The Croquet Club made its debut Jan. 10 with more than 40 students attending the first meeting. Meetings take will place once a month in the field behind G-hall.

“People can recruit all their friends and bring them over to play,” croquet club president Paul Russell said. “We’re kind of working out some new things, and different competitions where people can win. Eventually it will become a big thing where a bunch of people from AHS can get together and everyone will play croquet.”

A typical game of croquet consists of nine wickets and six croquet balls. A wicket is a thin metal arch that goes in the ground. The object of the game is to consecutively get the ball through the nine wickets, alternating shots between players. Croquet is a sport more common overseas in places like England.

“I started the idea because I had this croquet set at my house for a really long time, and I never used it,” Russell said. “And I was hanging out with some friends one night, and it was the middle of the night and we decided to play croquet, and I enjoyed it. So I was like, ‘I want to start a club now.’ And croquet was something I’ve been doing for a little bit, so I was like, ‘why not croquet?’”

With a plan in place, the last step to take was to get a teacher to sponsor the club, and Russell said he knew just the teacher who would endorse their croquet club.

“Paul Russell approached me about having the club,” sophomore Phoenix teacher Shannon Green said. “We applied through the front office to have the club approved. We were initially denied because they didn’t think there would be much interest. Then Paul started a petition to show interest, and he got so many signatures that it was approved.”

Russell pulled off the organization of the very first croquet club at the school. An accomplishment that he says he is proud of and will cherish for a long time. Green said she was also glad she got to take part in this operation.

“I had the privilege of teaching Paul and several of the club officers and we had a great year with each other, so I was excited to get another opportunity to work with him again,” Green said.