Zorb 360 Rolls Onto Campus

by Ben Middendorf

If you were walking through the quad in the evening on Friday, Oct. 23, you may have noticed several large, clear plastic balls running around on pairs of legs. Was it an alien invasion of the Globe People? No, it was Zorb 360.

Concordia hosted two of the events, Battle Ball and Bongo Ball Mania, that make up CEP Incorporated’s Zorb 360 package deal for campus activities.

“It was so much fun,” sophomore Kelly Snader said. “I can’t imagine a better Friday evening than being encased in a plastic orb and running into people I’ve never met.”

Zorb 360 was organized by the Student Activities Council (SAC).

“We come together and look at a bunch of activities that we could possibly do and afford to have at Concordia,” SAC member Elyssia Finch said. “This one popped up, and we thought about it, and we’re like ‘I really don’t see why we shouldn’t.’ It’s really fun and exciting.”

Concordia has hosted Bongo Ball Mania before, but this was the first time Battle Ball came to campus.

Battle Ball is a variant of soccer in which two teams of four people strap on protective spheres. Strapping on the spheres is like putting on a backpack. Once inside the sphere, only a person’s legs are visible.

Then, as the teams stand at either side of a field marked out by cones, a soccer ball is thrown into the middle. The actual objective of the game, to kick the ball through goals, is usually forgotten. The main attraction of Battle Ball is running directly at the other team and attempting to knock them over.

“All I know is one minute I’m right side up, and the next minute I’m upside down,” sophomore Taylor Rankel said.

Bongo Ball Mania was also available for students. Using a new, slimmed down model of gun and foam balls instead of last year’s Nerf rockets, participants ran around the sandbag-dotted terrain, shooting missiles at each other using pressurized CO2 canisters.

Zorb 360 will return to campus in February. SAC member Izaak Wendorff said in addition to Battle Ball and Bongo Ball, the next Zorb 360 will include “hamster ball things that you go into.”