Founded thanks to fidgeting at school, the Titan Juggling Club has come a long way.
West High School graduate Andrew Hainen was already an enthusiast of the sport when it struck him while juggling one day during Spanish Club: why not start a club? Officially launched in January, a core group of five friends began meeting after school Tuesday afternoons in teacher Andy Baumann's room to learn the basics, perfect patterns or tackle complex moves.
The club attracted an average of 12-15 people, with a high of 33 people, during their weekly gatherings.
"We gave free lessons and if you didn't know how to juggle, we'd help,” said Hainen. "You get that first pattern down with three, take a week — that's the most frustrating part, staring out.”
This summer as the five graduates plan for college this fall, they tucked performances at Friday Night Lives every week into their schedule. They wowed passersby on Front Street with three-, four- and five- ball combinations, clubs, rings, duets and other group patterns.
Like everything else associated with the low-key club, the ticket to Friday Night Live was happenstance.
"My neighbor across the street saw me juggling and gave me an application,” recalled Hainen, who will study engineering at the University of Michigan.
The experiences downtown sometimes have an aura of juggling evangelism about them.
"There was one week where we had all the balls set down and we looked down and they were gone,” said Hainen. "A bunch of kids were in the street and they were all juggling.”
Self-taught thanks to videos and countless hours of "messing around,” Hainen has been juggling balls for three years and clubs for about a year. He mastered five balls and can do six or seven for just a few seconds so far. He deems juggling the perfect cure for boredom and enjoys the challenge of learning and mastering new patterns.
Thanks to the Titan Juggling Club, Hainen also discovered he liked juggling with a group.
"It gets addicting when you're with a group of people,” he said. "My skills improved because it felt like during the year I had to get good at this.”
"Everyone who got into the club, their skills improved astronomically,” Hainen added.
Jalel Nadji was a novice juggler whose club attendance allowed the self-described visual learner to master a variety of patterns with two, three and four balls, including the three-ball cascade, the classic juggling motion, reverse cascade, jugglers tennis, half shower, full shower (juggling in a circle) — to name a few. Not to mention the asynchronous, synchronous and rainbow cross with four balls and a five-ball cascade.
"It's fun, when I'm practicing, I have to focus on what I'm doing, so I'm relaxed and can't worry about anything else — it's a way to unwind,” said Nadji, who will study aerospace engineering at Florida Institute of Technology. "And, I like being the center of attention, so the performances are fun for me.”
Scattering this fall to colleges around the state and nation, the founders and core of the Titan Juggling Club at West High School hope the baton passes to a new generation. The club has a Web site full of information, tips, links and other juggling news and Hainen has also talked up the group to younger students.
"Mr. Baumann has all the equipment and he's going to try to keep it going this year,” said Hainen.
For more information about the Titan Juggling Club, see their website at www.tcwjuggling.com.