ESPN8: The Ocho Feels Right at Home at Walt Disney World

Returning to ESPN Wide World of Sports for ESPN8: The Ocho on August 6 and 7, I was excited to once again be in the midst of fun. While the eclectic collection of sports is celebrating 10 years as part of ESPN’s programming, this was only its second year on full display at Walt Disney World.

ESPN8: The Ocho brings together a collection of sports that are easy to dismiss as quirky or silly. Yet the competitors approach them with the same determination found in any traditional sport. They want to win and celebrate their victories. They commiserate when they fall short.

But as I watched competitors throw themselves into events that I’d never imagined as organized sports, I was reminded of what draws me to The Ocho and why it feels like such a great fit at Walt Disney World. At its heart, it is a celebration of people finding ways to have fun together.

As Disney fans, we all know the story of Walt Disney sitting on a bench watching his daughters ride the carousel and thinking there should be a place where they could enjoy this type of recreational fun together. So many of the events at The Ocho struck a similar chord with me. These weren’t necessarily sports created by someone sitting around trying to invent the next big athletic competition. Many began with people simply shaping an activity to be fun with others.

An example of this was a sport new to the Walt Disney World-hosted event this year called Roofball. The sport’s founder brought home a rugby ball from a vacation in London years earlier and began tossing it onto the roof when he discovered the satisfying ping it made when it hit a gas pipe. Along with his friends, he began experimenting and assigning points based on what happened: hits or misses, catches or drops. Their fun had another wrinkle. The backyard had cats, so players didn’t want the ball going over the roof and disturbing them, so they gave that a penalty.

Somehow, all of that became a sport.

During The Ocho’s Roofball competition, there were a lot of jovial interactions between the players throughout the sport’s rounds. As host venue, ESPN’s Wide World of Sports not only brought a spotlight to their game, but also gave the players a place to gather together. I found myself drawn as much to the connections and camaraderie surrounding the competition as I was to the competition itself.

There was laughter, shared excitement and good sportsmanship on display when a competitor nailed one of the sport’s pinnacle tasks: the 10-point “around.” The ball approaches the peak of the roof without going over, then makes its way from one side of the pipe to the other without making contact.

Just a bit of structure around this very typical childhood activity has led to the Roofball Federation, with regional events and a World Championship scheduled for later this month in Beaverton, Oregon, where the sport was created.

Watching it brought to mind Walt Disney’s dream for Epcot. Walt was focused on something far more ambitious and specifically on urban development when he spoke about creating a showcase for “the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise.” But there was something familiar about watching the Roofball players.

Someone imagined something. They built it. They invited others to participate. And eventually, a community formed around the idea.

Another example is Donk Toss.

Imagine a group of musicians and stage crew stumbling across an inflated animal left behind after an event. Instead of simply tossing it aside, they began tossing the critter itself. They developed a points system based on how it landed, and eventually it became a game played with a donkey made from rubber similar to that used for dodgeball.

They call it the donk. Like Roofball, it started with people playing around and eventually became something much bigger. There are rules. My favorite being you can’t disrespect your Donk by grabbing its tail or ears. And now there is competition and a growing community of people who care about doing it well to claim the Golden Donk trophy.

During The Ocho at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports, you are not locked into only the role of spectator at the Stadium or inside the air-conditioned Arena. You are encouraged to try some of these sports yourself in the Fan Zone adjacent to the competitions on the Arena floor. You could also browse merchandise celebrating The Ocho’s 10th anniversary, including shirts highlighting signature competitions such as “The Slippery Stairs” and, of course, dodgeball, the sport at the heart of the film where The Ocho was born. You could even watch ESPN’s Cristina Alexander and Phil Murphy interview champions for SportsCenter or The Ocho Show.

But it was the active engagement of the competitors and organizers with newcomers to their sports, regardless of age, that kept the energy high in the Fan Zone. Whether measuring the speed of your fastest dodgeball toss, tossing a Popdart or playing a bit of cornhole, the room was filled with the joy of family and friends at play. Possibly due to their unique nature, Donk Toss and Combat Archery were particularly popular. And the smack talk happening around the Combat Archery booth had me in stitches as couples took aim at each other and kids shot at their parents. The sports’ representatives did an excellent job encouraging everyone who even glanced in their direction to give the sport a try. They were happy to share their tips and tricks whenever passersby stopped and participated.

And maybe that’s why The Ocho feels so at home at Walt Disney World. It has tapped into something so many Disney fans understand, that sometimes the best part of finding something you love is discovering that other people love it, too. Whether it’s a fondness for a particular character like Figment, a theme park area like Disneyland’s Adventureland or an unusual sport like Roofball, a shared passion can bring people together in ways you might never expect. What begins with one person saying, “You should try this,” can become a community of people who can’t wait to share it with someone else.