Brandon Chong of Princeton plays in the Jersey Club Sports kickball league game July 21, 2011. (Photos by Suzette J. Lucas.)

Angela Chong of Princeton plays in the Jersey Club Sports kickball league game July 21, 2011. (Photos by Suzette J. Lucas.)

David Morra of Princeton takes his turn at the plate July 21, 2011 for his team, Kicking for Karma. (Photo by Suzette J. Lucas.)

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Players laughing, yelling and cheering for each other. The sound of a foot connecting with a big, red, rubber ball as members of the opposing team race across the diamond to catch it.

Yes, this is kickball, but the players in question are not children on a playground. They are adults competing against one another at a Princeton Day School field as part of a league intended for men and women who are 21 or older.

Throughout the last few years, kickball leagues have been popping up all over the country, in places like Washington, D.C. and New York City. Now Princeton can be included in that list thanks to a new league offered by Jersey Club Sports, a social sports club based out of Morristown.

The organization gives friends and strangers alike the opportunity to meet new people through athletics. Members pay a fee before each league begins. It covers not only staples like officials and team T-shirts but also local food and drink specials. Usually, members go out to a local bar or restaurant after the night’s games have been played.

“Usually, about 25 people go back to the bar after games,” Mike Tedesco, who runs the league, said. “We have deals with the Princeton Sports Bar and Ivy Inn. It’s really like adult recess.”

This summer’s kickball league is Jersey Sports Club’s first foray into Princeton. Tedesco said that there are 45 people in the league split up into four teams. Each team plays one game per week on Thursdays at either 6:15 or 7 p.m., and the season lasts seven weeks.

Teams are comprised of about ten players each. Each team must be co-ed. In fact, when a team is at the plate, kickers must alternate male-female, regardless of how many women are on a team. In kickball, pegging is allowed and bunting isn’t, but other than those rules, the guidelines are fairly similar to baseball. Games are quick, but there is a lot of action. Players alternate between giving each other serious game commentary and advice and joking around with anybody who will listen. Often, teams lack one or two players, so members from other teams fill in. They seem to take kickball seriously.

But not too seriously.

Some members of the league will say that the sport can get pretty competitive while others will say the opposite, but both parties share the opinion that it’s all lighthearted.

“There’s a lot of trash talk, but it’s all in fun,” Hamilton resident Victor Nean said. “Everybody likes it.”

He is right. All of the teams enjoyed themselves, win or lose. This could have been a result of the prospect of going to the bar afterwards, but the fact of the matter is they all love playing kickball.

Nean got involved with Jersey Club Sports through his friend Angela DiVincenzo, from Lawrence.

“I run a sports meet-up group on meetup.com, so we’re already sports oriented,” she said. “Jersey Club Sports joined the site and asked if anybody wanted to join, so we decided to join.”

Nean and DiVincenzo already knew each other and most of their team before joining the league, but others, like Brandon and Angela Chong, a couple who resides in Princeton, joined on their own to meet friends.

“We moved here from Florida a couple of years ago and hadn’t met a lot of people,” Brandon said. “We’ve always looked for open gyms or sporting events, but we could never find anything. We just saw a flier for this randomly, and we decided to join.”

The Chongs had pretty fast success and now regularly attend a trivia night with a few fellow league members.

Kickball, a sport that is often reserved for children, has become a mainstay in the lives of many adults. For the members of the Jersey Club Sports league, though, it brings a little something extra to the table.

“Having activities like this really gives you an opportunity to meet different people that you wouldn’t ordinarily come across in other walks of life,” Nean said. “It gives you an opportunity to socialize, do something fun, go back to your childhood.”

“Rule number one is ‘have fun,’” Angela Chong said. “You never feel bad if you mess something up.”

Tedesco said that there are around 4,000 Jersey Club Sports members in total, mostly from the Morristown location, but they are looking to expand in Princeton.

“Next fall, we’re going to offer soccer, flag football, dodgeball, volleyball, things like that,”Tedesco said. “There are married couples, singles, friends – it just grows.”

Many members of the kickball league plan on coming back in the fall, whether they volunteer their time refereeing or pay to play.
“Jersey Club Sports is just fun,” Nean said. “We play and then hang out and continue the socialization. It’s fun.”