I was in PetSmart today and saw a dog toy that I thought would make a really cool game piece. It is called a Hol-ee Roller and they look like
this. They come in several sizes both round and football shaped. The one I was looking at was about the same size as this year's poof ball. They seem really tough (made for dogs to chew on) and should survive anything we can throw at them in competition. They are fairly soft and deform easily. They do not bounce much and would seem really safe to use in a competition even if they started flying around. The holes and squishiness would make handling them with robots really fun. If (when) we have a ball game again, these would be interesting.