Source: Billy Rodrigues
By Brett Kosinski
Under the lights of Harrington turf, students often mistook this odd sport for quidditch, the popular game from the wizarding world. The sole similarity between the two, however, is that one team wins, and another loses.
It’s 2015. The campus leaves began to turn red and orange. The sign fall has arrived. This fall, however, two juniors would turn their idea into a reality.
Kronum was growing fast around the area, and thanks to Davis Pfund and Louis Piottti, kronum was now at Delaware. They were only able to purchase one net and three balls, but it was a start. The next step, recruiting other students to join the club.
At Delaware’s activities night that fall, about twelve people, boys and girls, signed up. They went to practices twice a week throughout the semester, with barely enough people to field a team. Despite the small size, Delaware competed against other schools in the area.
Billy Rodriguez, a senior here, remembers those early games. “We finished last at the first tournament, but we loved every second of playing together and competing against other schools.”
That was part of the reason why the founders wanted to bring Kronum to Delaware. To compete but also to have fun in the process.
Billy said the following spring about twenty to thirty more people joined. The fall of 2016, however, was when kronum seemed to really catch on. After a year of barely having enough people to practice “we had about 40-50 kids show up to the first practice,” Billy said.
At that point, the club could afford to buy more nets, and with enough people, they could finally play full games at practice, which need twenty people and four nets.
Thanks to the new talent and more competitive practices, Delaware now routinely competes for first place. The team won the league championship this past fall semester, with some of the original members leading them to the victory they imagined at the onset of the club.
Friendships grew as the team did, and that’s a big part of why the club continues to grow. At a fairly large school such as Delaware, kronum gives students another extraordinary outlet to stay competitive and enjoy themselves. The atmosphere is part of the reason why Billy still plays after four years. “It is all smiles when we are out there. It gives you a chance to escape all the stress in life and enjoy yourself for a bit.”
A club that’s a sport, but not a club-sport, kronum provides students with a competitive outlet in a more laid-back environment. With the way kronum has grown in such a short time, there’s no telling where it will head in the future.