(Future Writer Note – this was supposed to go out before it started. Unfortunately, midterms exist.)

Something that when I want to write about sports or competitions that there is a place for it anything from hockey to Excel will be here just so long as people are competing actively against each other. One of the things to put here has got to be slamball.

Back in the saddle after some twenty years here are some things to keep you in the loop when you see it for the first time. Four people in three positions fill the Court for both sides and it is these people that will be bouncing back and forth trying to score on the opposing hoop. Courts are smaller and equipped with Olympic level trampolines that can send someone high enough in the air to make a slam dunk, provided nothing stops them.

Which leads us to our positions on the court you got your Gunner, Stopper and Handler. Two gunners, one stopper, and one handler. All of what the titles mean are quite simple. Handlers handle the ball and get them to the gunners who take their shot for the hoop. Stoppers, do what it says on the word and try to stop the shots often bouncing off the tramps. Simple to understand, but hard to master there has been close to two decades of athletes plying their craft. Defending and attacking as one group shoots toward the hoop with contact not so shied away as it is asked for as can be seen by the pads they wear and the glass around the smaller court mirroring that off an ice hockey rink.

Slam dunks are three points, while all other shots are two. No slam dunks where it has to be thrown down, there are cameras on the rims to see if hand to rim contact was made and they will use it ot see if it is worth 3 or 2.

It is something that tells everyone that it will be a rough sport and unlike in Soccer where someone may roll around on the ground if someone steps on their tows one can full body check the opposing players everywhere except for someone jumping into the trampolines. It is something that means it will be a hard sport for many people and one only needs to look the ages of the teams to see that it is a young man’s game. Some of the old guard of the sport have come back in the leadership of the company and some of the teams. Here are the notes on a couple that will help your slamball IQ

Stan’ Shakes’ Fletcher. Here from the start he is one of the best to play it and watching the older seasons from his time in the Steal to the Maulers he had been a guy who took the rules and made it a game adding the spark of creativity often scoring more then anyone in a game and even holding the scoring record in different categories. He wasn’t a ball hog though he and Goldman became the one two punch for the Steal. Now he has come back as a Coach, but the man was one of the few that did not need training to be a slamball player, with his skill, history in the sport and imagination, if he translates those talents well his team can see themselves taking some hardware with the Slashers.

Mason Gordon. The guy who started it all he was someone who believed in doing something right meant doing something yourself. He made his way working both the leadership for the company and the teams trying to get deals and get shown to more eyes in China, Italy, and America over the years, but do not get it twisted as he was a member for the Diablos in the first run on USA airwaves. He took it serious and made sure that if anyone thought going soft was going to curry favor he would body check him themselves. Fiery and technically minded, he had to run the court himself so he knows what people may need coming on to it for the first time.

Coach Carter. The one where a movie made about his struggle to show students the value of education and sports together where Samuel Jackson famously played him is in Slamball. In fact he has been a champion with the Rumble, and every time his team is in the playoffs or gunning for some gold there is something about the crafty coach that often makes the team a step ahead of competition. Winners win and the coach who held the Olympic torch has shown he does just that. In it since day 1 he has been able to show time after time his skill for the rules and capabilities and how to get the most of people on his team has been enough to show winners win no matter the time, or what else they have on their plate, and as anyone after a small search can attest. Coach Carter wins and will show others how to, whether the other teams like it or not.

Hope you enjoy the sport coming back.

Stay competitive.