oregon by two men named John Stalburger and Mike Marshall. Marshall created a game to pass time kicking a bean bag back and forth. He later introduced the game to Stalburger who was recovering from a knee injury and this game helped with his physical therapy. They created a hacky sack ball and then developed the game into what is now seen in the halls of UAHS: hacky sack. UAHS senior Reed Ellis explained how he and his friends started playing hacky sack.
“Me and my buddies first started playing probably two years ago. And then we kind of stopped and then we started replaying again this year,” Ellis said.
Hacky sack has changed through the years and the way people play it changes based on the group. Ellis explained how he and his friends play hacky sack.
“You can play with a group of people where everybody has to kick it once, and then after everybody kicks it, you try to land it in your pocket. The other way is freestyling with yourself, just doing tricks and stuff,” Ellis said.
Recently, UAHS administration started to restrict hacky sack use to try to limit disruptions. Principal Andrew Theado was asked what the rules are for hacky sack playing.
“So they can’t play it during forum. That’s the only thing that we’ve done. So like when students are studying. There were hacky sacks that were getting flung to different tables,” Theado said.
Senior Jack DeCapua was alarmed when he heard the news of the restrictions on hacky sack and he put together a petition to try to bring attention to the frustration he and his friends felt.
“The problem with the ban of hacky sack was it just really upset a lot of people, and so we went around at lunch and were able to get around 400 signatures saying we should be able to play,” DeCapua said.
DeCapua is hoping to get enough signatures to eventually show the UAHS administration and bring attention to him and his friends’ feelings. When asked about this petition, Theado was very open to the idea of hearing DeCapua and others out on their opinions.
“I think if at some point when the petition makes its way to me, I’ll sit down and talk to whoever the students are, or class officers are already aware of, they can set up a time, and we can meet and talk about what they’re hoping for. We can figure it out,” Theado said.
The administration has to find an efficient way to balance having a safe environment where students can learn, while also allowing them to have fun and build communities.
“It’s a challenge, I think. Most of the time, students are reasonable and understand that, you know, there are certain policies we have in place for certain reasons. I think it’s just listening to the students, getting to understand kind of what they’re coming from,” Theado said.
With the introduction of the phone ban policy this school year, students have found new ways to have fun.
“So when the phone ban happened, we had to find other things to do and a large part of the student body found hacky sack,” Ellis said.
Students and administrators enjoy seeing kids get along and play games that make them smile.
“It’s brought us together more, got us off our phones and I’ve met new people,” DeCapua said.
