You remember fun, right? Remember running around on a blacktop with 20 other 10-year-olds pretending to be a shark hunting minos? Remember requesting the pitch to be fast and bumpy in kickball? Remember gym teachers yelling at you to stop picking your nose before shooting a basketball?
Members of Highbrow Lowbrow decided to share the games from gym class that got us out of bed in the morning. The games that proved which kids had a future in high school sports and which kids should just stick to little and big arm circles.
Dodgeball
Okay, let’s be honest, we all know what dodgeball is. It’s a super classic game made famous by the red marks left on your face after being hit by that devilish, red, rubber ball and the 2004 film, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. It may be shocking to some that this aggressive game is my favorite. But to those that know me, you’re probably not surprised.
The days we got to play dodgeball were my favorite because they were the days where I would send little boys home crying to their mommies because they got hurt by a girl. I took a lot of pride in that back in the day. It’s also a great game to boost camaraderie. Going through something so intense and violent with the possibility of being bullied after, really brings people together. It’s a sport that teaches you to put yourself out there and take a ball to the face so the kid with a good arm can take out the rest of the team. It really teaches selflessness, probably contributing to who I am today, and that’s why it’s my favorite. If you want to find an adult dodgeball league of your own to meet friends or blow off some steam visit http://thendl.com/
--Ashley T.
Handball
Have you ever wanted to throw a foam ball at your high school bully with full immunity? Well have I got the sport for you! Wildly popular in Eastern Europe (we don’t know why), the game of hand ball is basically soccer, hockey, and basketball combined into one. You work as a team to move the ball down court and then hurl the ball at the goal while some poor soul has to try and stop. Many a face get clobbered in the process. Maybe it’s the fast paced nature of the game or that we finally got to let our teenage angst out through throwing things, but handball was always a great day in gym class.
--Ryan Gutchewsky
Crabwalk Soccer (might have been called something else)
Did you attend Cossitt Elementary School in the early 00’s? Did you have Mr. Mig as a gym teacher? Do you remember changing the name of our tiger mascot to Euphrates? If so, you know what I’m talking ‘bout with this one. Also if so, how’ve you been? What’s your older sister up to these days?
The entire class formed a large square in crabwalk position with 10-15 kids on each side, each assigned a number according to the order they were in. Mr. Mig would shout a number and if it was yours, you’d crabwalk to the center where a few giant inflatable balls were waiting for you. The objective was to kick the ball over the heads of kids from another side of the square. Once all balls were kicked over a side, you’d reset and a new number would be called. Whichever side gave up the least amount of “goals”, won. Soccer meets crabwalk position meets children in a square. The perfect recipe for kids to kick each other in the face by accident. It was glorious.
--Caleb Tackes
Anything With Scooters
Depending on where you went to school and how well funded they were, you either had legitimate sitting scooters or you had the rolling platforms that the school probably got from the meal provider. Basically you’d play some sort of game while you sat on this four wheeled contraption and the whole time you were playing two games at once. Game 1 was whatever the gym teacher intended you all to play. Game 2 was don’t run over your own fingers and mangle your digits under your own weight. Some were luckier than others, but someone always made a visit to the School Nurse. Some would say this was the “Mercury in a box” of our generation and where we all started to develop our love of the show “Jackass”. I say it was just an honor to be there.
--Chewe
Air Bud (The gym class game)
Ok, ok, ok, I know what you’re thinking: JoE, TheRe’s nO such tHing as air bUd: the gYm claSs gaMe!!! YoUre juST TrYing To fIT aNoTher PosT abOut Air Bud iN thE BloG!!! But thats where you’d be dead wrong pal, you just were’nt one of the COOL KIDS who knew about it and played it every single day, one of the COOL KIDS that practiced and honed their skills to levels of surgical precision, that cool kid being ME, crawling around on all fours hitting a basketball with my NOSE while the substitute gym teacher Mr. Hamilton gave me VERY concerned looks and the rest of the class judged my mental stability, my social status rapidly DECAYING from that point onward. I will get it in the damn basket, I don't care if it takes me into 9th period. Samantha you’re gonna regret REJECTING me in the hallway prior to this gym class after I make this basket i swear to god.
--J.C. Lempa
