Highland grad achieves athletic goals in new sport

by Dan Holland

For Grant Klapwijk, a Hinckley resident and 2019 graduate of Highland High School, who had dreams of becoming a professional soccer player throughout his youth, winning a national championship and competing at a professional level in spikeball – also known as roundnet – provided an alternate path for his athletic goals.

Klapwijk captained the University of Akron’s spikeball team to a D-1 national title in the relatively-new sport last summer. He is featured in a documentary that aired on ESPN entitled “Teams and Dreams: Spikeball Roundnet College Nationals.” The documentary, filmed and produced by The Round Network, can be viewed on YouTube.

The University of Akron’s Spikeball team, competing in its first season in 2023, managed to go all the way to the college nationals, eking out a come-from-behind win against The University of Texas to take the title of national champions at the tournament, which was held in Richmond, Virginia. The tournament featured 10 D-I college teams from around the country, including Ohio State University and The University of Cincinnati.

Klapwijk credits a friend for introducing him to the growing sport a number of years ago.

“He wanted me to try out this new game, and so for all of 2018 and 2019, we just played for fun,” he explained. “We didn’t even know there was a competitive level and tournaments, but when we found out, we started competing in tournaments in 2019 just before COVID hit. Then, all during COVID, we would play every single day, and that was when we got really good at it.”

Klapwijk explained that the sport is known as Roundnet – a game in which teams of two-on-two players take turns serving a ball off a round trampoline net. Defenders are allowed up to three hits/volleys to bounce the ball back onto the net without having the ball touch the ground.

Spikeball is the name of the company that produces the equipment and hosts the tournaments, Klapwijk noted.

Each school fields five two-player teams consisting of A, B, C, a mixed co-ed team and a women’s team. Tournament play consists of a best-of-three series, with the first team reaching 21 points earning the win in each match.

Klapwijk, who graduated in May from The University of Akron with a degree in business administration, qualified for the Open Pro National Spikeball Championships held last fall on the Proving Grounds in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. His “Kingdom Come” two-man team, consisting of himself and partner Matthew Cole, took first place out of 16 teams invited to the competition to win the national title.

Klapwijk and Cole recently qualified to represent Team USA at a World Spikeball Tournament to be held this August in London, England.

“Every two years, they host a worlds tournament that is Olympic-style, where you play for your country,” said Klapwijk. “The U.S. brings their top ten men’s and women’s players, and my partner and I both qualified to play for Team USA. Aside from that, we’ll be trying to defend our national title at this year’s open pro tournament.”

Klapwijk, who played soccer at Highland High School and two seasons at Baldwin-Wallace University, before transferring to The University of Akron, said he was fortunate to find an alternate athletic path by which to achieve his dreams.

“I tried for so long, playing college soccer, and doing other things,” he explained. “And it ended up happening that everything I was hoping to accomplish in soccer, I’ve been able to accomplish through spikeball. I just started out playing for fun with my friends, so I have a lot of passion for the game that not a lot of other people do.” ∞

Photo: Highland High School grad Grant Klapwijk represented Team USA at the World Spikeball Tournament in August. Photo submitted.