Hacky sack, a game that was popularized in the 1980-90s, involves standing in a circle and keeping a small weighted ball, or “sack,” off of the ground by using one’s feet, legs, arms and chest. Hacky sack only has two main rules: no hands and no serving the sack to yourself.

Owing its popularity to a combination of social media trends, ease of accessibility and a no-screens appeal, hacky sack has made a generational comeback in high schools not only across the state but the entire Northeast. Wayland High School houses the anonymous student who runs the unofficial instagram account “MIAA Official Hacky Sack Rankings.”

Building off of the actual Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) power rankings, the account releases weekly top 100 power rankings of teams from various towns across Massachusetts. According to the student, the process of ranking teams involves combing through posts from hacky sack teams and rating them out of 10.

“[The teams] are competing for something versus just posting videos for no reason,” the anonymous MIAA Hacky Sack account manager said.

Similar to dancing or gymnastics, the rankings are determined based on which team has the best tricks or moves, with new rankings released each Tuesday. Currently, Wayland is ranked No. 10 overall in the state; however, the highest ranking the team has achieved is ranked No. 4. These rankings have created a competitive atmosphere for schools across Massachusetts.

“I think the main reason sack is popular is really just the connection that you make with other people,” senior and Wayland varsity hacky sack team co-captain Will Klautky said.

Klautky first heard about hacky sack from his father, and after seeing the game’s newfound popularity on social media, decided to pick it up for himself. While his main claim to fame is being a captain of Wayland’s varsity hacky sack team, Klautky was also a captain for the varsity soccer team in the fall.

“I picked [sacking] up pretty quickly because I am a soccer player, and I’ve practiced a lot of juggling with both soccer balls and especially tennis balls in my prime,” Klautky said.

Klautky was crowned as a co-captain, along with senior Will Walters, by Vice Principal Laura Cole despite the varsity hacky sack team not being an official WHS sports team.

“I [made them captains] because they’ve been respectful and responsible about how they’ve brought it onto campus, and they’re really good at it,” Cole said.

Wayland’s high placement in the rankings, along with its widespread influence is a point of pride for Klautky.

“It’s just an absolute honor to be named as the captain of the Var Sack team,” Klautky said. “Especially seeing the way we’ve grown and picked up a very high ranking in the MIAA for sacking. I just love that it’s getting recognized.”

WHS is home to two hacky sack Instagram accounts: Wayland Sack and the Sack Slingers. Both accounts post highlights from their games and currently have around 300 followers each.

While the “MIAA Official Hacky Sack Rankings” mainly focuses on the original judging system based off of players’ performance of tricks, students across campus also play variations of the game such as the popular “elimination” version. In this version, after three consecutive passes a player is able to catch the bag and throw it at another player to eliminate them.

The re-emergence of the game is a throwback for several teachers and administrators who experienced the original popularity of hacky sack. One example is Vice Principal Sean Gass who was a prolific sacker in his own high school days.

“I did quite a lot of hacky sacking in high school,” Gass said. “[Back] then it was very counterculture and something that we did quite a bit to get away from school.”

However, differentiating itself from its 20th century roots, Gass noticed that the crowd for the hacky sack circles has changed. According to Gass, the previous crowd of hacky sack players were more edgy and stereotypically punk. In contrast, Gass has noticed that the groups sacking around WHS are more diverse.

“There [are] more different types of kids that are out in the circle together,” Gass said. “Whereas, when I was in school doing it, it was really kind of one type of kid that was there.”

Another WHS staff member who has experienced the resurgence of hacky sack is English teacher Zachary Vonnegut.

“It’s really exciting because I have memories of doing hacky sack, and I had almost completely forgotten about it,” Vonnegut said. “Here it is coming back, so I guess it feels exciting.”

Vonnegut observed another key difference between hacky sack culture in 2026 as opposed to how it was in the past, which is the social media aspect. Social media currently plays a key role in connecting towns and inspiring people to play. Short clips of game highlights are one of the main factors that re-popularized the sport.

“Whoever’s pioneering the whole thing where they film it and put it on social media deserves a lot of credit,” Vonnegut said.

A large benefit that has been seen through the hacky sack mania at WHS is providing an outlet for students to be off of their phones and connect socially.

“Most teachers see it as a positive thing because it’s something that’s getting students off their phones, and in a circle, interacting in a fun, casual way,” Vonnegut said.

Even though these days hacky sack is seen as a favorable activity by teachers, it wasn’t long ago that the game was banned at the high school. Gass shared a story about his early years working at WHS, where he and Cole went through the out-dated student handbook in order to make it more relevant. The two found an old rule that stated that hacky sack was prohibited on campus.

“I think it took us a couple years, but we finally looked at it again and were like, why is that still in there?” Gass said. “Get it out, so we deleted that from the handbook.”

According to Gass, the trend gives social stimulation to teenagers who are usually cooped up in a classroom all day. Hacky sack also teaches students the value of tolerating mistakes, something that is hard to teach in a class.

“You just have to be willing to put yourself out there and be embarrassed a little bit and figure stuff out,” Gass said. “It gets people laughing, it gets people messing around in a really healthy way.”

This story was originally published on Wayland Student Press on May 21, 2026.