For many, they are learning to play Spikeball in their PE classes and they look to see whether there is the possibility to use this experience to find a scholarship. Since many colleges now are consistently playing the game on campus and as a “semi” pro status it makes sense to look into it.

Can You Get a Scholarship For Spikeball? Currently in all colleges there is not an opportunity for a Spikeball scholarship at this time. Though there are many clubs in America who do compete to be the best Spikeball College.

Just because it isn’t a scholarship sport doesn’t mean that it is not without its merits. Many prestigious schools play Spikeball and it could help you get some additional breaks in applying to the school. Not only this but there is a push to have Spikeball become an addition to the Summer Olympic games which would be a new sport and another opportunity!

What Is the Requirement for Colleges to Have Spikeball Teams?

There is a tournament which exists and Spikeball lists the Top 25 Spikeball College teams in the league. There is also a nice map which shows you all the US teams based by college locations here.

The Spikeball RoundNet Association currently boasts over 1000 players collegiality and 100+ colleges who are within the tournament structure. This means there is some stiff competition to get into established teams, this also means you can establish one at your college if you want to dedicate the time and effort!

How To Start a Spikeball Club at College?

If you would love to start a club at your school but have no clue where to start there is a super handy guide on the Spikeball RoundNet Association site (Start a Club). The guide covers many different things you will want to do to build a club in your school from scratch, from creation to drills and marketing for players and to get people to come watch.

5 Core Strategies To Build Your Club

1. Create An Official Club – This will vary at each college depending on their rules and you should check with the student activities office to find out your exact rules to follow. This isn’t a requirement for most colleges but if the long term vision is to grow the sport at the college the club creation is ideal.
2. How To Get New Members – This section goes through methods to get more students to show up for the games, encouraging them to come by and play and learn about the sport to help build up your base of players and possibly fans to show up for games.
3. Marketing Your Club – The guide will cover how to market your team outward, including learning to network with your community and using your social media presence.
4. How To Run a Practice – Just keep in mind you need only 4 players, a space and a Spikeball set to practice effectively. MAKE SURE SKILL LEVEL ISN’T A REQUIREMENT FOR PRACTICE
5. Drills for Skills – Drills should be run to help build up skills, you want to break apart a drill practice into 10-20 minute sections to focus on a specific skill within each training window.

Passing The Club Off

One day you will become a senior and be looking at moving on in your career and life and college will be coming to an end. While you may be excited to move into normal life you will want to have a transitional plan already in effect to pass the torch of the club onto the next generation for the college to continue your hard work and growth.

Planning Your Heir

This should be something you will have a decent time figuring out, there will typically, if the club is large enough that is, be that person that wants to help you in lockstep. this person preferably should be excited and eager to fill the role and an entrepreneurial individual.

With bigger schools this process can begin anytime within your final year of school, if you happen to be in a smaller school or have less members then you will want to start this process towards the beginning of the final year or maybe even the end of your third year for the extra time and preparation.

Starting The Transition

This final year of time the heir apparent should follow you around like an intern almost, not to get you coffee but to learn the ins and outs and how things actually function at a core level. You want to take some time with them and maybe have them run a few practices, put them in charge of a minor tournament and let them have the first hand experience.

This way when you leave they won’t be attempting to do all of this with no APPLICABLE experience. This is something which should help negate the stress of you leaving the club and will help you also in this process as you will see things can and will run without you, even though you may not like to admit that fact to yourself.

Be Open To Communication

Undoubtedly, you will not answer every question they may have, but while you move into a normal life you should make sure they know how to reach you with questions. Give them the time when appropriate, not calling during work for example, and this will help you impart knowledge that they will use to slowly reach out less.

Looking Ahead Into Spikeballs Future

Over time as a sport grows and matures changes will happen, sometimes good and sometimes bad. This is why you always want to look to the future as there has been a push from the players to get Spikeball added to the Olympics as a sport for teams for elite level competition similar to other non-professional sports.

Is Spikeball Heading To The Olympics?

Currently Spikeball is not an active sport in the Olympic community though there has been a groundswell of support pushing to have it looked at. This approach is similar to how skateboards and snowboarding were able to slowly integrate themselves into the Olympic games.

While it is currently not a sport within the Olympics this doesn’t mean it won’t ever or even that it won’t be in the next Olympics, things always adapt and change. If you love the sport of Spikeball there are petitions and people who would love some back up on pushing to get the sport into the national spotlight more to help in achieving this goal.

Final Thoughts

Building a club in school is a unique and skill building that will actually help you in real life to do better at any career you find yourself in. It teaches you a tremendous amount about yourself along with helping you find personal weaknesses and ways to build them into appreciable skills.

Moving on this teaches you how to build a business (club) from the ground up as a entrepreneur and grow it into a sizable team. This teaches you to manage people and how to make combative people work together for a common good. Finally you learn how to transition away and like in business this will help you when moving from one business to another, whether self-owned or working in a corporate environment.