Nearly 28,000 University of North Carolina students will finish their spring classes Monday, leaving them staring down the barrel of final projects, final exams, and, for many, questionable credit after student loans and even more questionable employment prospects.

Is it any wonder, then, that students clamor for seemingly simpler times?

UNC's annual intramural kickball tournament, held Saturday in ideal weather, drew nearly 300 students to Hooker Intramural Fields adjacent to venerable Carmichael Auditorium, where they forsook polymers, polynomials and politics to revisit the golden days of the schoolyard playground.

In the midst of a national "recess renaissance," kickball is just one of the activities resurging in popularity among young adults and even young professionals. Team dodgeball, whiffleball (now called "Quickball"), four square and kickball are all popular intramural activities at U.S. colleges, and UNC even hosted a paper airplane competition this past Monday.

"It's always good just to see people getting out to play," tournament director Molly Gentry said. "It's a gorgeous day. We were very lucky, especially since we had such awful weather last week."

Gentry said the familiarity and nostalgia associated with the schoolyard-style activities makes it easier for UNC Intramurals to achieve its primary goal.

"We just want to get people out," Gentry said. "For something like Pickleball (a small-court racquet sport), we'll get a lot of people out just because they don't know what it is, and they want to see what it's all about. But sometimes with nostalgic sports, it's even easier to get people out."

Gentry said that the familiarity with playground sports makes them easier to stage as well. "It's nice ... because it's pretty much self-officiated."

The World Adult Kickball Association also wants to promote the sport. The group advances kickball around the world by facilitating inclusive co-ed clubs and promoting friendly competition, according its Web site (http://worldkickball.com).

In its 11th year, WAKA's kickball is one the fastest growing community sports in America, with around 50,000 player registrations in 28 states.

The turnout at UNC on Saturday was also impressive.

"We had 27 teams sign up originally," Gentry said on Saturday. "We had several drop out. Weekends are tough, and a lot of people go out of town, but today, we still had 24 teams."

Teams were arranged into three-team pools, Gentry said, followed by a single-elimination playoff for the top eight teams.

Between the great weather and a bit of peer pressure, a daylong recess in the sun was hard to turn down.

"My friends basically called me up and told me, 'You're on the team,'" said Kimzey Ellis, who played on the No Brett team.

"Last year, we were the champions at this," she said, pausing halfway through one game, "but we're losing right now."

No Brett teammate Katie Kelly said she didn't feel any pressure ... yet. "But my team is trying to make me feel it."

Members of the Red Bull Carolina squad were riding high after two pool-play victories.

"We have our own T-shirts, so we're really official," David Knoeckel said. "Everyone here played soccer, so we can kick the ball pretty well.

"Guys on other teams think our girls can't kick, so they cheat in real far, and our girls just kick it over their heads."

Katie Kelly said No Brett's team strategy was simple: "Girls kick it on the ground, and the guys try to kick it far. ... We'll kick it down the third-base line, unless there's a runner on third, and then we sacrifice ourselves for the run."

Caroline Kostyla of the team "David ****s at Kickball" agreed.

"The throw from third base to first is about impossible," she said. "The balls are more like volleyballs than (playground) kickballs, so they're hard to throw."

"Keep it on the ground," suggested Kailyn Tran, a member of "The Legitimizers" team.

"And catch the ball," Legitimizer Alexa Wilkinson added. "That's crucial with only two outs per inning."

But members of the "Josh Smash" team said other strategies were equally important, such as colorful costumes.

"This is just so we could get psyched up," Megan Wright said of her team's wildly ill-matched uniforms. "We won our first game and lost our second game miserably. We might play that team again, but only if they lose their next game by 26 (runs). It's very complicated."

"We were going for ridiculous," Stephanie Romich said. "I didn't have any of this gold in my color scheme ... and red. I needed the entire rainbow. The only thing I'm missing is green."

None of these strategies proved victorious in the end.

"Mean Machine" qualified for a final-round berth with a 14-12 win over CCF in the semifinals. The "Llama Jockeys" also pulled out a narrow, 12-10 victory over "Jeffries Run Wild."

In the finals, Mean Machine won handily over the Llama Jockeys, 15-3, and scoring some of UNC's prized "Intramural Champions" T-shirts, which, strangely enough, make no mention of the sport of kickball.

"A lot of people want it (left generic) that way," Gentry chuckled, "because not everyone wants to admit what they won it for, like, a paper airplane launch."

Gentry said UNC's intramurals will finish this week for the semester. After that, students' attention will return to such mundane notions as medicine, mathematics and microeconomics, at least for a while.

For the rest of us needing a recess from foreclosures, furloughs and financial recessions, more information on adult kickball leagues in the Triangle is available at by e-mailing WAKA at nctriangledivision-subscribe@worldkickball.com.

Unlike many other commodities, it appears that kickball is one sport whose stock is on the rise.

Randy B. Young can be reached at (919) 932-8743 or by e-mailing chnsports@nando.com.