Nitro Fever: Canton’s newest sport a finalist in national PE contest

With a volleyball, a net, and a group of enthusiastic participants, Canton Public Schools’ Wellness Coordinator Peter Boucher just might have stumbled upon, quite literally, the “best new activity idea in America.”

Peter Boucher in the CHS nitroball promo video

The game, a form of “inverted volleyball” that Boucher has dubbed “nitroball,” is among a group of ten finalists currently vying for that very title in a national contest sponsored by leading physical education equipment supplier Gopher Sport. And while he is thrilled to have made it this far — every finalist is guaranteed a minimum of $1,000 in prize money — Boucher retains the utmost confidence in nitroball’s chances, not only as a winner of the $12,500 grand prize, but as a viable sport for years to come.

“I really believe nitroball is going to be the next ‘new big thing’ in PE across America,” he said last week, a day after learning that Canton had made the finals. “The kids at CHS want to start an intramural league and even play other schools in the Hockomock as a fundraiser. It is really catching on like wildfire.”

With major assistance from CHS TV Production teacher Ed McDonough and his students, Boucher was able to put together a 90-second promotional video, complete with footage of Canton High’s inaugural nitroball tournament held this past December, and then submit it to Gopher for consideration in the “Best Activity Idea in America” contest.

Nitroball was ultimately chosen from hundreds of other videos by an independent panel of expert judges, and now it is up to America to select the winners by logging on to Gopher’s PEuniverse.com and voting for their favorites.

Each PEuniverse member (signup is free) gets five votes, and Boucher is encouraging everyone from Canton to log on and cast all of their votes for nitroball, which is marked “Video H.”

Of the ten finalists, two will be chosen as grand prize winners at the conclusion of the voting period on April 15 — one from the K-6 category and one from the grades 7-12 category. Other activities competing directly against nitroball include “hot spots,” a basketball shooting game; “trash can ball,” a type of capture-the-flag-meets-basketball on an outdoor field; “tennis volley progression,” a technique to teach students tennis mechanics; and “Return of the Jedi,” a version of dodgeball that incorporates a Star Wars-theme.

Boucher believes nitroball is deserving of the grand prize for several reasons, but mainly because it is simple to play and because of the “passion the CHS kids show for the sport.”

“They love it,” he said. “I think that passion will catch on like wildfire once others see them playing the game the way they do.”

Boucher initially called the game “inverted volleyball” because that’s what it looks like -— instead of hitting the ball up, players hit it down before trying to spike it over the net, which is set at the height of a tennis net. Beyond this basic premise, the rules are threefold: “You have to let the ball hit the ground before hitting it, you have to serve the ball behind the back line, and you have three hits per side.”

“You can play this game on any tennis court or any gymnasium around the world,” Boucher said. “All you need is a ball and four-plus boys or girls. The propensity for the sport to multiply quickly is limitless.”

Boucher said he came up with the idea in the summer of 2005 while teaching a large summer school wellness class in Sarasota, Florida, where he had access to over 12 tennis courts but not many tennis racquets.

“I needed a creative, inexpensive way to keep the kids moving during our active sessions,” he explained. “I had some volleyballs available, so I started fooling around with inverted volleyball, which turned into nitroball last spring, this past summer and into this fall.”

He later brought the game to Camp Tel Noar in New Hampshire, where he is the land sports director, and they now play it there recreationally every summer. However, it was in his Net & Racquet Sports class at CHS this past fall that “nitro fever” really began to catch on, with students starting to devise complicated offensive and defensive formations and new offensive strikes.

In fact, Boucher said that while the sport is still fun to play recreationally, the strategy that exists now compared to a year ago is “off the charts.”

“If you were to take a group of kids that played in my [fall class] and put them against an elite athletic group of novices, it wouldn’t be close,” he said. “The kids who have played for a while and fine-tuned the strategy and offensive attacks would make it look easy. It would be similar to watching a D3 football team play a D1 team; it is that far delineated at this point.”

Boucher said nitroball is now a part of the wellness department’s regular rotation of activities in both fall and spring physical education courses, and he plans to run another tournament next year and possibly an intramural competition before the spring sports season begins.

“Ideas are storming everywhere right now,” he said.

And if Canton is fortunate enough to take home the grand prize in the Gopher contest, Boucher has already identified plenty of uses for the money, including some new “cutting-edge power stations” and fitness technology for the CHS Fitness Center, as well as equipment for the safety and self-defense class that he is hoping to resurrect.

“I’d also like to spread the money around possibly K-12 too if we win the grand prize,” he said.

Regardless of the final outcome, Boucher said he was proud of the students for all of their contributions both on the court and behind the camera, and he is confident that nitroball is “going to be a game that goes national very quickly with this exposure.”

Boucher also praised McDonough for what he called a “tremendous collaboration between the wellness department and TV production staff that took weeks to produce,” while McDonough, who said he was pleased with the final video, credited Boucher with creating “a great new sport that anyone can play without a lot of specialized gear.”

“I really like the innovative nature of its inception with Peter making lemonade out of lemons,” McDonough added. “Many great ideas are formed under such duress.”

Boucher, meanwhile, has big plans for nitroball that go well beyond being named the best new activity in America.

“Every sport started somewhere,” he said. “Springfield lays claim to both the birth of basketball and volleyball. Canton, Ohio, has the Football Hall of Fame, and 20 years from now, Canton, Massachusetts, will have the Nitroball Hall of Fame.”

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Nitroball TV production crew: multi-cam editor – Brian Ahearn; promo editors – James Feeney and Daryl Smith; nitroball tourney multi-cam crew (six camera teams) Bradley Anderson, Ericka Berman, Chris Boughter, Alyssa Crane, Ethan Eastwood, Andre Etienne, Thomas George, Bryan Glick, Allison Guenthner; Ollin Halloway Bryant, Thomas Nickel, Shachi Risbud, and Derek Seto.

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Posted by Jay Turner on Feb 25 2010. Filed under Features, News, Schools. Both comments and pings are currently closed.