North American Hardcourt Bike Polo Championship 2010 was covered by ESPN!!!!
I will be following up with a personal account of the Championships, but here is the link for what ESPN had to say regarding bike polo in Madison this past weekend.
Enjoy!
Hey there! Me again! Letting all you fine people know that we were covered in the press again.
This time AOL’s online spot Asylum covered the ladies of bike polo in New York City.
Emily Epstein contacted me about doing a piece on women only, it was unfortunate that she came up with this idea a mere week after the Ladies Army II was finished, but we did what we could for her and gave it our all.
Myself, Fiona, Sara, and Katie all participated and were covered in a more “baseball card” style of reporting.
it could be an interesting read for some of you.
For any and all women who play/have played that are in New York tomorrow, Sunday, July 12, please come to The Pit between 2pm and dusk. AOL Asylum is doing a story on the women of bike polo and we need you there!!!!
They will be filming play, individuals, asking questions and taking photos. A release will probably need to be signed, and you have to be ok with that…this is if you are TALKING on camera.
Come out and show the world, or anyone that watches AOL, that women play bike polo and we do it well.
thx. chandel.
So, when the Wall Street Journal contacted me regarding Bike Polo in NYC I thought it was a bit of a joke. Really? The Wall Street Journal? C’mon! Known for it’s business and almost corporate influence, read by all of New York’s top-tier financial and world political individuals, not to mention the international following of readers it has, I thought, “what does NYC Bike Polo have to do with the Wall Street Journal?”
Turns out they have started a brand spankin’ new section, Greater New York, reporting on local politics, sports, culture, crime, real estate, nightlife, and more, and apparently NYC Bike Polo is attracting enough attention to garner a leading story for TODAY’S section.
Joshua Robinson came by the Pit on Thursday, July 1 [Canada Day] with photographer, Benjamin Norman, to take notes and ask some questions of locals and visiting players. We were fortunate to still have a lingering number of players from out of state and out of country from the Ladies Army II and ESPI V tournaments held the previous weekend. Joshua seemed mildly apprehensive when he arrived, maybe because there were already 20 of us there, yelling, swearing, and heckling at each other on the side lines. The photographer got well into it, snapping photos from all around the Pit, promising to send me an email with select shots, regardless of whether they made it into the paper or not [this I’m still waiting for, and will pursue endlessly!] Joshua eventually put some kind of smile on his face and opened up a bit more. The article itself is well written and covers most of the basics, but he allows the interviews to really command the piece, allowing a number of players to speak their mind and be heard. See comments from local player Chombo [the only name he gives, of course], myself, and new NYC Bike Polo transplant, Johan Ramirez, previously of DC. Joshua even manages to capture moments with foreigner Mark Sich of France in an interview moment that allows him to put his French linguistics to use. It was an honor to have so many different people represented in this piece, and it will be read worldwide.
Please take a look and pass it on! Bike Polo Regulars Gather in The Pit
Onward and upward. Press is pouring in, and I can almost not keep up with it, almost.
Follow ups on Japanese In-flight magazine “Wingspan” in the works, as well as features in more magazines, online publications and blogs!
NYCHBP is moving forward and it’s being noticed. Congrats to the whole community.
chandel.
NYC Bike Polo makes the press again this week!!!
The Brooklyn Rail, providing a borough publication every couple of months regarding “critical perspectives on arts, politics, and culture” recently covered NYC Bike Polo in the Pit, at our Brooklyn court, and came through to ESPI V!
Marianne Moore approached NYCHBP about writing about the basics, and then some for their July/August 2010 issue. She talks about the basics of the game, some insight from our very own Doug D, and some comments from the historic and well respected Coach, aka Brian Whitmore at ESPI.
Check out what she has to say and some photos here: Mallets on Wheels
more to come for press this week….
chandel.
Norman Einstein’s Issue 14 covered Bike Polo in NYC!
Published online the first weekday of every month, “the magazine brings you diverse talent dishing on sports from a variety of perspectives. In long form and freeform, [their] writers, photographers, and artists get up-close and personal to their subjects, attacking sports from unique angles you won’t find in other magazines or on other websites.”
I had the pleasure of speaking with writer Cian O’Day on June 17th, the week before our two tournaments were held. He was a very conscientious person with a great deal of insightful questions regarding the sport and the direction the community of bike polo is going, in NYC and all over the world. I think, and has already been communicated by other members of NAHCBP, you will find the article to be beautifully written and greatly observant of the cultural phenomena that is hardcourt bike polo. Issue published July 5, 2010.
check it out here: hardcourt hardcore
more press updates to come!
chandel
Registration for the 2nd Annual Ladies’ Army tournament is now open. Click here to register for Ladies’ Army 2. The tournament is for GIRLS ONLY, in case you haven’t figured that out already. It’s being held the same weekend as ESPI 5, and the entirety of the tournament will take place on Friday, June 25th.
Registration for the ESPI in New York City on June 25-27 is CLOSED. Registration fee is $45 per team. You can pay now or pay when you arrive in New York, but paying ahead of time ensures your spot in our bracket. The bracket is capped at 48 teams. You’ll need your entire team’s information before you register, so get that ready, then CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR ESPI V.
Please note that this is NOT registration for the Ladies’ Army tournament. That will be coming by the end of the week. Don’t use this form if you want to register for the Ladies’ Army.
It’s My Park Day
Bike Polo Demo & Clinic for Teens
May 15th, 2010. From Noon - 2PM
The Pit, Chrystie and Broome Streets in the Sara D. Roosevelt Park, NYC
For more info: partnershipforparks.org
Hard-court bike polo grows in popularity
By Alexandra DiPalma
April 12, 2010
pavementpieces.com
Here is a new story about hardcourt bike polo, The Pit, and polo players in NYC. Ram Man and myself are included in the audio segment. Also follow the link to see photos.
Each Sunday in Sara D. Roosevelt Park in the Lower East Side, six athletes ride small bicycles, racing back and forth over a blacktop surface about the size of a tennis court. They are divided into teams, and most wear helmets, padding and hockey gloves. Each player wields a mallet, attempting to hit a small plastic ball into a goal while biking without crashing, falling or putting a foot to the ground.
They are playing hard-court bike polo, a variation on traditional horse polo. And while the sport is usually associated with high society and royalty, bike polo matches in Manhattan’s Lower East Side draw a more diverse following.
According to Doug Dalrymple, the unofficial promoter of New York City bike polo, interest in the sport has steadily increased in recent years. But despite its growing popularity, many New Yorkers still know little about hard-court bike polo.
“If I had to describe the game to someone who knew nothing about it, I’d say that it’s something like horse polo, with the feel of street hockey,” Dalrymple said. “On bikes.”
Dalrymple has been playing for more than five years. Now, he helps to organize league play and is responsible for running the club Web site.
“We have about 40 people who play regularly,” said Dalrymple. “But it’s not like we’re a legit club — you don’t have to pay to play with us; you don’t have to be a member. All you have to do is show up.”
The community’s loose attitude makes the sport accessible to newcomers, and the nature of the game attracts young players who cannot necessarily afford a horse. Players ride on souped-up bicycles and use homemade mallets. Rather than a 300-yard grass field at an exclusive polo club, hard-court bike polo is played on parking lots or basketball courts.
In New York, enthusiasts gather at an asphalt court called The Pit, between Chrystie and Grand streets. Large crowds come out every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday to watch pick-up games played by bike polo veterans and rookies alike.
The Pit has been the location of several high-profile bike polo tournaments and is a well-known venue throughout the national bike-polo community. Just last week, a two-day tournament at The Pit drew bike polo teams from France, England, Germany, Switzerland, and all over the U.S. and Canada.
While the game might sound like some new-fangled extreme sport invented by urban youth, there is a great deal of history behind it.
“A lot of people think it’s a new thing, but bike polo has been around almost has long as bikes,” Dalrymple said. “It probably looked a lot different than this, considering bikes had just been invented, but the idea is still the same.”
First played in Ireland in 1891, traditional bicycle polo was played on a rectangular grass field and was included as a demonstration sport in the 1908 London Olympics.
Hard-court bike polo is different from the original game in that the rules are less formal and can be played in a wider variety of spaces, making it popular in urban environments where large grass fields don’t exist.
Most of the New York regular bike-polo players are men in their 20s and 30s, but there are a few die-hard players who are exceptions.
“We have college students and young people, but we’ve also got a few women, and our most senior player, Frank.” Dalrymple said. “I’m not sure anyone really knows how old he is.”
Frank Marcus, a middle-aged man who jokingly claims to be 25 years old, comes from his home in Long Island to practice each week. Like Dalrymple, he’s been playing for about five years and has no plans of stopping anytime soon.
“I just like to come out and enjoy the game,” Marcus said. “But sometimes I get in trouble for it. I got a few drinking tickets from the cops for having beer during the games.”
Marcus’ teammates tease him about the incident, and one of them caught the exchange on video and posted it to YouTube. Now Marcus is well known throughout the bike polo community for his run-ins with police.
“At the tournament last week, guys kept coming up to me and saying ‘You’re that guy who got the drinking ticket! You’re famous!’ ” Marcus said. “I still haven’t seen the video.”
Marcus and many of the other regular players have been dedicated to the game for several years, and they have the scars to show for it.
Ethan Benton, left, looks on as Phil ‘Ram Man’ Miarmi exposes his customized T-shirt. Photo by Alexandra DiPalma
Phil “Ram Man” Miarmi, 34, moved to New York in 2007 and first saw a bike polo match at The Pit within his first few days in the city. He immediately was hooked.
“I started playing right away,” Miarmi said, unzipping his jacket to reveal a custom-made T-shirt with “Ram Man” emblazoned across the front. “And it’s been painful ever since.”
Miarmi is notorious for his countless injuries, and his tendency to cause them on the court.
“The first time I was out there, I just remember smashing into everyone, going full speed into the wall and pieces of my bike flying in the air,” he recalled. “I just don’t care.”
He has marks from several injuries, including cuts, scrapes, blackened nails and even a bruise that he had to “drill a hole in to get the blood out.”
Miarmi is not the only one with battle scars. Ethan Benton, 33, from Brooklyn, has been on hiatus since his shoulder injury.
“I fell off my bike, then my arm fell out of the socket, then I moved my arm and nothing went back the way it was supposed to,” Benton said. “So I’ve been taking a little break.”
Phil ‘Ram Man’ Miarmi shows off one of his many bike-polo-related injuries. Photo by Alexandra DiPalma
Even the newcomers seem immune to the roughness of the game. Sara Wojcik, originally from New York, started playing bike polo in Poland a few months ago while she was living abroad. Wojcik and a few friends started a club in Warsaw when her mother agreed to sponsor them, providing mallet head material and balls.
“I came back to New York for a vacation, then I intentionally missed my flight back to Poland and went to my first polo tournament in Richmond, Virginia,” Wojcik said. “It was totally worth it, but it was very, very ‘bro.’ ”
Wojcik doesn’t mind being one of the only women in the scene. In New York, she has helped to organize a women’s bike polo night, or as they refer to it, “no bro polo.” Since skipping her flight back to Poland, Wojcik has had a lot of time to focus on the game.
“I’m still unemployed at the moment, so polo kind of rules my life,” Wojcik said, while bandaging her knuckles to cover a fresh cut. “It’s awesome and awful at the same time.”
