Kickball for 52 hours! Atlanta nonprofit group busts world record

They played a continuous softball game for five days. Then they played a 121-hour basketball game.

Both times, they set a world record.

Now, they have set their third Guinness World Record by playing kickball nonstop for more than two days. The marathon game in Fairburn started at 8 a.m. Friday and ended at noon Sunday with a world record.

Players broke the record for the longest kickball game. (Abbey Cutrer / AJC)

“My No. 1 goal is for people who see the stories or hear about what we do to have a greater awareness of the level that sex trafficking has risen to in our world,” Deel said.

Keeping a game going for 52 straight hours seems like no easy feat, but the volunteers had done it twice in the past year.

In order to break the record, they had to follow strict rules. The players had to stay at the park the entire time and could take breaks only to use the restroom or sleep for brief periods. The 20 players on each team rotated in groups of 10 to give everyone a chance to rest.

Air mattresses were lined up near the field Friday where players slept as they played kickball for 52 straight hours. (Abbey Cutrer / AJC)

“It’s physically taxing, it’s emotionally taxing and it’s mentally taxing,” said Deel, who has participated in each world record quest. “When you get to the nighttime hours, and you’re playing 3 a.m. to 8 a.m. and for no fans in the stands, it can get a little lonely out there.”

Players also ate and slept at the field. They took five-hour shifts to sleep, which means some players were on the field for five hours nonstop in the dead of night.

Their first record-breaking fundraising event in September 2024 was a five-day softball game. Then in March, they played 121 hours of continuous basketball to take home that world record. While the first two events consisted of all male players, women joined in the kickball match, too.

“In the beginning, it’s all fun and games, but then once you get in the middle of it, it definitely gets taxing mentally, and having to overcome the physical aspect,” said Tyler Stilley, a volunteer who played in the prior games and was joined in the kickball game by his wife.

Players laugh together in the dugout during the first day of their world-record-breaking kickball game.

The group is focused on men, who are believed to make up 95% to 99% of all buyers of illegal sex. The nonprofit hosts and speaks with men’s groups to teach about the evils of sex trafficking and has aided local law enforcement with investigations into trafficking operations, the AJC previously reported.