Kicking it around with Mike Glass of MUSA Madison

A couple of weeks ago, the phenomenon of recreational adult kickball in Madison was covered here, focusing on the MUSA Madison, which encompasses more than fifty teams. MUSA stands for the Midwest Unconventional Sports Association, which organizes adult kickball (and more) leagues for seven cities/regions in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

The home base this spring and summer for the Madison kicksters is Demetral Field, a park sitting near Oscar Mayer just south of the airport. Mike Glass, Director of Operations for MUSA Madison, is there every week, making sure that the show is running smoothly.

In between games yesterday evening, Glass spoke with Dane101, discussing the game of kickball, the growth of MUSA, and some great skills... you know, like teamnaming skills. The interview and a few photos appear below the fold.

Dane101: How is the spring season going so far?

Glass: Good. As long as we don't have any rainouts, we always do good. It's the first time we've had 52 teams, and on three different nights, so everything is going well so far.

Dane101: This league has been around since 2001, right?

Glass: The organization has been around since the fall of 2001, and we've been in Madison since the spring of 2002.

Dane101: Can you tell me about the growth of the league over the last few years?

Glass: We started it in Milwaukee with six teams in '01, and now with this spring season we have 164 teams in Milwaukee. We have 52 in Madison, and six in the North Shore, which is the Port Washington area. We have nine up in Green Bay, and 54 in the Twin Cities in Minnesota. So that rounds out to be 250, 300 teams, or something like that.

Dane101: Are you planning to expand elsewhere in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, beyond?

Glass: Yeah, we're kind of focusing this fall in the Fox Valley region: Appleton, Oshkosh, Neenah, and Menasha. We going to try and get some teams up there, and see what we get. Other than that, we’re not sure.

We don't like to go into areas too fast, we like to go in slow. But the Fox Valley for sure, and then the suburbs of Milwaukee. Like I said, we picked up the North Shore this past season, Port Washington, which is north of Milwaukee. Stuff like that.

We could probably grow faster, but we're more about providing a good quality product rather than quantity. It will be a slow process, but for now, it's the Fox Valley.

Dane101: Do you work with the MUSA leagues in other cities, such as Milwaukee or the Twin Cities?

Glass: Mostly Madison, but I work on the website. The organization hires my business to do the website, so I'm involved that way. Plus with tournaments in Milwaukee and other stuff, I help out there too.

Dane101: Do you pay attention to the team names, and if so, what has been their evolution in the last few years?

Glass: [Laughing] A lot of them have to do with what's kind of popular during the season. During this past season, we had a lot of Liger teams, in reference to Napoleon Dynamite. It's kind of funny that we have so many teams, and we really don't have a lot of repeat names, which is always interesting. A lot of people really get creative with them. In terms of the evolution of them, I guess they've always been creative. Like I said, they really go with what's popular during that season or during that year.

Dane101: For the rest of 2005, there is a short mid-summer session and a fall league, right?

Glass: Yeah, we'll do a six week summer session, and then we do a ten week fall session, starting in late August.

Dane101: What's the best thing about kickball, from your perspective?

Glass: I like it because, for one, I get to meet a lot of people. I've watched a lot of people meet people they haven't seen in years. They used to go with school with them, and now they're both back in the same city again.

The fun aspect is that it's a lot less competitive than a lot of the other sports out there, so it's more of a social event, I guess you can call it. A social gathering. You don't have to be super athletic to play. You don't have to be super young either. We have some teams that have people who are forty years old.

Dane101: So the league isn't just for people in their twenties and thirties, but for interested older players too?

Glass: Yes. We actually have a team with most of their players over forty. They didn't play this season, though they usually play every season. Individually, you'll have players on teams, such as sometimes you'll get some 50-year olds out there kicking the ball around. But I would say midrange, we're probably at 25-35, which is our demographic for age in players.

Dane101: Is there anything else you'd like to tell readers about the sport and league?

Glass: Well, if they're just looking for something to do, you know to get off the couch, or try something a little different or out of the ordinary, come on out and we'll sign 'em up on a team. We do individual registrations for somebody just new in town. I get a lot of people emailing me, telling me they're looking for something to do, and they want to get placed on a team, so we do that.

We also do dodgeball, not just kickball. Dodgeball is one of those things that's mostly in the winter, just mostly doing tournaments. We're thinking about doing a league this winter because interest is pretty high. It started in Milwaukee and went over pretty well over there, so I think we're going to try to do it in Madison. That would be held at Keva Sports Center come wintertime.

Other than that, if you want a good fun social time, come on out and give us a try.

For those interested in registering new teams or as individuals for the dog days Summer Skool session from MUSA, the deadline has been extended to Monday, June 20.

Also as mentioned previously, there's a little more blogging about Madison kickball at Tim in a Nutshell, as well as Kick. Ball. Action., which was "originally intended to promote social activism through kickball, glorious kickball," way back in the autumn of 2003.