This past weekend I attended a Kronum tournament on Burdick field hosted by Towson’s very own Kronum Club. Kronum is a new co-ed sport that combines soccer, handball, and basketball. It is the newest and fastest growing sport in the world. It started in Philly in 2008 and ever since then, it has been played in France, Texas, and Tennessee. Towson Kronum Club was the first ever to take the sport out of state last year and also the first to make a college level club. Skyler Jenkins, a junior here at TU, is the president/coach of the SGA organization. (Last year, Sports Club passed a rule that a sport can only become a club if it is NCAA recognized or in the Olympics.)
There is a professional Kronum league. In 2008, the creator, Bill Gibson, graduated from UPenn and brought it to West Chester and Villanova to create their professional league, Kronum League. The next year, they created an Adult recreational league and a high school recreational league. It’s been expanding ever since.
There are three positions in Kronum. There is the wedge back, the ranger, and the crosser. The wedge back is basically the goalie. In all other sports, the goalie is usually stuck in the goal the entire time. In this game, it depends whether you’re on offense or defense. On defense, you play as a goalie. On offense, you get to shoot on goal. The way Skyler explained it to me was by comparing it to a more well-known, conventional sport. “So how it works, it’s like half-court basketball. You have four goals and how you get possession is you take it back to a line. We have a circle in the middle and that’s our take back line. So if your team takes it back there, you can shoot on all four goals. If they take it back, you’ve got to defend all four goals.”
If you’re interested in playing or attending a tournament, the club hosts a one tournament every semester geared mostly towards Towson students. Next year, Jenkins and the team plan on getting more Maryland schools involved. They also travel to tournaments. “We’ve been to New York to play in their college tournament, we were in Philly two weeks ago to the play in the college tournament, we just travel wherever the games’ going on,” Jenkins stated.
When asked about the club’s goals for the future, Jenkins said, “Mainly, I want to have a field here. I want to hold practices that are actually official and not get kicked off [the field] for it being closed. I just want it to grow everywhere. Even when I’m gone, I’m going to represent Maryland and get it going everywhere else, eventually the world. But starting small now, get it secured here and move on.” And it certainly is growing at Towson. There are about fifty members currently in the group. Additionally, Heather Crowe, a kinesiology professor, plans on teaching her students Kronum. She teaches the newest, fastest growing sports and Kronum is exactly that.
If you’re interested in joining the revolution, you can follow the team on Twitter and Instagram and “like” their Facebook page. They also have a Vine account. You can personally contact Skyler on Facebook or email him at sjenki8@students.towson.edu.