Daryl Genz

Daryl Genz is considered one of the greatest doubles freestyle footbag players of all time. He is a multiple-time Doubles Freestyle World Champion and a member of the Big Add Posse, a group of the best freestyle footbag players in the world.

Daryl began playing footbag in Denver, Colorado in the early 1990s. He developed an interest in technical freestyle which was on the rise at the time. It wouldn’t take him long to find players that shared his interest; the Denver area was a hotspot for footbag in the 1980s and 1990s. Daryl connected to the Wash Park Footbag Club in Denver, and attended his first World Footbag Championships in 1991 in Golden, Colorado. There, he met and formed friendships with the larger footbag community. His most well-known freestyle partner was the iconic Rippin’ Rick Reese, who resided in Fort Collins, Colorado, not far away. The two began schooling on a regular basis and eventually competed together in the double freestyle category. Daryl’s skills grew greatly during this time.

Genz’s main focus was pushing freestyle to its limits. He was considered more technical than many of his competitors, emphasizing concepts such as stepping, pixie, and atomic moves in his gameplay. He was the first player to hit Paradox Torque back to back. Daryl was also known to be one of the best footbag jugglers, meaning he could juggle up to three footbags with his feet at once.

Daryl was featured in numerous videos, articles, and news segments. With his elite freestyle peers, he starred in the now-classic footbag video Raw Shred: Tales of the Big Add Posse by Paul Munger, released in 1996. That same year, he was ‘BAP’d’ in by Rick Reese, an especially honored privilege as it was the only time a Big Add Posse member has inducted a player without a group vote. Rick’s confidence in Daryl paid off as Genz became one of the best freestyle footbag players in the world. Daryl’s BAP name was ‘Genzu’, as in Ginsu Blades. Only one other player was BAP’d in that year; one Ahren Gehrman from Oregon. As Daryl was Rick Reese’s apprentice, Ahren Gehrman was Kenny Shults’s student.

In 1998, Daryl won his first World Championships in doubles freestyle with Rick Reese. They would win the World title again in 2000 in Vancouver, BC, and again in 2001 at the World Footbag Championships in San Francisco, California. They won again in 2002. Aside from winning, the duo consistently took top 3 during their competitive run in doubles freestyle.

-1998 World Footbag Championships: 1st Place Doubles Freestyle (Daryl Genz/Rick Reese)

-2000 World Footbag Championships: 1st Place Doubles Freestyle (Daryl Genz/Rick Reese)

-2001 World Footbag Championships: 1st Place Doubles Freestyle (Daryl Genz/Rick Reese)

-2002 World Footbag Championships: 1st Place Doubles Freestyle (Daryl Genz/Rick Reese)

Thus, Daryl is a four-time World Footbag Champion. He also placed top 8 in open (singles) freestyle during his many years of play. He won various tournaments outside of the World Footbag Championships as well. In 2000, he traveled to Pocatello, Idaho, where he met Bob Green, Boone Penske, and his younger brother, Jim Penske, an up-and-coming freestyler who would go on to have a long career in the sport.

Genz was a member of multiple footbag groups. Aside from the Wash Park Footbag Club, he was also a member of the Boulder Blades, a group of top freestyle players based out of Boulder Colorado. This group included Big Add Posse members Eli Piltz, David Holton, Red Husted, Jonathan Schneider, Brian McKenzie, and the aforementioned Rick Reese in Fort Collins. Other members included Brad Kaplan, Paul Mestas, Jeremy Benton, Kyle Zender, and Sunny Freeman. The group would go on to run the Colorado Shred Symposium for many years, one of the largest North American footbag tournaments.

Daryl worked with Paul Mestas in Revolution Footbags out of Westminster, Colorado. Together they produced the Mr. Sandbag, a famous four-panel footbag designed by Mestas.

Genz married Sunny Freeman in the early 2000s and eventually relocated to Boise, Idaho. There, they set up the legendary Freedom Footbags. The footbag company took off quickly, selling their famous four-panel footbag Mr. Sandbag, as well custom 32 panel footbags, and footbag shoes including the Quantum and Nucleus models.

Daryl and Sunny joined the Boise footbag club, which would later be known as the Boise Footclan. This group originally included the aforementioned Jim Penske, who had become one of the top freestyle footbag players in the world by that time. It also included Zeb and Zac Jackson, Dylan Johnson (Daryl’s stepson), and Sunny Freeman-Genz. The group later expanded to new heights when more freestylers moved there, including fellow BAP members Nick Landes, Evan Gatesman, Lon Skyler Smith, and Red Husted. Other players included Bob Green, Nathan Pipenberg, James Chance, and Greg Whener. Boise became the center of freestyle footbag, and remained that way for many years.

Genz and Freedom Footbag sponsored many players including Jim Penske over the years. Daryl bought a house in Nampa, Idaho, and created the ‘Freedom Shredquarters’ where they ran the business and practiced freestyle. The group performed numerous shows and demos throughout the area, and ran a number of tournaments including the US Open Footbag Championships multiple times.

Outside of footbag, Daryl was a structural engineer, juggler, and chess player.

For all of his accomplishments in the freestyle spotlight and behind it, Daryl Genz was inducted into the Footbag Hall of Fame in 2010.

Daryl Genz