College friends seeking social ties become kickball champs

When a group of friends started a local kickball team just for, well, kicks, little did they know they would win the Raleigh Parks and Recreation Championship after just one year.

The city championship was settled Nov. 17 in a three-game playoff at the Walnut Creek Baseball Complex.

"I guess we recruited talented kickball players," said team organizer Jordan Forrister, 23. "We were just looking for some fun, but we only lost three games in the regular season and won five or six straight games to take the championship."

Forrister's home is now also home to a big trophy, which she plans to use for show-and-tell at Lacy Elementary School, where she teaches fifth grade.

The team, called "New Kicks on the Block" in tribute to a popular 1980s boy band, was born in 2007 when a group of graduates of UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University were looking for opportunities to stay connected.

"We chose kickball because it was a fun, easy sport everyone could play," Forrister said.

In 2008, the New Kicks swelled to 24 players, including a former high school baseball pitcher who assumed the role of pitcher and coach.

Tyler Long, 23, who was on the job market, moved from Charlotte to Raleigh to room with two buddies who were on the kickball team.

"I'm very competitive and I love sports," he said. "The kickball games were the highlights of my week."

Long's baseball pitching skills came in handy for kickball.

"My best pitch is to just roll the ball straight and put a little mustard on it," he said.

As coach, his most effective motivational strategies came at the end of the season, when the weather turned cold.

"I told the team it's no fun to be cold -- and it would be worse to be cold and lose, so we might as well win," he said.

It worked. The New Kicks on the Block is one of Raleigh's newest sports champions.

This team that came together just for fun is now fired up. They're looking for different sports to play -- and other local teams had better watch out.