The shape of the ball alone was enough to divert the attention of passers-by who came to Forsyth Park on Saturday to scour some fresh local produce at the Forsyth Farmer’s Market.
Next to the rows of produce stands along Forsyth’s main pathway, on the field closest to Whitaker Street, a new sport took root.
“What sport is this?” a stranger asked a woman lying barefoot on a blanket, isolated under the shade of the avenue of trees.
“Well, it’s like rugby, football, basketball and soccer all put together,” she answered. “I’ve never actually seen a game. My daughter is playing, so I came to watch her.”
Spectators continued to stop and watch and come and go as students from the Savannah College of Art and Design, Armstrong State and Savannah State found an all-too-rare common ground.
“Our three schools don’t do anything like this very often,” SCAD student Brett LaCour said, sweating and exhausted after running nearly nonstop for two hours. “This should happen more.”
SCAD, ASU and SSU competed against each other. At the same time. In the same game.
That’s one of the most interesting aspects of TRI, a sport invented by SCAD graduate Jeremiah Schwarz. Three teams are each given a territory and a goal to defend in a circular field and attempt to put the TRI ball in one of the other team’s goals through passing or kicking techniques. Teams gain one point when a goal is scored, while the team that conceded the goal loses a point.
On Saturday, Schwarz got to see his sport played between university teams for the first time at the spot where the very first TRI game took place 10 years ago.
Back then, Schwarz, who graduated in 2007 and is a native of Weston, Connecticut, was an industrial design major at SCAD with an idea for a sport but without any real plans to put it into action. He spontaneously wrote rules and sketches on napkins, and eventually the idea of the field came to him like a scene from the film “Back to the Future.”
It was his flux capacitor moment, the platform where all of his ideas could come to life.
Indeed, the designer’s sketch of the field looks very much like what makes time travel in a DeLorean possible. Now Schwarz is hoping his sport can stand the test of time.
Drawing interest
“It was a stroke of luck,” Schwarz said about TRI’s humble origins.
Undoubtedly, it takes a little bit of that to get to where the sport is today, still relatively unknown but steadily attracting participants. But it takes a lot more than luck.
First, it requires some out-of-the-box thinking.
“I wanted something that would immediately draw attention,” he said.
A three-team scenario and a ball that stands more than 2 feet high and is shaped like a daunting, oversized, prescription pill for when you’re really sick did the trick.
Actually, one draws interest, while the other might make some reluctant. The ball looks like it’s too big for a 12-year-old to handle and is the most intimidating bridge for first-time players to cross. It’s noticeably larger than a rugby ball and at least twice the size of a football, but you’d have to go to New England to find a football lighter than a TRI ball.
“If it hits you in the face, it’s going to be softer than a football or a soccer ball,” Schwarz said.
The ball is where it all started for Schwarz. He designed it for athletic training purposes, like when a punt or kickoff returner in football needs practice on handling the unpredictability of the ball hitting the ground. Then he created a sport around it, one that any athlete, male or female, can play and be competitive. The ball ensures that.
“We tried other balls — footballs, soccer balls, rugby balls, basketballs — none of it worked,” Schwarz said. “If we were using a football that the men could just whip around, none of the girls would have a chance.
“(The ball) is an equalizer. No sport background or skill set will have an advantage.”
Schwarz said you also don’t invent a sport without becoming an expert on other ones. According to the World Sports Encyclopedia, there are 8,000 indigenous sports in the world, putting Schwarz in a very small, exclusive camp of people in world history who have ever invented one.
Schwarz thoroughly studied 20 international sports while creating his own, and it shows up in the game’s rules and objectives. For instance, there are five players on each team just like in basketball, teams can’t hold or chop block like in football, tackling is below the waist like in rugby, and penalty shots are awarded like in soccer.
“I appreciated (those sports),” Schwarz said. “I understand them.”
Taking a chance
Finally, Schwarz had to go out on a limb. It took him five years to buckle his boots and take that step. He pursued a career in industrial design right out of college, and it brought him to China. He lived and worked in Shanghai for eight years. He started designing Star Wars toys for a company that contracted with Disney, then moved over to designing the exterior bodies of cell phones and laptops for ASUS.
In his free time, he built relationships, gaining an international market as he introduced his sport to colleges and high schools. Eventually, he decided it was time to grow his brand and do the same in the United States. He left his job and became the founder and CEO of TRI Federation.
Schwarz has dreams that one day the sport will be internationally recognized, with professional leagues throughout the world. But the sport might have to find its grass roots at the collegiate level, particularly intramurals, first. He took a small step toward that on Saturday with his first intercollegiate game in America.
He’s been on the road doing demonstrations since he returned to the country, and he said the University of Oregon has been his biggest supporter so far. Still, just a few months into the endeavor, he has no financial stability, and there’s no guarantee of success.
“I’m definitely in the doldrums,” he said. “If I foresaw another 10 years this way, I would push it very hard.
“I’m not afraid to take that risk anymore. The risk is the reward, kind of like a Steve Jobs thing. Major entrepreneurs see challenges as opportunities.”
Some of us have dreams just like Schwarz. At some point, we have to convince ourselves they’re worth a try.
Nathan Deen is a sports reporter for the Savannah Morning News. Contact him at 912-652-0353 or nathan.deen@savannahnow.com. Follow him on Twitter @NathanDeenSMN.
