WAKA, waka, waka ... a sport that encourages one to stop drinking and start kicking

About five years ago, we did a story about the minor proliferation of local kickball leagues (linked here), and left it at that.

It was probably going to be like the dodgeball fad. There's a movie made about it, lazy people see it as a way to reconnect to their past and get some exercise since they can't play softball, and it dies off until beer pong comes along.

Doesn't look like that.

We find out that more than a dozen L.A. area adult kickball teams are competing this weekend at the World Kickball Championships (linked here).

In Fargo? Branson, Mo.?

Naw, Las Vegas. Why else would 13 teams from L.A. make the journey?

L.A. has the largest representation of the 60 teams (and 2,000 participants) entered to play in the WAKA-sponsored event, its 13th, at Desert Breeze Park in Vegas during the upcoming Columbus Day weekend (that's here already ... quick, get to the bank before it closes on Monday).

ESPN's Jemele Hill did a story about last year's event (linked here), but that didn't seem to embarass the participants enough.

The teams participating this time from your neighborhood:

== Pitch Please from Hollywood
== Blue Ballerz from Long Beach
== AKT from Los Angeles
== Inflatable Party Sheep, The Dandy Lions and The Monster Cartel from North Hollywood
== Brew Crew from Pasadena
== Yo JabbaWAKAs from Silver Lake
== Sofa King Good and The Guy Fawkes Conservatory from Studio City
== Playground Posse from Torrance
== Hot Box from Venice, and
== Los Borrachos from West Hollywood

WAKA says more than 70,000 play the sport now in co-ed adult leagues, both in the U.S. and as far away as London and Iraq. "Typical" WAKA players are "former athletes, UFC fighters, celebrities, rocket scientists, marketing execs, teachers, doctors and so on," according to the organization.