The origins of the sport are not American, nor is the equipment or the rules and general philosophy behind the game.
The sport is called hurling, and Anttonen said it’s better than any sport he’s played in the United States.
“I like the constant action, and I also like the physicality of it,” Anttonen said. “It’s a lot of fun. I played soccer in high school over here in America, but you can’t really hit anyone like you can in hurling. It’s just a lot of fun.”
Anttonen was introduced to hurling when he lived in Ireland for two years during the fifth and sixth grades. He had no idea what the game was before moving, but, in Ireland, that and Gaelic football were the only sports anyone seemed to play, he said.
“Football and hurling are a lot like what basketball is to Indiana,” Anttonen said. “Every school has its team, and that’s what you do during gym class. Even during the winter you just play it indoors.”
Shortly after arriving in Ireland, he asked some people in the park what they were playing. After their initial surprise at his ignorance, they handed Anttonen a hurley — essentially a wooden paddle — beginning his experience with hurling.
His father’s work moved the family back to Indiana. With the move, his hurling career was put on pause until last spring.
He said he was walking through the weight room at the Student Recreational Sports Center when he spotted someone holding a hurley. That day he learned of the IU Hurling Club and of a recreational hurling league in Indianapolis.
“He told me right there and then that there was also a club up in Indy and that the draft deadline was actually tomorrow,” Anttonen said of joining the recreational Indianapolis league. “So I kind of did it on impulse.”
Since joining the hurling club at IU, Anttonen has quickly recovered his skills. It took about one practice, he said. He has also competed in tournaments in Chicago and Indianapolis, and has traveled to Montana to compete in nationals.
For nationals, IU needed to combine its team with Purdue’s in order to field enough players — 11 — to compete. This season, the club’s numbers are down again — and could be in more trouble next year.
“The problem right now is you have to get people when they’re younger,” Anttonen said. “Like right now, four or five of our members are seniors, so we’ve got like two or three people next year to carry it on.”
IU doesn’t have enough members to compete in games and hasn’t had a fully organized practice since school started this fall.
But still, every day when the weather is nice, a group will be at Dunn Meadow hitting the ball around and hoping to attract new members and keep its club alive.
“It’s usually like two to five of us just hitting around at Dunn, and we always have extra hurlies with us in case anyone wants to try it,” Anttonen said.
