Dozens of KU students and Lawrence adults will hike up long striped socks and don fluffy sweatbands and channel their inner-child this summer. Their séance is kickball, and they plan to conjure all the fun they can have.

“I feel like you haven’t experienced Lawrence until you’ve attended a kickball game in the summer,” says Brittany Barney, Paola junior. Barney started playing in Lawrence’s Kaw Valley Kickball League last summer. She says she loves the low-key atmosphere of a kickball game and the irony of the fervent seriousness some people play with. When the kickball season ended, friends invited her to join a new dodgeball league for the fall. Barney and other Lawrence adults are tugging the term “child’s play” across a whole new line as they shift their recreational activities to playground games.

The Kaw Valley Kickball League will enter its ninth season this summer. The league started as a few people playing in random dirt baseball fields. Lawrence resident Geoff Wright has played in the league since it first began in the summer of 2002. “We thought it was a blast and I have been hooked on it ever since,” Wright says. The kickball league now has 30 teams of at least 10 people and has a waiting list for team registration.

With Kaw Valley Kickball’s evolution in size came the league’s social and physical opportunities. KVKL 2010 Commissioner Nick Lerner says there are some teams that use kickball as their sole form of exercise during the summer because of the workout they get from practice and games. Lerner says people are surprised by the strain of the game. They even came up with the term “kicker’s leg” for when people pull their hamstring the first week of kickball games.

Kickball games provide social opportunities as the league hosts fifteen games every Sunday during the ten-week kickball season. The game of the week is played in Municipal Stadium at Hobbs Park, 10th St. and Delaware St. “We come damn close to filling the stadium every night,” Lerner says. “The sense of community is great. We have teams running around just trying to have fun to über competitive guys dying for the championship.” The league raises money and hosts a tournament at the end of every season, then donates the money raised. Last year the league raised $1,200 for health care access. The social network of Kaw Valley Kickball even started having spin-off childhood game organizations.

KVKL members Paul Santos and Lauren Pearce formed the Bleeding Kansas Dodgeball League last fall to stay active and continue spending time with people in the kickball community. The league had 12 teams of at least six people during the fall season, but has increased to 16 teams in its second season, which is currently underway. “When people play it, they see how fun it still is to play,” Santos says. The league plays official games every Sunday night at Bishop Seabury Academy, 4120 Clinton Parkway. People watching the games wince with every rubber-to-skin collision and cheer as players sweat their way through tough barrages of balls.

Santos acknowledges the bonus of getting good exercise while playing, but he does it for the friends. “If you look at it as just working out, it doesn’t have the same appeal as meeting new people, hanging out and having fun,” Santos says. He is one of the many players in the kickball and dodgeball leagues who feel the social benefits of playing the childhood games. “I’ve met easily over 100 to 200 people through dodgeball and kickball,” Santos says. He attests that meeting someone through a kid’s sport is relaxed, which helps the beginning development of friendship.

Santos also aspires to use the network of the leagues to create a more unofficial laser tag group. His plans include organizing flash mobs of laser tag games by sending text messages to large groups of people with the information of where and when to meet for laser warfare.

Santos isn’t alone in his aspirations for unofficial schoolyard play. Andrew McFarland, El Dorado, Ark., graduate student, organized large groups of people for urban capture the flag last summer. He got the idea from YouTube videos of urban capture the flag in Toronto. McFarland’s games of capture the flag have boundary lines of 8th Street to 11th Street and Vermont Street to New Hampshire Street in downtown Lawrence. The teams use Massachusetts Street as the dividing line and must bring a flag across from the other team’s side. Each player wears a glowstick to signify they are playing. Flag locations are on a street corner so they can be easily seen and accessible. Each team also has a jail for players who get tagged, but they can be broken out by teammates.

The games tend to be long and intense because of their environment. McFarland says if a game lasts an hour and someone takes a hard offensive approach, they will probably be running for 50 minutes. Some players take a more stealthy approach that requires less energy. “Hiding behind cars; creeping around trees —

it’s a good way to work on your ninja skills,” McFarland says.

The capture-the-flag teams usually go out for drinks once a game is over to enhance the social aspect. “People get interested in the game when we come in with glow sticks around our necks and flags hanging out of our pockets,” McFarland says. He is open to people joining in the fun, but they must abide by the game’s regulations. “We have one absolute rule: Don’t be a dick,” McFarland says.

As spring arrives in Kansas, many students and Lawrence residents may begin sharing the same affinity for long-lost playground games. So don’t be surprised if what you hear after the sound of a red rubber ball being punted is the sound of adults laughing. Recess is back in session.