Kickball: Venezuelans introduce Trinidad and Tobago to new sport

KICKBALL or kicking ball is a hybrid sport that is beginning to expand in Trinidad and Tobago thanks to the initiative of a group of Venezuelan women.

The sport is a mixture of football and baseball with some rules similar to the latter. It’s played between two teams, whose objective is to score as many runs as possible and prevent the opponent from scoring. The winner is the one who scores the most runs.

Ranchohouse Queens was the first team formed in TT, in February 2022. They are coached by Jaminson Gómez. Later, they were joined by the Venetrinis Goddesses, of St James, and are managed by Giovanni Zenzola.

In March, three more teams joined: Las Gladiadoras del Sur, a team made up of players and coaches from Point Fortin, San Fernando and nearby areas, Las Novatas from Chaguanas and Las Guerreras from Port of Spain.

Elizabeth Seidel Maestre and Ellis Khan were the first people to introduce the sport here and have been at the forefront of organising games.

“It was an idea that was born from a conversation between Venezuelan women gathered one afternoon in front of the Curepe savannah. The objective was to do some type of sport to exercise and distract oneself, and the idea of ​​kickball came up, which is a quiet sport and has many followers in Venezuela,” said Seidel Maestre.

She began suggesting the idea to other Latina women and within a few days they had their first training session.

“The idea quickly spread through social networks and many women joined. We created two teams and organised the first friendly game,” said Khan, a Trinidadian-Venezuelan taekwondo teacher who also likes kickball.

“There is a lot of excitement among Venezuelan women for kicking ball, they like it and they entertain themselves as a family after a day of work,” said Khan.

“There are three more teams from other TT zones that want to join,” said Seidel Maestre.

The goal of the organisers is to create a Trinidadian kickball league and start a long-running tournament.

“We want Trinidadian women to join in too, to get to know this sport and to share with us,” she said.

Teams and coaches interested in joining can contact the phone: 2774552.

KICKBALL: Kickball is regulated and is inspected by a referee, or two. A game is played with ten players per team.

It was invented in the United States around 1942 and is played with a soccer ball, catching the ball hit with the foot, much like baseball, but without gloves and a bat.

The kickball playing field is completely flat with an irregular shape with a certain oval impression made up of two fields.

The innings is divided into two halves called the beginning and the end. During the beginning of an inning, one team bats while the other fields.

When the batting team has three players out, the two teams switch roles and the end of an inning begins.

Usually, a kickball game is played for nine innings, but it can be less according to the time established in the tournament rules.