Pickup Games and the RecCheck App
Growing up with Sports
Like so many of us out there, I've played sports my entire life. Growing up, I participated in: hockey, baseball, basketball, soccer, football, and I was even on the local swim team for a bit. I kept all my last place ribbons to prove it (I can admit when I'm not good at something, and swimming wasn't a highlight for me). The point being, I have always loved playing and learning different sports. Even if I wasn't the best.
The Life of a Collegiate Athlete
As I got into high school however, I mainly focused on my baseball career. And baseball treated me well. Baseball took me to college and I was able to play at the collegiate level for the past five years. I participated at the Junior College level, the NAIA level, and the Division III level. I mention this because at these different levels I was able to experience different levels of competition, what I liked, what I didn't like, and so on. Now don't get me wrong, I love to win and I love a good competition, but those over-the-top people that will do anything to win just turned me off a bit. I never liked playing with those individuals.
Towards the end of my collegiate career, I got pretty tired with the game I had grown up to love. Which, even talking about it now, saddens me because I truly do love the game with all my heart. But at the higher levels of competition, you tend to forget why you fell in love with the game in the first place. I found myself not excited to go out to practice anymore. It just wasn't as fun as it once was.
Going Back to the Basics
Every time there was a break in school or a break in baseball, I would get the chance to go home. And every time I went home, my friends and I would always find time to go out and play a fun pickup game of hockey. And let me tell you, we would have an absolute blast. I found myself so happy to just be out there playing a friendly game. The score didn't matter, how I did personally didn't matter, it was just so much fun to be out there skating amongst my friends. And the more we went out and played, the more people we met who were also looking to play some pickup hockey. We organized a few games, and it was a blast, but communications always fell through. Their Facebook group wasn't always reliable, and group texts are just never the answer (we've all experienced the misery of a group text gone wrong). And to be honest it was a major bummer, because we had just met a cool group of guys who had the same intentions as us (to have a friendly game) but because of communications, or lack of communications, we weren't able to meet up with them all that much. Whenever we did, certain guys hadn't got the message, or guys had to bail because they weren't notified in time. It was frustrating to say the least.
Life After Collegiate Sports
Now that my collegiate baseball career is officially over, I am constantly looking for friendly pickup games. And it’s not just hockey, I've been playing pickup basketball, fun games of ultimate Frisbee, and even baseball again. I've found my passion for sports again, and let me tell you it feels phenomenal. But organizing these games is always one big frustrating mess. People get the dates wrong, people have to bail at the last second, there’s always something that comes up. I can't tell you how frustrating it is, especially when you're the one trying to communicate with everyone and keep the group organized. And I've been thinking to myself forever, that there has to be a better way to go about this. I mean, right? There has to. Well hold the phone, there just might be one on the way.
The RecCheck App
There’s an app being developed as we speak, that is looking to get rid of this communication problem when it comes to organizing pickup games. It’s called RecCheck. RecCheck will allow players to connect with like-minded players who are looking to set up friendly pickup games. Once connected, players can follow other players for future pickup games. Pretty cool, right?! RecCheck will also show players where local games are going on, what courts are open, and what courts are over-packed. In other words, this is the solution people like myself have been looking for, and I can't wait for it to come out this summer!
