Barigui Park Features Three New Footsack Courts
Curitiba has opened its first public footsack courts, installed in Barigui Park by the Municipal Secretary of the Environment. Three courts are now being used by players of the sport.
Footsack combines the techniques of foot volleyball, tennis and other sports. It can be played individually or in pairs. The goal is to keep a crochet ball in the air using only your feet. The ball is stuffed with recycled material from plastic bottles.
“These public courts are very important in spreading a legitimate sport in Curitiba. It’s a great incentive,” says the president of the Footsack Association, Mark Juliano Ofenbock and creator of the new sport.
The courts have an asphalt base and are painted in latex, measuring 10 meters x 5 meters, and a net strung through the middle. The Department of the Environment chose to install them behind the public academy of the park near the badminton courts.
“We are reserving this part of the park as a kind of alternative sports complex, and footsack fits in perfectly with the proposal,” says the manager of parks, Secretary Jose Roberto Roloff. A display describing the game was placed next to courts.
On October 26, 2008, at a ceremony in the Barigui Park, footsack became official, the sixth new sport to be introduced to Brazil, among badminton, racquetball, beach soccer, futsal and footvolley.
Another initiative being taken is to bring footsack into the activities of the municipal Community School program.
“The City has opened another door for sport to be part of the activities of municipal schools. It’s a two-way street in which children win by learning and practicing another sport, while the game wins by being disseminated,” adds Ofenbock.
