Kicking and screaming: NC’s new kickball team

Rankenburg+and+Perkins+prepare+themselves+for+the+new+kickball+season.+

Andrew Gasparini

Rankenburg and Perkins prepare themselves for the new kickball season.

Andrew Gasparini, Reporter, Photographer

NC began practicing for the upcoming Georgia State Kickball Tournament after tryouts for the team occurred Thursday.

Tamara Rankenburg decided to gather a kickball team after seeing the pent up anger and rage in her AP US History students, especially junior Shiv Patel.  

“I really wanted to create an environment where students felt comfortable kicking a ball into another person’s face. I believe that this sport has allowed people to release all their negative emotions through physical violence, and by maybe scoring a few runs,” Rankenburg said.

Indeed, the rates of fights in the hallways and courtyard of NC decreased within the first week of the kickball team’s meeting, according to Principal Horton.

Students meet behind the Freshman Academy cafeteria for practice every Monday and Wednesday and play against other schools every Friday (the new Friday night sport). So far, NC played Harrison, Kell, and Kennesaw Mountain’s team, blowing their competition out of the water.

“This team is a family. We eat together. We succeed together. Everything we do is connected… except when one of us gets smacked in the head with a ball. That’s on you,” senior Kesha Perkins said.

Perkins, the team captain, leads NC kickball to every victory and plans to start an intramural kickball team when she attends Boston University this upcoming fall.

The team currently asks for more Warriors to fill the back lot to cheer on the team. Tickets cost five dollars and the money pays for the team’s travel expenses to tournaments and the team’s uniforms.

“Dude, I go to every game. The team is so sick, like for real. Whenever Kesha kicks the ball it sends the other team in a panic. Last game they had to call an ambulance because a Harrison kid got ball burn across his cheek,” senior Michael Vollbracht said.

The optimism that NC expresses for its kickball team proves the community bond. Make sure to come out to the next game Friday, April 1, to support the team against Lassiter.

April Fool’s, you fool!

XOXO, The Chant