Think outside the wicket, students say

Most sports teams celebrate wins by brandishing trophies or rings, but Boston University’s newest sports club crowns winners by dumping iced tea on them.
The BU International eXtreme Croquet Club is one of BU’s newest organizations to seek Student Activities Office approval this week. Although eXtreme Croque is similar to croquet because it uses wickets, balls and mallets, it has no rules or boundaries and is played on rough or unusual terrain, BU IXCC President Zack Kohn said.
‘We would like to play in Boston Common at night, or on the Esplanade,’ Kohn said. ‘We’d like to make use of the snow and other weather changes to add to the extremity of the sport.’
Kohn, a CAS sophomore, said the team has already played once on the BU Beach, but fears the terrain is not quite ‘extreme’ enough compared to other terrains.
‘I set up my backyard so that it would have an extravagant garden.’ he said. ‘My friends and I would play there and gradually developed the game by combining my neighbors’ yards and using the street.’
No rules or boundaries certainly make playing conditions interesting, Kohn said.
‘Everyone must play their ball,’ he said. ‘Even if it’s in the Charles River.’
While Boston schools like Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology already recognize traditional croquet clubs, team members said the BU eXtreme Croquet club would be the first of its kind in Boston, and will be the first collegiate club of its kind in New England.
State University of New York at New Paltz and Texas A&M University also have eXtreme Croquet Clubs. Non-collegiate clubs span the country as well, from San Francisco to Connecticut.
SAO Director Mindy Stroh said her office has received around 80 applications this year for new clubs. Stroh personally approves all the clubs seeking recognition.
‘I mostly look at the recommendation by the respective consortium which reviews the club,’ she said. ‘If they give a positive recommendation to approve, then it has a good chance of getting approved.’
Stroh, who said she looks for possible risks, said eXtreme Croquet’s risky nature should not be a problem.
‘They did not specify how or why the club was ‘extreme,” she said.
IXCC Vice President Joseph Stucker said he hopes becoming a BU club will help it expand on campus.
‘A large reason for our attempt to become a recognized club is to try to expand our ability to facilitate larger matches,’ Stucker, a College of Communication sophomore, said. ‘We only have one croquet set at the moment. [We] are eagerly awaiting email notification of approval.’
Stucker said he thinks Facebook has become the ultimate source of support for the club, and he is optimistic that it will become sponsored. The Facebook group listed 32 members as of Thursday.
In a game against another extreme BU sport, broomball, Stuck said he thinks extreme croquet would come out on top.
‘ ‘[We’d] unquestionably win in a battle with Broomball,’ he said. ‘We play sober, we can run without falling, and we have better weapons.’
Daily Free Press writer Natalie Schiera contributed reporting to this article.