IN THE GROOVE
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Spencer Mitchell drove more than 4,100 miles to chase a small orange ball around a plywoodpaneled tennis court in a Memphis park, steering his bicycle with one hand and wielding a mallet in the other.
The Alaskan bike polo player was impressed by Memphis barbecue and the laid-back vibe of South in Yo Mouth, the city’s hard-court bike polo tournament.
It’s like polo, with bicycles instead of horses and free-spirited millennials filling in for the upper crust.
“The competitive spirit is very good, very friendly here,” said Mitchell, 24, a bearded bicycle salesman from Anchorage. “I haven’t gotten off the court yet and thought, ‘Those guys are jerks.’”
Mitchell was one of about 80 players from 10 states who gathered at Glenview Park Aug. 27-28.
Cara Notestine, 27, a tournament organizer, fell in love with the sport because she and her husband, Brett Edmonds, are “just really into cycling in general.”
They’re regulars at Wednesday and Sunday evening pickup games behind Bluff City Sports on Cooper in Midtown.
The Memphis tournament started in 2012 at Tiger Lane, skipped a couple years, then was revived last year at Glenview. Notestine, a cake decorator, said 26 three-person teams were scheduled to play 50 games over two days.
Team names tended toward the wacky: Rodents of Unusual Size, Tim Tebows Tears, Crunk Bubba Ho-Tep and Oh The Huge Manatee.
Two tennis courts are enclosed on all sides by plywood panels supported by shipping pallets, with a hockey-like goal set up on either end. Teams vie to score five goals within a 12-minute regulation.
Players pedal in circles, jockeying to smack ball into net. A foot on the ground incurs a penalty, punishable by a trip to midcourt where a panel is marked “U Sux.”
Funlola Coker, 27, a Memphis jewelry maker, said she enjoys honing her bicycling skills through bike polo. “I’ve gotten better about controlling my bike. I’m just settling into the groove of it. When you have better bike skills, you don’t think you’re going to die,” Coker said. The 25th annual Cooper Young Festival Friday 4-Miler: Sixth annual Book It 5K Run/Walk: Kids Yoga and Mindfulness: