
as you thought you were




until you’ve survived a dodgeball match with them

7) You’re never too old to make new friends




What life lesson have you learned through playing social sports?
Comment below and let us know!
What life lesson have you learned through playing social sports?
Comment below and let us know!
“We’re the Splash Brothers of North Jersey and this shot is from when we won the championship in the South Orange summer league. This is our third championship (in a row, if you don’t count the spring season, which only part of our team played). One of our teammates badly broke her ankle this summer, so this win was for Stacey. Our team formed two years ago, and although not everybody plays every season, the majority of our players are alumni from Montclair High School spanning 9+ years. Our charity is Montclair PAL, which runs Montclair’s rec basketball program for middle school boys and girls (which some of us have played or coached in). All of us are former HS and college athletes, and it’s an awesome feeling to play on a team together. Our squad is family!”
-Sarah, Splash Brothers, ZogSports New Jersey
We want to hear about it!
Send your ZogSports highlight with photos of you and/or your team to Highlights@ZogSports.com.
“It started off with me and a buddy just trying to get into a healthier life style but quickly became the best part of my week. Every week as soon as the game ended I couldn’t wait to get back out there next week. I enjoyed it so much I even started making my own highlight tapes. Granted I may not be the best player but I made sure the highlight tape made it look like I was. The thrill of the competition was amazing and I thought it couldn’t get any sweeter, but somehow it did. After trying to win a championship for 5 plus seasons it finally came! Now my highlight of the week is defending this 2x time back to back Zog Championship soon to be 3x times! Keep a look out for Curry Up and Shoot!“
Check out their highlight tape here!
-Steve, Curry Up and Shoot, ZogSports New Jersey
We want to hear about it!
Send your ZogSports highlight with photos of you and/or your team to Highlights@ZogSports.com.
“I started playing Zog volleyball in Hoboken during the Fall season of 2013, Debra and I had been dating for about 9 months. It is likely that watching me play volleyball came a distant 3rd to exploring some of Hoboken’s fine restaurants and getting to see her boyfriend, but Debra dutifully attended many Zog volleyball games. I feel safe in saying that she was the #1 Zog fan. She learned all of my teammates’ names so she could properly cheer for them and learned the volleyball vernacular. Throughout the next four seasons, Debra resumed her status as #1 fan by stepping up her cheer “prop” game. It started out with the Volley Llama poster. She took her creativity to a new level with the Cream of Wheat noise makers. Lastly, but not least, she brought pom-poms for last season’s playoffs. You could say Zog was a big part of our relationship…
So it should come as no surprise that the day I had chosen to propose (Veteran’s Day, Nov. 11th) I also had a volleyball game scheduled in Hoboken. Now I know that Debra is very understanding but I certainly didn’t want to push my luck… I e-mailed my team and told them I couldn’t make it (for only the 2nd time in 2+ years of Zog volleyball). Of course things don’t always go as planned… Our captain e-mailed back and said we only had 4 players coming and 1 of them was limping quite badly. It was the last game of the regular season and we needed a win or 2 to make the playoffs. I told them I would see what I could do…
Nov. 11th arrived and I had everything I needed (parental permission, a shiny ring and the courage to go through with the biggest decision of my life). I’ll spare you the lengthy details but we spent the day together and I made a concerted effort to keep Debra on her toes. Every detour we took she wondered if there was another surprise waiting or if it was just another decoy. We finally made our way onto the pier in Hoboken and I got down on my knee and asked her to marry me. It was 7:45 PM, we were newly engaged and she says to me “Wait, do you really have a volleyball game tonight?!”. It might not be the most romantic thing to do after you get engaged, but the game was at 8 and we hurried across town to the Boys and Girls Club. The first people to hear that we were engaged were my Zog teammates. One of my best friends is also my Zog teammate… two of my Jersey City teammates were on the opposing team that night… Jen the ref has known us for 2+ years and watched our relationship grow.. and of course my Hoboken team is full of new friends. It might sound weird but Debra and I both thought it was very “us” that the 1st people to know about our engagement were our Zog friends. We won the match 2-1 and clinched our playoff spot. The wedding is set for September 24th of this year. It was a great outcome all around.”
-Mike, Cream of Wheat, ZogSports New Jersey
We want to hear about it!
Send your ZogSports highlight with photos of you and/or your team to Highlights@ZogSports.com.
“Having Captained teams for coming up on ten years, I must say that the highlights are clearly the people. Although the roster may change from season to season, the new players tend to mingle with the old and friendships are ignited. Former players will still to this day come and watch their old team or revel in our legendary bar closing post-parties.”
-Casey,Y’all Avg, ZogSports New Jersey
We want to hear about it!
Send your ZogSports highlight with photos of you and/or your team to Highlights@ZogSports.com.
“After pulling off a win in the last game of a dismal regular season our team was lucky to go into the playoffs as the 4th seed. We had nothing to lose, seeing as how we had lost to all the other seeded teams, so we came out loose and looking to have fun. All the pieces of the puzzle seemed to fit perfectly that night, including some lucky breaks. We beat the top seeded team by 2 scores, carried the momentum into the Championship game and didn’t look back. After years of coming up short in the Top Division, we finally did it!!! Shout out to our playoff MVP’s Lauren Downey and Greg White!”
-Jerry, Jester’s Dead, ZogSports New Jersey
We want to hear about it!
Send your ZogSports highlight with photos of you and/or your team to Highlights@ZogSports.com.
“When I moved to NJ in 2012 and reunited with my college friends, I was really hoping there would be a football league for us to play in, after playing together through college. Finding out about Zog and the exceptional league manager […] could not have worked out better for us. Zog […] had a football league offered in the winter, spring, summer, and fall which my friends and I played in every single season from 2012 to currently in 2015 – highlight being South Orange Summer League 2014 champs. I had so much fun and felt such a bond to my team that this current spring season, even though I moved to PA I still commuted the 2 hours back to NJ for every game on Sundays. The first thing I’ll do in my new location is to look for the local Zog football league to join!”
-Todd, Hernandez Home Security, ZogSports New Jersey
We want to hear about it!
Send your ZogSports highlight with photos of you and/or your team to Highlights@ZogSports.com.
“Our team had one pair of Zog sunglasses that we used as “MVP glasses,” giving them to the MVP at the end of each game. When I told Zog about it, they gave us a pair for everyone on the team! It was a fantastic week!”
-Justine, Notorious D.I.G., ZogSports New Jersey
We want to hear about it!
Send your ZogSports highlight with photos of you and/or your team to Highlights@ZogSports.com.
“We met right here. I picked upSean outside. I said, ‘Hey Zogger!’ He was wearing his shirt. Then I stalked him!”
-Julie, Snakes On A Lane, ZogSports New Jersey
…and now they’re engaged!
We want to hear about it!
Send your ZogSports highlight with photos of you and/or your team to Highlights@ZogSports.com.
Our special guest Zog blogger this week resides in sunny San Fran. Kyle Smeallie is here to tell us what really happened behind the scenes in Vegas.
“Have you seen the setup downstairs?” my teammate asked at Friday’s happy hour. I’d been distracted by the sun setting over the Vegas strip, Honey Gobbler cocktails, and that guy on team New Jersey whose hair was just so Jersey. “Look through the pool.”
From water’s edge, through the windows lining the pool’s base, you could see the display downstairs: ping pong tables, corn hole set ups, a dozen pool tables, the works. All for us. That’s when it dawned on me: we were in for an insane Vegas weekend.
The ten of us on team San Francisco were all the fortunate winners of social media contests put on by ZogSports. Our prize was a weekend trip to the City of Sin, where American Honey had invited social sports leagues across the country to compete in the first-ever Bar-sity Athletics World Championship. Airfare covered, two nights in the Hard Rock Hotel, a little somethin’ to throw down on the tables, no-cover at over-the-top clubs, all sorts of perks. (American Honey, your marketing team: Doing It Right.)
Saturday started with eye black, game planning (i.e., drinking) and getting pumped for the main event, a kickball tournament. Winning team would take home $10,000 along with a billboard (!) in their hometown. Sixteen teams from cities around the country, no one out-and-out saying it but there was certainly some regional pride on the line. This made it all the better when our team, the fearsome squad from San Francisco, tasted defeat immediately, after we gave up 10 runs in the first inning. We ended up bringing it back to 10-7, but in the end we couldn’t get past Frankenstein’s fat foot. (Looking at you, Dallas.)
In at least one other respect, though, we absolutely crushed. That was in the category of impromptu interview skills, because when the dudes at BroBible asked our teammate Charlie, “why is playing in a kickball league awesome?” he knocked it out of the park.
With our kickball dreams dashed, we did the only responsible thing we could: We rocked out, threw dice at the craps table, doubled down on Blackjack, went all-in on Hold ‘em, and downed American Honey like they were giving it away (because they were). Then we hit perhaps the wildest club I’ve ever been to, Surrender. There was a pool with little floating pads for lounging, a mini-casino in the club and Zed’s Dead on the decks.
Basically, it was Vegas Vacation, and we were all Nick Papagiorgio getting the royal treatment we didn’t deserve. (Am I right?) All because we play ZogSports.
So hey, thank you Zog, and thank you American Honey. But most of all, thank you, Nick in a Box.