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Nitro Fever: Canton's newest sport
a finalist in national PE contest
By Jay Turner
Citizen Staff
With a
volleyball, a net, and a group of enthusiastic participants,
Canton Public Schools’ Wellness Coordinator Peter Boucher just
might have stumbled upon, quite literally, the “best new
activity idea in America.”
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Peter Boucher in the
CHS nitroball promo video |
The game, a
form of “inverted volleyball” that Boucher has dubbed “nitroball,”
is among a group of ten finalists currently vying for that very
title in a national contest sponsored by leading physical
education equipment supplier Gopher Sport. And while he is
thrilled to have made it this far — every finalist is guaranteed
a minimum of $1,000 in prize money — Boucher retains the utmost
confidence in nitroball’s chances, not only as a winner of the
$12,500 grand prize, but as a viable sport for years to come.
“I really
believe nitroball is going to be the next ‘new big thing’ in PE
across America,” he said last week, a day after learning that
Canton had made the finals. “The kids at CHS want to start an
intramural league and even play other schools in the Hockomock
as a fundraiser. It is really catching on like wildfire.”
With major
assistance from CHS TV Production teacher Ed McDonough and his
students, Boucher was able to put together a 90-second
promotional video, complete with footage of Canton High’s
inaugural nitroball tournament held this past December, and then
submit it to Gopher for consideration in the “Best Activity Idea
in America” contest.
Nitroball was
ultimately chosen from hundreds of other videos by an
independent panel of expert judges, and now it is up to America
to select the winners by logging on to Gopher’s PEuniverse.com
and voting for their favorites.
Each
PEuniverse member (signup is free) gets five votes, and Boucher
is encouraging everyone from Canton to log on and cast all of
their votes for nitroball, which is marked “Video H.”
Of the ten
finalists, two will be chosen as grand prize winners at the
conclusion of the voting period on April 15 — one from the K-6
category and one from the grades 7-12 category. Other activities
competing directly against nitroball include “hot spots,” a
basketball shooting game; “trash can ball,” a type of
capture-the-flag-meets-basketball on an outdoor field; “tennis
volley progression,” a technique to teach students tennis
mechanics; and “Return of the Jedi,” a version of dodgeball that
incorporates a Star Wars-theme.
Boucher
believes nitroball is deserving of the grand prize for several
reasons, but mainly because it is simple to play and because of
the “passion the CHS kids show for the sport.”
“They love
it,” he said. “I think that passion will catch on like wildfire
once others see them playing the game the way they do.”
Boucher
initially called the game “inverted volleyball” because that’s
what it looks like -— instead of hitting the ball up, players
hit it down before trying to spike it over the net, which is set
at the height of a tennis net. Beyond this basic premise, the
rules are threefold: “You have to let the ball hit the ground
before hitting it, you have to serve the ball behind the back
line, and you have three hits per side.”
“You can play
this game on any tennis court or any gymnasium around the
world,” Boucher said. “All you need is a ball and four-plus boys
or girls. The propensity for the sport to multiply quickly is
limitless.”
Boucher said
he came up with the idea in the summer of 2005 while teaching a
large summer school wellness class in Sarasota, Florida, where
he had access to over 12 tennis courts but not many tennis
racquets.
“I needed a
creative, inexpensive way to keep the kids moving during our
active sessions,” he explained. “I had some volleyballs
available, so I started fooling around with inverted volleyball,
which turned into nitroball last spring, this past summer and
into this fall.”
He later
brought the game to Camp Tel Noar in New Hampshire, where he is
the land sports director, and they now play it there
recreationally every summer. However, it was in his Net &
Racquet Sports class at CHS this past fall that “nitro fever”
really began to catch on, with students starting to devise
complicated offensive and defensive formations and new offensive
strikes.
In fact,
Boucher said that while the sport is still fun to play
recreationally, the strategy that exists now compared to a year
ago is “off the charts.”
“If you were
to take a group of kids that played in my [fall class] and put
them against an elite athletic group of novices, it wouldn’t be
close,” he said. “The kids who have played for a while and
fine-tuned the strategy and offensive attacks would make it look
easy. It would be similar to watching a D3 football team play a
D1 team; it is that far delineated at this point.”
Boucher said
nitroball is now a part of the wellness department’s regular
rotation of activities in both fall and spring physical
education courses, and he plans to run another tournament next
year and possibly an intramural competition before the spring
sports season begins.
“Ideas are
storming everywhere right now,” he said.
And if Canton
is fortunate enough to take home the grand prize in the Gopher
contest, Boucher has already identified plenty of uses for the
money, including some new “cutting-edge power stations” and
fitness technology for the CHS Fitness Center, as well as
equipment for the safety and self-defense class that he is
hoping to resurrect.
“I’d also like
to spread the money around possibly K-12 too if we win the grand
prize,” he said.
Regardless of
the final outcome, Boucher said he was proud of the students for
all of their contributions both on the court and behind the
camera, and he is confident that nitroball is “going to be a
game that goes national very quickly with this exposure.”
Boucher also
praised McDonough for what he called a “tremendous collaboration
between the wellness department and TV production staff that
took weeks to produce,” while McDonough, who said he was pleased
with the final video, credited Boucher with creating “a great
new sport that anyone can play without a lot of specialized
gear.”
“I really like
the innovative nature of its inception with Peter making
lemonade out of lemons,” McDonough added. “Many great ideas are
formed under such duress.”
Boucher,
meanwhile, has big plans for nitroball that go well beyond being
named the best new activity in America.
“Every sport
started somewhere,” he said. “Springfield lays claim to both the
birth of basketball and volleyball. Canton, Ohio, has the
Football Hall of Fame, and 20 years from now, Canton,
Massachusetts, will have the Nitroball Hall of Fame.”
***
Nitroball TV
production crew: multi-cam editor - Brian Ahearn; promo editors
- James Feeney and Daryl Smith; nitroball tourney multi-cam crew
(six camera teams) Bradley Anderson, Ericka Berman, Chris
Boughter, Alyssa Crane, Ethan Eastwood, Andre Etienne, Thomas
George, Bryan Glick, Allison Guenthner; Ollin Halloway Bryant,
Thomas Nickel, Shachi Risbud, and Derek Seto.
February 25, 2010
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