You feel the blades of turf brush your feet, wood chips sticking to your socks. It’s 10:45, so there’s still time for a few quick rounds before 3rd period. Rainbow or OluKai flipflops are put to the side along with several pairs of airpods. It doesn’t matter what you have next or how much homework you’ll need to do tonight. For now, all that matters is hackysack.
Over the last several weeks, small juggling bean bags have taken over SCH’s campus. Just walking from class to class you’re sure to spot a game, and you’ll probably join in for a few minutes. Whether you’re on your way to lunch, about to start practice, or just have some time to kill, one thing holds true. If the sack calls, you have no choice but to answer.
What was thought to be nothing more than an ’80s and ’90s college obsession is back, and it’s bigger than ever. Beyond SCH, hackysack has taken hold of high school and college campuses nationwide. Online, people create Instagram accounts for their school’s hackysack teams with full rosters, numbers and JV squads. Users make profiles dedicated to posting highlights, rankings of schools, and listing the top players. SCH’s own team is led by Braydon “The Apprentice” Trunfio ’27 and Sebastian Small ’26, who has been dubbed “The Shepard”. “Hacky sack is bringing our community together. It’s only up from here,” said Trunfio.
Beyond the culture, the resurgence of hackysack has brought about new ways to play, techniques, and all sorts of strategies to keep the sack in the air, or just off the ground. Many creative approaches include a move called a “stall,” where a player momentarily balances the bag on their foot, chest, or some other part of their body before launching it in the air to resume play. Some particularly controversial moves include the “tramp,” where a player bounces the sack off their shirt to launch it high into the air. The move is used as a low-effort way to preserve a rally, and many consider it close to cheating. After intense deliberation, SCH and the greater hackysack community have chosen to outlaw the move.
On top of a stacked student roster, SCH has some incredible faculty sackers, including Mr. Schooley, who met his wife in a hacky sack game. “Nothing has made me happier and prouder of the SCH community this year than the sudden explosion of hacky sack on our campus. It is simply the best,” he says, delighted by hacky sack’s new prevalence around school. Mr. Schooley recommends that anyone who can take this chance to get involved. He says the key for beginners is to, “focus on hitting with the insole of your foot to get the sack up, and then work on pushing it forward,”. With just a little practice, anyone can have the confidence to join a game and hold their own with more experienced players.
On April 24th, the first official Inter-Academic sports conference hacky sack rankings were posted, showing SCH in 5th place. The rankings are entirely subjective with no apparent metrics other than “tech” or how cool their rallies look to viewers. “We’ve all been taking time out of our nights watching film, and we’ve started incorporating new techniques and new inventions into our rallies…We’ll prove ourselves in the national rankings. That’s when it gets real” said Trunfio,”.
As our school’s team grows and becomes more competitive, it’s clear that hacky sack at SCH has evolved from a ’90s flashback into a campus-wide cultural explosion!
