'Elements of several sports are included incompetition created by group of friends'

Saturday, July 05, 2003
By: John Futty

With the ball clutched in his right hand and a look of determination etched on his face, Mike Crosky dashed behind the goal, hoping to sneak a shot past the netminder. A defender had other ideas, slamming Crosky against the concrete wall behind the goal.

"Those shots don't usually work," Crosky said minutes later during a water break. "You get creamed when you go back there."

Getting creamed is among the risks in a newly created rough-and-tumble sport played twice a week on an outdoor court at Westgate Park. The Hilltop park is where Crosky, 19, and some of his friends invented the sport three years ago and where they continue to refine it. They call it, simply, The Game, but it has elements of many games: street hockey, lacrosse, soccer, basketball, rugby.

As with hockey, teams field six players. Players run with the ball rather than skate, but the no-look and behind-theback passes resemble those in basketball. Shots on goal can be made by throwing, kicking or even heading the ball, soccer-style. The "jumpoff" that begins play is similar to a rugby scrum. The game is played with a bump-and-run style that results in plenty of collisions (with bodies, walls and fences). But excessively physical play — including elbowing, tripping and holding — is penalized.

Attacking the net, Mike Crosky, 19, and teammate Francisco Pineda, 18, upper left, try to score as defenders Tim Beem, left, and Dave Thomas, right, both 18, protect the net. Part of The Game's appeal is its intensity, players say.


Players fight for the ball during a session of The Game at Westgate Park. A "jump off" restarts play after a team scores a goal.

"We think that because it involves so many elements of so many sports, a lot of people can enjoy it," said Crosky, a Grandview Heights resident who wrestled and played soccer in high school. "It offers something for every athlete."

Ian Gruber, 18, of the Far West Side is hooked.

"It’s packed with intensity and skill and camaraderie," he said. "And it’s an Ohio-made sport."

The Game was born when a group of West Side friends were playing street hockey with a tennis ball on a hot summer day. At some point, the players put down their sticks and started throwing the ball to one another and at the goal. During the past three years, the sport has evolved into a passion for more than a dozen young men, most recent graduates of Bishop Ready and West high schools. As many as 17 players gather on most Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons to clash beside Westgate Park’s outdoor racquetball courts. Instead of a tennis ball, which proved too small, the players now use a miniature soccer ball. The netminder wears baseball catchers gear because hockey goalie pads are too large.

The organizers hope to lure enough players to form a league of at least four teams. They’d also like to move the games to a full street-hockey rink. The court at Westgate is large enough to accommodate only one goal, which means playing a half-court game with one netminder for both teams.

The players created a Web site — www.thegameohio.com — to promote and explain the sport.

Tim Grawe, 18, of Grove City, helped design the Web site for his friends and tried his hand at The Game for the first time on a recent Sunday.

"Basketball is my favorite sport, but one of the downfalls of basketball is it doesn’t allow a lot of contact," Grawe said. He thinks the constant fouls and free throws in basketball slow the sport too much.

Pace isn’t a problem for players of The Game. And contact is a constant.

"It’s enter at your own risk," Crosky said.

jfutty@dispatch.com