PUNCH World Cup

We have a little philosophy that we abide by here at PUNCH, called “the art of impact.” With that said, on Friday, May 30th, we hosted the first annual PUNCH World Cup. And believe me, there was plenty of impact and absolutely no art involved!

An energetic group of 24 PUNCHers, friends, and family showed up. Eighteen were divided into three teams, with six players per team. We played a total of six games for an exhausting 2-hour period of time. Add those numbers together and what you end up with is a large quantity of ice packs being used the next day.

The event was held at SCOR of Richmond, and was the first official contact sport event we’ve thrown. Sure, last year we had the Salisbury Smackdown, which was a fantastic tennis tournament. And we’re no stranger to the annual Chick-fil-A charity dodgeball tournaments either. But those are child’s play compared to this year’s soccer tournament. Things change when you stare your co-workers down as they run at you with such determination you fear their momentum alone will inevitably cause a collision thus requiring you to pick up all your knocked-out teeth once you get back up!

Yes, we had plenty of full-on feet-in-the-air wipe-outs (just ask our PR extraordinaire, Maureen Blackwood). And I still feel obligated to apologize to my designer co-worker Erin Potter for kicking her in the stomach…trust me, that was an accident, as my kicking aim isn’t all that…kickin’! Some folks even forgot mid-game what sport we were playing, such as our copywriter, Devon Hoff, who snagged the nicest volleyball spike I’ve ever seen performed in a soccer game. I’d say men, women, and children alike all upped their game that night. By the end of the evening, I was practically begging to be thrown in the penalty box just so I could take a breather.

All-in-all, our first annual PUNCH World Cup was a huge success! Everyone conducted themselves with the utmost of sportsmanship, and made some great stories to tell on Monday morning. But don’t think for a second that a few of us aren’t already secretly training for the 2009 PUNCH World Cup…that’s right, we plan on making plenty of impact next year too.