Competition engenders thirst. Thirst is quenched by beer. It’s a simple equation, one that Megan Shoup is very familiar with. Shoup is the founder and organizer of the Arlington Athletic & Social League.
The league consists of young Arlingtonians, most in their 20s and 30s, who gather together to play a variety of different sports — from football to softball to even dodgeball.
But the group has other interests aside from their sporting pursuits.
After their games, the competitors gather at local bars to either celebrate victory, or commiserate, defeat over pitchers of their favorite beverages.
"Combining sports and social activities is the perfect way to go," Shoup said. "[And] Arlington is the perfect place to do it."
ONE COULD SAY THAT the Arlington Athletic & Social League really began in Indiana, Pa. That’s where Shoup attended the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated in 2001.
After she moved to Northern Virginia to work for the Prince William County government, she began making frequent trips to Baltimore to visit her many college friends who had settled there.
Shoup found that her Charm City friends were involved in a sports league where post-game pub-crawling was routine. Inspired, she decided to create her own version in Arlington.
Through word of mouth, Shoup assembled a league of six teams, which later expanded to 12 and now 16.
To sweeten the pot, she also formed a partnership with Mister Days, a bar in Clarendon. The bar agreed to give the league’s players discounts after their games and award gift certificates to the winners of the league’s tournaments.
Tiffany Lee, owner of Mister Days, said that the bar has benefited greatly from the infusion of new clientele the league brings and that it is happy to serve the competitors after they engage in battle.
"The people who join are awesome," Lee said. "They are from all walks of life… they all rave about it."
IT’S NO SECRET THAT the Washington area as a whole, and Arlington specifically, is brimming with young people just out of college, some earning more money than they've ever seen in their lives.
A 2006 study by Arlington Economic Development, the county’s business enhancement organization, showed that one out of every four Arlingtonians is between the ages of 20 and 35. It also showed that the county’s residents have the highest per capita salaries in Northern Virginia with more than 30 percent of its residents earning $100,000 or more.
However, many of Arlington’s young professionals are transplanted from other areas. Terry Holzheimer, head of Arlington Economic Development, said that about half of the county’s population leaves and is replaced by newer residents every five years.
Consequently, many of these nascent Arlingtonians have little to no social network of friends and acquaintances they can call upon to shoot some hoops over a couple brews.
This is where Shoup and her sports league come in.
By emphasizing post-game socializing along with the game itself, the Arlington Athletic & Social League gives its participants an arena in which they can meet new people and make new friends all while engaging in physical activity and, most importantly, having fun.
"I think it is a great idea to have [an adult sports league] in Arlington," Kristin Rhoads said. Rhoads has been involved in Shoup’s league since its inception and her team, The Slingers, has competed in all five of the sports that the league currently offers.
Rhoads, who was also Shoup’s roommate in college, participated in other sports leagues in D.C. prior to joining the Arlington Athletic & Social League but said that getting to games was a hassle.
She’s said that she’s grateful that Shoup started her league in Arlington and wants the league to expand to different, less-common sports.
"I think Arlington should have another sports league that has different sports," Rhoads said. "They should have rowing and random stuff like that."