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The Piedmont Highlander

The Piedmont Highlander

Hacky sacking trend kicks off: a new favorite pastime

Every day at lunch, in the breezeway, on the Mexico trip, and at half-time of a lacrosse game, a group stands shoulder to shoulder, their eyes all focused on a small woven sack. 

Senior Cameron Addis began playing hacky sack with his friends, including senior Nate Harrison-Bokor, at lunch at the beginning sophomore year. 

“It started because [Harrison-Bokor] had a sack one day, so we just decided to play the game,” Addis said. “We were really bad at first.”

Addis said that most often, the group will play the game where after three hits, a player can catch the sack and hit someone to get them out. Other times, they rally. One day during a free period Addis and two friends reached their record of 32 hits. 

“You start off with a set, throwing it at someone’s chest, and then when three different people hit it, you can catch it and if you peg someone successfully then they’re out,” Addis said. 

Extending beyond the initial lunchtime games, Addis said the group played hacky sack on the PCC Mexico trip, where sophomores first joined in.

Junior Ethan Argue said in Mexico, groups of different grades would merge into one game. 

“There were 40-person games and we realized those games would never end,” Argue said. 

Now, about 30 sophomores play at lunch, Addis said.

“It’s cool that we can pass it down to other grades,” Addis said. 

The group has also grown in terms of its commitment to the game by creating a “Sackstitution,” Addis said. 

“It’s like a constitution, but for sack rules,” Addis said.  “So if you’re holding a water bottle and the water bottle gets hit with the sack, then that counts as part of your body. We have the hand rule: if it hits sleeve and down, it doesn’t count as a hit, it’s a handball, or hand sack.”

Over time, Addis has seen specific characteristics develop among the hacky sackers.

“[Senior Ben Barrett] is known as the one to be super aggressive,” Addis said. “His playing style is very greedy and he probably gets the most people out.”

Harrison-Bokor stalls a lot, Addis said. 

“If it’s up in the air and lands on [Harrison-Bokor’s] head, he’ll keep it there for awhile,” Addis said. “[Senior Jordan Cortes] is pretty good at doing cool moves like behind the back kicks.”

While this group of hacky sackers consists mostly of seniors, Argue began playing with them in November. 

Because the group Argue plays with is mostly seniors, he said he will try to get more juniors to play or start a club next year. 

“Playing hacky sack for those 20 minutes at lunch is sometimes the only reason I even show up to school,” Argue said. “It’s going to be really tough when all the guys graduate and leave town.”

Argue also said he wonders if playing hacky sack will ever get boring. 

“It puts everyone into that mood where everything is funny,” Argue said. “Maybe it’s just because we are like a big pinball machine and the hacky sack just bounces off people in the most random ways. If it goes through someones legs, everyone is hysterical.”  

While Addis and Argue have been playing for several months, freshman Jet Moxley and his friends just started in May. 

“We’ve seen people playing it, and one of my friends had one, so we thought we should try it out,” Moxley said. “It’s pretty fun as long as we play it right.” 

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