Bubble Bowl Bounces in Just Before Summer

HRL and Campus Recreation will be hosting their first Bubble Bowl after the success of last year’s bubble ball matches coordinated by Intramural Sports. Photo by Anna Meassick.  

If you’re looking for a fun way to start the weekend without leaving campus, the University of Rhode Island will be hosting the first ever Bubble Bowl on Friday from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Bubble soccer is a sport where players play soccer while wearing an inflatable “bubble” which covers the head and upper body of players.

The URI Campus Recreation and the Housing and Residential Life Leadership Board (HRL CLB) will be hosting this event.

Teams made up of four players will play against each other in 10 minute long single elimination games, according to Director of Intramural Sports Sean Butler. There are currently six teams signed up for the event, according to Butler, and the organizers of the Bubble Bowl are aiming to get at least 10 teams signed up.

There is a limit of 16 teams to sign up for the event. The deadline to sign up is April 25.

According to Butler, each team will have to pay a $22 fee when they sign up, but will receive a $20 refund so long as the team shows up.

“For us, it’s not really about making money, it’s more about knowing that they’re gonna show up and that we don’t plan something and then they don’t show,” said Butler. “So it helps to know that they have a little bit of skin in the game.”

The winning team of the tournament will receive intramural sports champion t-shirts with an “Avengers” inspired graphic on them as the movie premieres Friday.

Kimberly Klugein, a cell and molecular biology major at URI, said that bubble soccer is a different kind sport that intramural sports is offering to students to destress before finals.

“It’s something that’s kind of fun and silly rather than playing normal games,” said Klugein.

James Cocozza, president of HRL CLB, which includes Resident Advisors and Resident Academic Mentors across campus, said that the event is geared towards getting those on campus, that might not want to go off campus for a party on a Friday night, involved in a recreational event on campus to meet new friends. Cocozza also said that the event would give students an “opportunity to destress before finals.”

Butler said that the event is an opportunity for students to do something a little bit fun and weird before finals. Butler said that the event is slightly different than one you would usually see, as most people don’t run around in big inflatable bubbles all of the time.
“It hopefully is a new experience for a lot of students that come out and participate,” he said.

Cocozza said that those who want to participate don’t necessarily have to be good at soccer. Butler said that the event usually just devolves into people bumping into each other more so than playing soccer anyhow.

Butler described the process of how a tie would be broken during any game in the event as a “joust.” According to Butler, a tie will be broken by having one person from each team stand in their own team’s goal then the two will run at each other as fast as they can and the first person to hit the ground will lose.

There will be other activities for teams to participate in between games such as cornhole, spikeball and kan jam. Campus Recreation and HRL will also provide water and Gatorade for players.

Butler said that he hopes that Campus Recreation and the HRL CLB will host other Bubble Bowls in the future, hopefully having one in September for incoming freshmen to participate in.