When the standard 5pm quitting-time rolls around, most people in the workforce rush out of the office only to dread the inevitable 9am arrival to work the next day...but not for Hannon Hillians! Last Thursday, November 7th, 2007, roughly 20 members of Hannon Hill team and their friends reconvened after work for an evening of WhirlyBall at WhirlyBall Atlanta in Roswell.
I’m sure there are many of you out there like myself who have never previously heard of WhirlyBall before. Well let me tell you, you’re missing out! Whirlyball is a strange combination of basketball, lacrosse, and everyone’s favorite part – Bumper Cars!!
The game is played with two 5-person teams, red and yellow, and 13 minutes on the clock. Players try to utilize scoops similar to those used in lacrosse to maintain possession of a softball-sized plastic whiffle ball while attempting to maneuver the 4,000 sq. ft course to their respective goals at each end. The ‘goals’ are very similar to a basketball backboard; only, the objective in WhirlyBall is not to simply shoot a ball through the net. Instead, players must fling the plastic whiffle ball through a 15-inch hole in the center of the backboard to hit a plexiglass swing gate that rests behind it.
When the ball passes through the target and hits the swing gate, a buzzer sounds to alert the referee that a team has scored and two points are added to the scoreboard. As you can imagine, with ten frantic lacrosse
stick-toting players all chasing the same moving object in bumper
cars, things got a little bit chaotic!
Highlights of the evening included Mike Strauch’s awe-inspiring WhirlyBall 3-pointer (most of us could not even score), and a no-look over the shoulders shot from Jason Ramsey, friend of Hannon Hill employee, Beth Willis (who also scored at least 3 goals last night, if memory serves me right!)
A big thank you is owed to Blaine Herman and David Cummings for making this wonderful evening possible. The office is abuzz with discussion of making WhirlyBall an annual Hannon Hill celebration, or even the possibility of implementing a HH WhirlyBall league! Count me in!
For more information on WhirlyBall, or to schedule a time to partake in the fun yourself, visit: www.whirlyballatlanta.com.