Club sports relaxed environment

Walk into Factory of Champions on Broadway on a Wednesday night, and you might think you're in the middle of a junior high gym class.

There's a game of dodgeball in progress. Players on two co-ed teams are hurling brightly colored balls at each other. Some are fast and aggressive, while others are just trying to avoid getting hit.

But this game is for adults only. The players are in their 20s or older, and after the game ends, they're all going across the street to Rebar to knock back some beers.

The game is organized by the San Antonio Sports and Social Club, which brings together adults to play recreational sports and socialize in an informal environment.

“It was more or less a reason to get out of the house, keep myself busy,” said Steve Gugan, a 36-year-old engineer, about why he wanted to participate. “It just looked like a cool way to meet people. You have a couple of things in common: sports and drinking.”

The club, an offshoot of the Austin Sports and Social Club, began in March. More than 400 people have participated so far.

“We wanted to give people an avenue, an outlet for staying active but also give them the opportunity to meet people outside of the workplace and have fun,” said director Paul Norwine, 27.

Besides dodgeball, the club offers sand volleyball, flag football and kickball, and plans to add more sports.

The players are split pretty equally between males and females. While Norwine says the club doesn't necessarily cater to a singles scene, quite a few players are single and some have even started dating each other.

Besides sports and postgame drinking, the club also holds other events, including a party with the Austin Sports and Social Club on a barge on Lake Travis on Sept. 2.

Not a jock? No problem.

“I'm so uncoordinated, I can't run on a treadmill,” joked Bob Moody, 25, who joined the club shortly after moving to San Antonio so he could meet people his age. “Most of the time it's drinking while playing. Like you go out on the kickball field with a beer in your hand.”

“It gets pretty competitive, but not to the point where a fight's going to break out,” said club member Natasha Alff, 28, an elementary school physical education teacher. “Just competitive enough to be fun.”

Jessica Belasco | 210SA contributor

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