JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas –
The Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland Gillum Fitness Center is sporting a new game that can be characterized as "organized chaos" - wallyball.
Around since 1979, the unorthodox sport is similar to its counterpart, volleyball, but it is played inside a racquetball court. And what construes an out-of-bounds play is when a player hits the ball at the opposition's back or side walls.
Besides those technicalities, players can score at their peril, utilizing the walls on their side of the net as friends.
Three teams - featuring players from the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Agency and the 453rd Electronic Warfare Squadron - gave the peculiar sport a whirl July 20 in a tournament set up by Gilbert Cornejo, Gillum Fitness Center recreational aide.
The inaugural tournament, won by AFISRA, was a blast for those who participated but physically taxing on the body.
"The little blue ball bounces off the walls, takes sharp angles then sometimes it drops on the court," Chris Miranda, member of the winning AFISRA team, said. "It's chaos because the court's a lot smaller and you can't control much of what's going on.
"You're twisting your body. Your head is going one way and your body is going another because you're trying to catch up to the ball to hit it," Miranda said. "Collisions will happen and you will twist an ankle because so much of your body is making an effort trying to strike this little blue ball with your hands."
Nick Amato, 453rd EWS, said the enclosed walls put a damper on the game.
"Having walls that hit back definitely cuts into the normal flow of things," Amato said. "You can't hit too hard, generally."
Competitors fundamentally have to treat wallyball as a thinking man's game.
"It's like playing pool because it is all about the angles," Andrew Caulk, a first lieutenant with AFISRA, said. "You have to use the walls to confuse the other team.
"In volleyball, you generally try to spike the ball as hard as you can. In wallyball, you have to tactically think about what you can do to place the ball well against the other team."
His wife, Jennifer, an on-and-off wallyball player for four years, agreed.
"Sometimes you'll wait for the ball to bounce off the wall and instead it will roll because it will run out of energy," she said. "That's hard to defend against because if somebody served against the wall then you have no room to get it, or if you can make it look like it's going to bounce then it dies, that's the perfect serve."
If the 802nd Force Support Squadron decides to make wallyball an official intramural sport, it has a couple of supporters who think people of all skills should play.
"I would participate, and I think everybody should want to play wallyball," Jenn said.
"With wallyball, you could be terrible and still play because those wild hits are going to be coming your direction either way," Barron Stone, 453rd EWS, said.
The seed for competitive wallyball play was planted after Cornejo discovered the sport being played recreationally while he was working at the Chaparral Fitness Center a few years ago.
Cornejo said he wanted to come up with a unique activity that fitness customers might enjoy playing indoors. They could play indoors where it's cooler, he said.
"It's usually hot outside so I figured why not plan something where people would want to play inside in an air-conditioned environment."
Despite a handful of teams backing out before the event, Cornejo is satisfied with the turnout.
"Even though we didn't have many teams, the teams that did show up really enjoyed it," Cornejo said. "Everybody got at least five games in."
Cornejo said the Gillum Fitness Center is planning on having other events for patrons, including a tug-of-war tournament in August. Other events are in the planning stages as well.
"I'm going to try to come up with new sports activities so that it's not the same old thing for JBSA-Lackland fitness customers," Cornejo said.