Game creation a hit

H-Ball spreads to other states, regions

By: Mandy Toepfer

Posted: 11/19/09

Ten students arranged themselves on one of the Student Recreation Center basketball courts, five on one side, five on the other. Each side had three team members lined up near half-court with two team members behind them.
One of the center players holds the volleyball out and serves it underhand to the other side of the court.
No, this isn't volleyball, it's H-Ball.
Watching from the sidelines is Robert Hefley, professor in health, human performance and recreation, who created the game.
Hefley smiles as he watches the teams joke around with each other and loft the ball back and forth.
"They love to play," he said. "They'd play every day."
To get to the version it is today, H-Ball has gone through several revisions and trials.
Hefley says he's tinkered with hundreds of games throughout the years. His ideas started when he was a kid.
Because he grew up on a farm, Hefley says he had to come up with his own games and activities.
"I was always outside goofing around," he said. "This is an extension of that."
Hefley revised it to the game that's played today while he was teaching at Saint Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park. There he didn't know what to call it, so the students suggested it be named after him: Hefley ball. The game was dormant for years, and didn't pick up speed until Hefley started giving it as an example to physical education majors for projects, in which he asks the students to make up activities and games in class. As the game has grown, Hefley dropped the name part and simply refers to it as H-Ball.
H-Ball combines the childhood activities of volleyball and four square. That is, volleyball without a net.
As in volleyball, team members line up by the half-court line on a basketball court, with the remaining members in a row behind them. The team can score only if it is serving and each team is allowed three hits before it has to knock it to the other side. However, the teams are allowed to let the ball bounce once on their side, like four square. This bounce provides a break that volleyball doesn't.
"The bounce gives them time to recover," Hefley said.
Once the serving team can't return the ball correctly, such as letting the ball bounce more than once or the ball is hit out of bounds, the other team serves.
Although the rules state the game is played until a score of 11, 15 or 21 is reached, Hefley says teams don't have to keep score or they can play until an allotted time is up.
If a tie occurs, the deuce rule, in which a team has to win by two points, comes into play.
Besides a court to play on, only a ball is needed to play H-Ball. A volleyball is used for college and young adult game play, while a larger softer ball, such as a playground bouncy ball, works better for grade-school kids.
Hefley says it's best to have six people on a team, but it can be played with eight, or perhaps even more if players substitute in and out.
Will Bailey, senior in physical education, says he enjoys the opposition the two teams bring.
"It's a real competitive game whether you're a guy or girl," he said.
Maria Bernal, senior in physical education, says the game is easy to learn; it's how to hit the ball and other moves that take a little longer to get used to.
Bailey agrees it's easy to pick up on, especially for younger kids because they've been exposed to the playground activities of volleyball and four square.
Because it's a relatively simple game, H-Ball has spread. Hefley describes the links as a spider web. He teaches the game to those students who will be student teachers, who in turn take it and teach it in the schools.
Bernal says she taught the game to grade school kids for a clinical experience.
"They like it … It's a different game to play in the gym instead of the same volleyball game over and over."
Hefley also talks to fellow recreation teachers at state and national conventions to spread the game around. Although H-Ball is primarily played in the four states, Hefley has heard it's been played in North Dakota, Connecticut, Canada and even Australia. He says he returns e-mails a couple times a week to instructors from across the country asking for rules to the game.
Hefley says he isn't looking to patent the game, but he hopes to talk to student groups about it and turn it into an intramural activity.
"It's been fun to watch it grow," he said.