Sports have a way of bringing people together — whether you’re cheering from the sidelines, playing with friends, or sharing stories about your favourite team. That same sense of excitement and teamwork can make coding feel even more engaging for young learners. That’s why our learning team have created four new Scratch projects inspired by sports from around the world.

In these projects creators can enjoy cricket, kabaddi, and South Africa’s traditional game of jukskei, or design custom kits for any sport. The projects invite young coders to explore global games while building their programming skills. Each activity blends creativity, culture, and fun, giving learners the chance to code and play in meaningful new ways.

So, get ready to bring some sporting energy into your Code Club. Game on!

Exploring the new projects

Project one: Cricket

In this cricket game, you’ll programme the bowler to send the ball towards a randomly chosen stump, shrinking it as it travels to create a sense of depth and realism. The game will call out where the ball is heading, giving players just enough time to move their bat and try to score runs.

What creators will learn

Creators will use broadcast messages to coordinate bowling, batting, scoring, and wickets. They’ll animate the ball’s movement with loops, conditionally update variables to track balls, wickets, and scores, and trigger different outcomes depending on whether the bat connects. Complete the extra challenge to make the bails leap from the stumps for a dramatic wicket!

Project two: Kabaddi

Create a fast-paced tag game inspired by kabaddi that originated in India, where you must cross the line, tag opponents, and make it back safely, all while keeping your breathing going by tapping the space bar! Complete the extra challenge to make the opponents behave more unpredictably for even more excitement.

What creators will learn 

Players will animate movement using arrow keys, track lives and tags with variables, and use broadcast messages to coordinate opponents, wins, and losses. Opponents are created as clones and creators use loops and conditional logic to detect contact, manage the kabaddi countdown timer, and trigger different outcomes depending on whether the player tags an opponent, runs out of time, or gets surrounded. 

Project three: Jukskei

Jukskei is a traditional South African throwing game where players try to knock over a wooden peg by throwing wooden pins (skeis) at it. It takes skill, aim, and timing.

What creators will learn

Creators will build animations triggered by broadcast messages and controlled with key presses. They’ll use condition-controlled loops to program sprite movement and sound effects, and update variables when conditions are met to keep track of player scores.

Project four: Kit chooser

Many young people love showing support for their favourite teams, and designing custom kits gives them a fun, creative way to express that passion through code.

What creators will learn

Using Scratch, young people will create their own kit chooser where they can design custom sports kits, change colours with their own creative flair, and even add a toggle button to switch between styles.

Three top tips for mentors

1. Bring cultural connections into the session
Ask creators if they’ve played or watched the featured sports, or if these games are popular in their communities. If they’ve not heard of some of these sports, why not show them some videos?

2. Celebrate different ways to play and participate
Many creators will relate to these sports in different ways: some may play them, others may follow teams, and some might enjoy the social or creative parts. Encourage them to personalise their game with their own rules, team colours, or sounds to reflect the way they engage with sport.

3. Support experimentation and iteration
Remind creators that sports and coding both reward practice. If something doesn’t work the first time (a ball overshoots, an opponent behaves oddly, or a variable doesn’t update), that’s part of the process. Guide them to debug step-by-step and celebrate each improvement as a skill gained.

Ready, set, code! Try these sport-themed projects in your Code Club and bring a burst of energy, culture, and creativity to your next session.