Los Altos High School has a new unofficial sports team: hacky sack. As the school year comes to a close, dozens of students are replacing their textbooks with footbags. While the recreational sport was most popular in the 1980s and 1990s when it transitioned from a counterculture pastime to a nationwide trend, it has made a major resurgence.

In fact, a group of serious players at LAHS has created unofficial varsity and junior varsity school teams, dubbing themselves “Los Altos Sack.”

“Varsity sack is legitimate business,” varsity sacker junior Benji Barton said. “We pride ourselves as varsity on getting at least two rounds in a day. Almost any period, you can find a text in the group chat to go out to the bathroom and sack.”

Benji recalls that the team started to ramp up their hacky sack rounds during the second week of AP testing. 

“I saw some videos online of people sacking and wanted to try too, so I went to Cheeky Monkey Toys before the rush and got my sack,” Benji said. “Nowadays I hear they’re very sold out of sacks.”

By now, they take things very seriously. The varsity squad even boasts a personal videographer, junior Jackson Bortz.

“I’ve always recorded videos and had a YouTube channel, so it felt natural to pick up the phone and start recording the first time I joined a sack circle,” Jackson said. “Slowly but surely, I got promoted to videographer.”

Math teacher Matthew Chaffee said he is surprised by the game’s rapid resurgence, but he’s a fan nonetheless.

“It’s a venue where you guys are able to interact with each other in a way that’s more social than being on your phones, so I think it’s a good thing,” Chaffee said.

In fact, hacky sack rallies at school have brought strangers together to achieve the shared goal of keeping the sack airborne.

“Earlier today at lunch, we were rallying and it got a little out of control and went over everyone’s head,” Benji said. “Then, a kid walking by managed to step in and kick it and we were able to keep up the rally.”

While helping kicks here and there by passersby are appreciated, Benji and Jackson said that there is a level of skill required to participate in varsity rounds of sack.

“Everyone is welcome to join, but at a point, there are genuinely levels to the game of hacky sack,” Jackson said.

To those critical of hacky sack’s colonization of the quad almost every day, Benji said he urges people to try the game out for themselves.

“You should get your own sack and practice a little with your friends,” Benji said. “Spread sack, not hate.”