Human foosball kicks off at Caribou Regional Tech Center

CARIBOU, Maine — Criminal justice students and health and medical sciences students had a score to settle on Friday at the Caribou Regional Technology Center and there was only one way to battle it out … human foosball.
Of course it wasn’t really a battle, the “trash talking” was done through wide grins and giggles, and the “score to settle” was a four-to-four tied game, but the friendly competition brought students together from all vocations at the Caribou Regional Technology Center during their annual Team Building Day on Sept. 5.
Human foosball, one of the recent crazes hitting the internet, was new to the Team Building Day this year and complimented the other activities offered, such as the Army National Guard’s rock climbing wall.
Student Services coordinator at the Tech Center Tracy Corbin said that the human foosball court was clearly the students favorite activity of the day. With nine players per team sliding back and forth along the court’s rails, students and faculty lined the court’s walls to watch the match and cheer, while occasionally ducking from an errant flying soccer ball.
Corbin explained that human foosball players place their hands on designated areas of PVC pipes that float freely over galvanized pipe. The PVC pipes are cut at different lengths so that forwards and midfielders can move about five feet laterally, while defenders can move about 10 feet and the goalie can move the whole width of the court — which is helpful for getting the ball out of the corner.
“To be honest, it’s brought us closer as people and it’s shown us that teamwork really does pay off,” said Chris Adams, who is studying criminal justice.
While human foosball has team-building elements, Adams’ classmate Ashley Cote jokingly qualified that the game even reinforces the lessons they learned in their criminal justice course.
“Protect the ball! You have to keep your eye on it and make sure it doesn’t go out of your sight … and watch your face,” she said with a laugh. “It’s a lot different than playing an actual foosball table, but it’s really cool to get in the game and know what it feels like to be one of those figurines.”
Adams and Cote agreed that their vocational team was the absolute best, but health and medical sciences student Jenel Guillemette disagreed.
“Of course I think my team is better, but I think we’re just going to have to battle it out,” she said, almost keeping a straight face through the jesting smack-talk.
As a team-building exercise, Guillemette explained it human foosball works well.
“You have to strategize your way through all these people and you have to realize who’s open, who’s able to get the ball and who’s going to be able to get it toward the goal,” she said. “It’s basically soccer, it just has more of a challenge to it.”
The game was so popular, the Caribou High School physical education department planned to utilize it this week for their classes. Corbin said on Friday that the students enjoyed the game so much that the teachers hadn’t had a chance to play human foosball themselves … but they may or may not have played a game or two after the kids went home.
Game aside, the teachers joke that building the court was itself a team-building exercise.
Residential Construction teacher John Worsley only had about three days to build the court, and did so utilizing the skills of his fellow vocational instructors and spare materials found around the center — like old PVC pipes from the agriculture and odd wood pieces from carpentry. The extra pieces needed to make the court whole cost about $200.
“(Worsley) spent most of the night here on Tuesday building it, but he won’t admit to it,” credited Director of the Caribou Regional Technology Center Ralph Conroy. Human foosball will be around for additional Team Building Days, as the court was made to be easily taken apart and reassembled.
The result of the hard work of Worsley and the rest of the staff was a Team Building Day that was filled with smiles, laughter and cohesion that indicated a great day for the Tech Center’s 200 students.
Additional information about the Caribou Regional Technology Center can be obtained by visiting www.RSU39.org.