Whether it be during lunch, tutorial or any momentary break from studying, there will almost always be a Spikeball game happening in the quad or on Stober Field. A longstanding part of Lynbrook’s campus culture, the game has traditionally been led by seniors, who often have more free time throughout the day with a shorter class schedule. Interest in this hobby spiked at the beginning of the 2021-22 school year, when senior Leo Huang started playing the game with his friends during brunches and lunches. Later in the school year, when members of the track team wanted to pass time before their practices started, a new friend group was formed. Since then, the playing group has grown larger and larger, eventually creating a welcoming environment open for interested students of any grade level who want to play to join.

“We love expanding our community,” senior Bethany Chan said. “If anyone wants to play, they can just come up to us. We don’t mind if you have experience or not.” 

Spikeball has brought the groups closer as friends not only by learning each other’s habits and playstyles while teaming up during the game, but also by creating new friendships along the way. Many students beyond the original friend group have joined in to play over the past semester. The players have even bought more Spikeball nets to accommodate the growing number of students who want to play. 

“Our rule of thumb has always been that if anyone is interested, they’re down to join,” Huang said. “We’re always open to teaching anyone the game.” 

For senior Ryan Kim, Spikeball was his introduction to his friend group this school year. Kim moved to San Jose, California in the summer of 2022 and had a lot of apprehensions about making new friends at a new school, especially during his senior year. At Viking Day he seized the opportunity to ask the Spikeball group if he could play with them.

“Spikeball was my introduction to a large group of people, and these people are still my friends to this day, “Kim said. “When you sweat and rejoice with strangers, it’s hard to stay strangers with them.”

The future of Spikeball at Lynbrook is unknown. The great majority of the Spikeball group is made up of seniors, meaning they will inevitably graduate at the end of the school year. 

“We hope that the few sophomores and juniors who are playing with us will be able to find more people who share our passion for Spikeball, especially those who are too intimidated to try out the game with us seniors,” Huang said.