Cricket Club is a fairly new club that was first assembled in October. Junior Nityanta Saripalli is a founding member of the club and said he has been a fan of the sport since his childhood.

“My parents just showed me what cricket was when I went to India,” Saripalli said. “I was maybe [in] fifth grade, I think. So I bought myself a cricket bat and a ball. They told me all the rules, and how the game works and that’s just how I learned.”

Although Cricket Club was created in the fall, the prime season to play is in the late winter and spring, so right now the members are working on practicing and logistics for the upcoming season.

“We meet about twice a month for now,” Saripalli said. “But then as our games start getting scheduled, [we will meet] maybe like once a week.”

Although cricket isn’t a school-recognized sport, the club is not intramural in nature either.

“As of right now, we’re just planning on working with other clubs and the other districts and other schools,” Saripalli said. “And we’re just going to do little matchups with them and just have fun and play games with them.”

Even though the club isn’t a school-sponsored sport, members still plan to utilize district property, for which they have to obtain permission and coordinate with other activities.

“We’re still working our schedule out because we have to talk to the district people to get permission to use fields,” Saripalli said. “We’re still working on the entire schedule.”

Although the club hasn’t gotten full clearance to use district fields that hasn’t stopped them from hosting their own practices and dedicating time to the club and sport.

“We have two hour practices when we do practice,” Saripalli said. “And every now and then I just like whip out a cricket bat and just practice a bit.”

Saripalli said that although he is content with the club, it is difficult to find new members.

“The hardest part is just convincing people that cricket is an actual sport and it’s actually a fun sport,” Saripalli said. “A lot of people who we ask to join Cricket [Club] were like, ‘There’s no point for me to do it because it’s not a sport I’ll be using in college’ or ‘It’s not like a necessary sport for me to grow as a person,’ but the thing about Cricket Club is that you can connect with people that you wouldn’t normally connect with. It’s just a fun time to hang around and just play the sport.”

Kendama Club was created just at the tail end of last semester by senior Andrew Jin and Spanish teacher RJ Palmgren. Senior Faith Henzlik has been a part of the club since its inception and said she was drawn to it in part by her own curiosity and the sponsor.

“I’m in AP Spanish with Palmgren who is the sponsor of the club,” Henzlik said. “He was having posters all over his classroom for it and I just saw it and I love Palmgren, so I was like, might as well try it out, so I went to the first meeting and loved it.”

A Kendama is a Japanese skill toy which consists of a ball tethered to a rope that when maneuvered correctly will connect the ball to the very top of thehandle. It is starting to gain recognition throughout the world with more annual competitions.

Henzlik said Kendama Club has been meeting about once every two or three weeks during one half of Timber Time. 

“It’s pretty new, so we just kind of go in there and there’s a bunch of fun people that are in it,” Henzlik said. “We just mess around with it for the most part.”

Although Henzlik and the others may be more casual with Kendama, Jin has shown real proficiency at it.

“[Jin’s] the one who came up with the idea, and then got Palmgren to sponsor it, but he is super talented at it,” Henzlik said. “And one day, he actually set the world record for it. It hasn’t been approved yet, but he sent it in to be approved.”

Getting members to come during Timber Time is a hurdle for all clubs, and Henzlik said it has been a challenge for Kendama Club, too.

“I would say getting more members and, I think there’s a lot of people who in the beginning said they’re a part of the club, but don’t necessarily show up to every meeting,” Henzlik said. “I’d say that’s the biggest obstacle.”

At the conclusion of the 2018-2019 school year, the Political Discussion Club was being brainstormed and was eventually formed in August. Corralling a lot of the ideas for the club was senior board member Reed Krewson with president senior Jessa Boutte.

“I am a board member, so I’ll help to run a meeting I’ll help to, you know, find a topic and then discuss the topic,” Krewson said.

The club was additionally long thought out before its original start this year.

“I kind of helped the president get it up and running, kind of get the ideas and everything together last year,”  Krewson said. “But then this year was the first that we started having meetings.”

The Political Discussion Club meets every Wednesday during Timber Time and focuses on decisions made in the country as well as the world to showcase civic argument and information.

“The good thing about the political discussion club is that it’s something new every time and it’s kind of on the whim of what’s current,” Krewson said. “So it’s kind of hard to, you know, foresee what a big topic is going to be.” 

Krewson also said that is exactly what he and others find their allure in the club to be: the influx of information regarding the common citizen and their opinions on a political platform.

“I think political literacy is really important, and I think encouraging that among my fellow peers is very important,” Krewson said. “And because if you’re more up to date on what’s happening, and you’re more informed, you’re more likely to vote and be a part of the political process in our country, which I think is very important.”

Despite a core group of members, Krewson said Political Discussion Club doesn’t see a larger new member turnout week in and week out.

“The lack maybe of people willing to express their opinions or another thing is just there’s so much stuff going on. It’s hard to devote, you know, your half of Timber Time to talk about politics when you need to go talk to teachers and whatnot,” Krewson said. “But we’re always there if anybody ever wants to join us, or anything else.”