Mayor's Sunday is Funday kickball is back! Will Awaken Church be dethroned?

RIO RANCHO — The Mayor’s Sunday is Funday returns Aug. 17 for its 20th year, and attendees can expect some competitive kickball as teams fight for the Tony Popper Memorial Trophy.

The Mayor’s Sunday is Funday is a joint venture between the Kiwanis Club and the city of Rio Rancho and aims to bring the community together with some family fun at Haynes Park.

Part of the tradition includes a kickball competition, but according to Rio Rancho Kiwanis Club member and event organizer Dave Heil, many other competition-based games came before kickball.

“On the second or third Sunday is Funday, we included a competition. The earliest one I recall was mud volleyball. In the following years, we had obstacle courses, ‘knockerball’ and eventually kickball,” Heil said.

Throughout the early years of Sunday is Funday came a trial period for finding the right competition-based game.

“Mud volleyball was exceptionally sloppy and required an area that would accommodate a lot of mud. We did this behind the park on Loma Colorado. Obstacle courses proved to be too strenuous for some of the participants, so we shifted to knockerball,” Heil said. “Knockerball looked like it would be a lot of fun. Dressed up in translucent large balls, competitors would play a game of soccer.”

After many muscle strains and bruises, the event organizers, on recommendation from the Boys and Girls Club, decided to give kickball a try.

“Kickball has proved to be a clean, safe competition that teams of all ages and sizes could compete in,” Heil said.

Now, kickball is the mainstay and has brought many teams kickball glory throughout the years.

The kickball tournament has nine teams this year (including the mayor’s team), and each team has eight team members. Teams have T-shirts prepared so they can be identified, and each game is about three innings.

“There are nine teams this year. Marjanel from the Boys and Girls Club is preparing the brackets, which we hope to publish soon. We have been doing kickball for about eight years now,” Heil said.

The kickball competition will start around 11 a.m. in the lower grass fields at Haynes Park.

All kickball teams will be fighting for the Tony Popper Memorial Trophy, which is named after the late former city councilor and the creator of Sunday is Funday, Tony Popper. Popper passed away in 2013 and was someone who had always championed Rio Rancho; his nickname was “Mr. Rio Rancho.”

“Awaken Church, the winner from last year, has retained bragging rights and the trophy to display for the past year. They are back again this year to defend their title. But so is the Mayor’s Posse and Crash Champions, who are other recent winners,” Heil said.

Other teams competing include the Rowdy Squad, The Bank Brawlers ( NM Bank & Trust), Feral Ballers (Southwest Veterinary Medical Center), Leg Day Legends (Sandia Area Federal Credit Union), New Kicks on the Block (Sandia Area Federal Credit Union) and Crypt Kickers (French Funerals).

“It ought to be another fun competition,” Heil said.

The kickball tournament will start around 11 a.m. and should award the prestigious trophy before 4 p.m.