On any given weeknight after 5 p.m., you can walk past the Cerritos College gymnasium and see a large group of people gathering to play a game known as handball.

Everybody out there has their own story about how they ended up at Cerritos College to play handball. Daniel Ruiz, employee at a local cookie plant, was actually a previous student at Cerritos.

“Since 2004, I’ve been coming here to Cerritos and playing handball on my days off from school and work,” Ruiz said.

Ruiz, who took Auto-CAD courses back in 2004, saw the handball courts on campus and has been playing at Cerritos College ever since.

Ruiz even recruited others to join him.

“It’s great,” Ruiz said, “We get spectators out here. Friends and family come out to watch.

He didn’t only bring spectators; he actually started out by bringing only one friend from work, and as of now he meets up with a group of six to seven co-workers.

“It’s funny,” Ruiz said. “I invited one friend, he invited one friend and I just grew from there.”

Among Ruiz’s, group there were a couple of others who had many great things to say about playing handball at Cerritos College.

Alfredo Guzman and Vladimir Lopez are co-workers of Ruiz and enjoy the weekly gathering of friends and family.

“I’ve only been playing handball for five months but I like being able to come each week to play,” Lopez said.

Cerritos College worked out well for this group of men, being right in the middle of everyone’s home and work.

“This is a central location for everybody at work. It’s close to everybody’s home, that way everyone can play. Basically it’s a great gathering point,” Guzman stated.

While from the outside, people might think that a big tournament is going on, in fact it is something quite the opposite.

“Others play a different way, so we usually play with the people we come with,” Guzman explained. “By playing a different way, some use wooden palm paddles, it’s just a faster game.”