Downball? Handball? Four square? King? Whatever you called it when you played it in the school yard at recess time, it’s no longer just a game for the schoolyard.
Noah Philp in 2020 embarked on a year nine school project to transform downball – his preferred name for the sport – from a schoolyard game to a competitive sport. The project was not required to be finished due to the Covid-19 pandemic hitting Australia, but Noah kept working to create Australia’s first official downball league, Downball Australia, as a passion project.
Noah’s dad, Andrew Philp, is the president of Downball Australia, which he described on Flow FM as “an awesome game”.
Andrew cited accessibility and inclusivity of downball as two major reasons for the sport’s popularity.
“Schools love it, teachers love it, and a doctor out of La Trobe University here in Victoria who did some research on our term-long program found there are amazing benefits. If you remember when you were at school, this is a type of sport, or this is a type of activity that everyone was invited to. You can just rock up at the end of a line when you're playing four square, and you're going to be accepted.”
“You don't need to be the most athletic or the tallest or you don't really need any physical requirements. You can just have a crack, and I suppose the more you play, the better you're going to get.”
With no equipment required besides a ball that can bounce, a surface it can bounce on, and a few lines on that surface, downball can naturally be played just about anywhere.
Andrew emphasised the interest being generated from regional Australia, and the demand for regional tournaments.
“We've got a lot of tournaments lined up next year, and I've got to be honest, the great interest from this sport comes from the regional areas. We always have schools and people ringing up from the country region saying, when are you going to come out here?”
“Often we actually do road trips. We get a bunch of downball coaches in a car, and we'll go and do what we call regional blitzes where we'll go and run workshops and tournaments in the region.”
Andrew spoke about a jam-packed schedule for downball in Australian cities and regional towns next year. Keep up to date at downballaustralia.com.au.
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