Duarte Council Does Its Fighting on Wallyball Court

Once a week, City Council members take each other to court. The wallyball court, that is.

While other city councils bicker and argue during their regular meetings, the Duarte officials do their battling during wallyball games that precede their meetings. Wallyball, invented in 1979, is an indoor version of volleyball in which players are allowed to bounce the ball off side walls.

“We’d rather beat up on each other here than during the council meetings,” said Councilman John Van Doren, one of the founders of the game, which started as a Tuesday afternoon tradition before the twice-monthly council meetings. It proved so popular that now members play every week, council meeting or not.

Since Van Doren and Councilman John Hitt started it four years ago, the wallyball game has become something of a council rite of passage.

“When I first started on the council, I was told that I wouldn’t be official until I played the game,” said Councilman James Kirchner, who was elected to the council last November.

Van Doren, who has served on the council 12 years, jokes that participation in the wallyball game should be a job requirement, “but the council hasn’t voted on that yet.”

Since the games started after the 1986 elections, council members dressed in shorts and T-shirts have become a common sight around the Duarte Town Center, where the city-owned Duarte Fitness Center sits next to the auditorium, which serves as council chambers.

Council members usually start arriving at the center two hours before their meetings to play wallyball. They finish the game by about 6:30 p.m., hop in the showers, get dressed in traditional dark suits and ties and start their meetings at 7 p.m.

Ginny Joyce, the lone woman on the five-member council, is the only member who refuses to join the game, ritual or no ritual. “When I was first elected I played in a practice game, and I went home all bruised up,” she said. “That’s when I decided this wasn’t for me.”

She said boycotting the wallyball sessions does not make her feel left out of the council mainstream. She adds that she gets her exercise from walking.

Before the coming of wallyball, Van Doren and Hitt used to play racquetball together. Then they heard about wallyball, which is enjoying a certain trendiness lately, with even President Bush reported to enjoy playing the sport at Camp David. They decided to get the whole council involved. Soon, friends and relatives started joining the game, in which each side has from two to four players.

“We always make sure that there are citizens around, so we could conduct our meetings down here, and it’s all in the open,” Mayor John Fasana said with a chuckle.