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New club has Rowan students juggling their studies and fun
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GLASSBORO - The Rowan University campus is a flurry of activity around 4 p.m. on Fridays. Students rushing to class. Athletes lugging gear to the practice fields. Cars lining Route 322 as commuters head home for the day.
Somehow, David Ramsay tunes it all out as he focuses on the two spinning Diablos balanced on a string in front of him.
In and out. Up and down. Ramsay manipulates the Diablos - think two large, rubber yo-yos - back and forth, occasionally popping one up into the air.
"This gets very addicting," the 26-year-old Wenonah, Gloucester County, native said. "It's easily my favorite thing to juggle."
A strong statement for a guy who can also juggle Hacky Sacks, clubs, juggling balls, Devil Sticks and flaming torches.
Ramsay is the founding member of Rowan's juggling club, an organization that parks outside Rowan's recreation center once a week to wow passers-by with feats of balance and concentration.
"My mom refers to me as 'my son, the street performer,'" the civil-engineering major said.
Ramsay attributes his passion to interactions with "aging hippies." He picked up the Diablo while attending "rainbow meetings," counter-culture gatherings that have been happening nationwide since the 1970s.
"It's basically a bunch of hippies who set up shop in the middle of the woods," Ramsay said. "It's like a last stand to gather peacefully on national land."
Ramsay taught himself tricks by watching videos online, and spent most of a six-month trip to Mexico in 2006 mastering the Diablo. But he has Rowan's engineering program to thank for getting a school-sanctioned club off the ground.
"I would bring my Diablos to class and stay in the back room (of the engineering building) practicing," Ramsay said. "Eventually, every chemical engineer knew how to pick it (the Diablo) up and make it work," Ramsay said.
Fellow engineering student Michael Newgas, 23, was especially inspired. The two began practicing together on campus and driving up to Philadelphia to attend juggling clubs.
It was nice to finally have some company.
Learning tricks off the Internet wasn't fun, Ramsay said.
"With a club, if you want to learn a trick and don't know how to do it, someone is there to teach you," he said.
Technically, the club only has four permanent members, including Ramsay and Newgas, a Marlton native who has since graduated. But it has many day-to-day members who are lured in as they pass the club on the way to class.
"Juggling just seems like a natural promotion," Ramsay said. "You don't have to put a sign out or get a table at the craft fair. You just stand there and juggle."
In casting out a line, the club often reels in some interesting finds.
One memorable day, a would-be juggler stopped by a club gathering last year and within hours had learned how to juggle three balls and the Diablo.
"We had this unicycle that nobody knew how to ride," Ramsay recalled. "In half an hour, this kid learned how to ride it."
The juggling phenom never returned, but that's something Ramsay has gotten used to.
"There are always lots of people who are like, 'Ooh, I'll learn how to juggle,'" Ramsay said. "And the next week they forget to show up or forget how to do it."
Peter Gorgas is one of the exceptions. The 20-year-old Weymouth Township native got roped in as he passed the club one day, and is now a regular member.
Gorgas started juggling years ago during idle moments while playing for Buena Regional High School's tennis team.
"We'd be standing around," said Gorgas, a civil engineering major. "So I'd just start juggling tennis balls."
Having such a unique pastime can get expensive, with plastic juggling clubs selling for $30 apiece and $90 for a set.
As a school-sanctioned club, the Rowan jugglers got $800 for gear and a possible trip to a juggling conference in New York City. But, ever the thrifty college students, the jugglers found ways to get around the price tag.
Gorgas uses a set of orange juggling balls made from orange balloons filled with rice and bird seed. Ramsay and Newgas crafted juggling clubs out of wooden dowels, plastic soda bottles and tennis balls.
Newgas is the first to admit that there's not much future in juggling, outside of the circus.
"There are expert jugglers all over the world who devote all of their time to juggling," Newgas said. "And they are way better than we could ever be."
But even without a potential professional career, the competition aspect of juggling keeps them addicted. For every trick mastered, there's another, more complicated, one to learn.
Can you juggle three balls? Try four or five. Think you've mastered juggling clubs? Try juggling fire batons.
"Juggling is a way to challenge yourself without being in a competitive sports setting," Ramsay said. "Or without being in front of video games all day."
E-mail Courtney McCann:
Posted in Life on Friday, October 9, 2009 3:10 am Updated: 7:56 am.
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