Adults and teens invited to play kickball game in Charlie Lake

CHARLIE LAKE, B.C. — A beloved playground game for adults and teenagers will be organized at Charlie Lake Community Hall later this week.

According to a Facebook post on July 8th, youth and young adults are invited to participate in a game of kickball and to “bring the energy – we’ll bring the fun.”

With rules resembling baseball, the object of kickball – otherwise known as soccer baseball – is to kick, rather than hit, a ball. To score, one must run around the bases and avoid being tagged out.

Violet Nielsen is an organizer of the event, and wanted “something to do” during the summer, having organized a kickball game earlier this year.

“I played kickball in grade four and grade five in the field at Charlie Lake Elementary,” said Nielsen. “I always really enjoyed it. 

“It’s a really simple game to learn and it kind of takes away the element of batting and baseball and softball.”

Games are seven innings rather than the standard baseball limit of nine, and 10 fielders rather than nine must be out to field.

Formal adult kickball is organized by the World Adult Kickball Association (WAKA), which was founded in the 1990s. 

Although there is no data about leagues in Canada on the WAKA website, there are adult kickball leagues in various Canadian cities including Calgary and Edmonton.

While Nielsen thinks it would be “awesome” to organize a league, she’s focused simply on the next game, which takes place on Friday, July 11th. 

“It would be fun for us to have another league in town,” said Nielsen.

Kickball for ages 12 and up will take place at the Charlie Lake Community Hall at 12717 Charlie Lake Hall Avenue, starting at 6 p.m. on July 11th.