March 1982, in the halls of the Computer Science Department of Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia was the first time I saw a Footbag. Scott Vorthmann had it (he was a Ph.D. student at the time) and was kicking in the hall with some other students -- I couldn't believe how cool it was. But despite desperately trying, I could not kick it more than once at a time, and sometimes not at all.

A few days later, Donald Mead (one of my best friends who I'd told about it) got one and we started kicking every night at the dormitory. We went to the tennis courts and he learned really quickly so he tried to teach me how to kick it with my legs instead of other parts of my body I was mistakenly involving in the effort. I would go to his room every night and beg him to kick with me, but he soon tired and told me to play by myself. So I did. Then he told me about a Hacky Sack and Frisbee Festival that was coming to town the next week, and we went to Piedmont Park and saw the first *real* footbag players. It was awesome. I met Jimmy Caveney there.

I was a geek studying computer science and really didn't have a life outside school, nor did I have any athletic ability or interest. So, in my case, footbag filled a huge gap in my life both in terms of fitness and in terms of friendships/community. But once I got *really* into footbag (a few years later when I moved to California to go to graduate school) footbag definitely pushed everything else out of my extra-curricular life.

Accomplishments:

1st in Mixed Doubles Freestyle w/Sam Conlon, World Footbag Championships, 1996
1st in Intermediate Singles Net, California State Championships, 1996
1st in Open Doubles Freestyle w/Ed La Macchia, Texas State Championships, 1992
4th in Open Doubles Freestyle w/Ed La Macchia, World Footbag Championships, 1997

I started the Stanford Footbag Club which has been kicking weekly on Tuesday afternoons since 1987. It is the longest-running continual weekly freestyle circle on the planet to this day.

I co-founded and served as the initial Executive Director of the International Footbag Players' Association, a U.S.-based global 501(c)(3) corporation in 1994 to foster amateur footbag competition world-wide. The International Footbag Committee officially moved under the auspices of IFPA, and the World Footbag Championships became the responsibility of IFPA to oversee from year to year. IFPA also now runs the footbag.org website, oversees the official rules of the sport, sanctions tournaments and clubs/organizations, and enables players, sponsors, and organizers to come benefit from a single global organizational effort and set of standards in the future development of the sport of footbag. It is an entirely volunteer, player-run organization. I stepped down as Executive Director in 2002 to allow it to run under its own steam.

I created footbag.org with early help from Jim Curtis who originally created a website called "Footbag WorldWide" on a small server at his company (Hewlett-Packard) in 1993. From then on, I became known as the "webmaster" as I built a suite of sophisticated web-based applications that became the foundation for collaboration and communication among footbag aficionados world-wide. I donated footbag.org to the IFPA as a centralized non-profit vehicle for the promotion, education, and resource sharing for the world of footbag.

I've done probably 30 demos at high schools in the local area (near Palo Alto, California) and organized the spots on MTV Sports and Good Morning America that happened in the mid '90s. I also helped coordinate several other large media opportunities.

I organized the World Footbag Championships in 1994 and 1995, and helped (sometimes too much) with every Worlds since.

I ran the Western Regional Footbag Championships at Stanford University from 1993 to 2002 (ten consecutive years).

I've given about US$100,000 in cash to footbag events, IFPA, and players through sponsorships and outright donations over the last 10 years.

The Sports future:

Footbag is skewing younger than we ever imagined. The sport today, especially freestyle, is now really a youth sport -- played at a very high skill level by kids from 13 to 20 all around the planet (literally). We should refocus our efforts towards this age group, and put as much as we can into helping kids who get to tournaments (by organizing safe, drug-free, kid-friendly events that parents would be happy to come to with their kids).

Also, as most people know, Olympic recognition is a dream of mine and many others. We need to eventually get to the point where we can prove to the IOC that we are in fact a sport. Both net and freestyle, with the right rules, standards, practices, and organizational infrastructure world-wide, can definitely qualify at some point, and this should be one of our goals if for no other reason than to take advantage of the amateur athletics practices and guidelines set forth by the Olympics. Once we're officially recognized by the Olympics, nobody can say footbag is not a sport.

Footbag should probably stay somewhat small, relative to other sports. One of the best things most people get out of footbag is the small, close-nit community, with not a lot of outside influence trying to hog the hack. Let's keep it that way. (No hacky hogs.)

Email brat@footbag.org

62) Julie Symons- Since 1987 Julie has been a world Champ and driving force in the sport.  She has over 20 worlds titles.  Including 7 Women's Doubles Net, 2 Mixed Net, 1 Women's Singles Net, 2 Footbag Golf, and a Women's Team Freestyle.  7 Women's Doubles Distance One Pass, and 1 Women's Overall in 1994.

In addition, Julie has been active in her club, helping lead it to host 4 World Championships, 2 as Co-Director.  Founding member of the IFPA and is currently it's Executive Director.