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WOR Update for May 2021

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by Todd Boss

WOR/Outdoor Racquetball Update for May 2021

Edited by Todd Boss.  Contributions from Darold Key, Michelle De La Rosa, Erica Williams, Deborah Elkins and Thao Le.

April 2021 WOR/Outdoor Tournament Results

There were a slew of outdoor events held in April; here’s a quick run-through of the results.

April 2021 Tommy Medina Shootout Results

Rose Mofford Sports Complex, Phoenix, AZ.  April 10th, 2021

40 racquetball players showed up on a beautiful Phoenix Saturday morning on April 10th for the second iteration of Tommy Medina’s 2021 Arizona outdoor doubles shootouts. 

In the final, Terry Kisling/James Garcia topped their younger competitors Ben Baron/Ethan Slutzky to take first place. 

 

Raybro Memorial Doubles Shootout Results

Sat April 17th 2021 at Tracy MacDonald Park, Tracy CA

19 teams comprising more than 30 outdoor doubles players turned out Saturday 4/17/21 for the 1st annual Raybro Memorial outdoor shootout, at the Tracy MacDonald Park in Tracy, CA.  The shootout was held in honor of Raymond “Raybro” Sevier, a longtime Northern California racquetball enthusiast who passed away last October.

The morning group was won by Hien Doan/Donny Piwowarski.

The afternoon group was won by Rick Lewallen/Donny Piwowarski.

 

WOR Eustis Long Wall Championships Wrap-up, Eustis, FL. 

Saturday and Sunday April 17-18th at the Sunset Island Complex in Eustis, FL. 

Tournament site and brackets were here: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=37333

In the Men’s Pro Draw, Mike Harmon/Jonathan Burns defeated Carlos Bravo/Joe Young in the final.

In the Men’s 75+ Draw, Joe Young / Rob Mijares took first place in the group winner RR over 2nd place finishers Carlos Bravo / Yelandi Rivero.

In the Mixed Pro division.  Native Floridians Mike Harmon/Sarah Noyes downed the visiting Virginians Thomas Gerhardt/Aime Brewer in the final.

 

 

Florin High School Shootout Results, Sacramento CA April 24, 2021

Congratulations to Hien Doan and Ivan Velazquez for winning the lower doubles division, Congratulations to Greg Vezey and Scott Warren for winning the upper doubles division.

 

 

Mid-Atlantic Spring Fling One-Day Shootout Results

April 23-24, 2021 Stratton Woods Park, Herndon VA. 

R2sports home page: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=37531

Here’s the results from the Open divisions Men, Women, Mixed for the day:

  • 3W Men's Dubs Open: Ben Bleyer/Dylan Pruitt over Sergio Rivera/Ariel Garcia
  • 3W Women's Dubs Open: Amie Brewer/T.J. Baumbaugh over Veronica Nogales/Paola Nunez
  • 3W Mixed Dubs Open: Sergio Rivera/Brenda Laime over Dylan Pruitt/Amie Brewer
  • 1W Men's Dubs Open: Sergio Rivera/Suresh Vemulapalli over Ben Bleyer/Dylan Pruitt
  • 1W Women's Dubs Open: Hallie Rallas/Maddie Melendez over Veronica Nogales/Paola Nunez
  • 1W Mixed Dubs Open: Ben Bleyer/T.J. Baumbaughover Corey Fritz/Amie Brewer
  • 1W Paddleball Ben Bleyer/Thao Le over Andy Gomer/Maddie Melendez

 

WOR AZ VII Final Battle Wrap-up, Glendale AZ, April 17-18

Tournament site: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=31617

List of winners:

Racquetball

100+ Ellis Murphy and Luis Garcia

Open Dbls Matt Barcellos and Charlie Stalder

A Singles Ellis Murphy

A Dbls James Garcia and Terry Kisling

B Singles James Lamont

B Dbls Ellis Murphy and Angelo Denicola

C Dbls Damian Zamorano(off hand) and Andrew Clark

Mixed Intermediate: Karin Mannon and Curt Baumgarth

Mixed Advanced: Michelle de la Rosa and Matt Barcellos

 

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Mid-Atlantic Outdoor Racquetball, by Thao Le

Editor’s note: This is a great article from Thao describing her journey getting introduced to Outdoor racquetball and then helping to grow the large group of players in the Mid-Atlantic area

“You can do this”. My inside voice silently reassured me as I felt a shiver in the hot Miami heat, not from nerves but from the sheer excitement and anticipation.  I glanced over at my partner, a local Tropical Park player whom I literally was randomly paired with for this tournament.  His impassive face showed no sign of nerves.  How did I ever get here to my first ever outdoor, short-wall tournament at Tropical Park without ever even stepping on an outdoor court.  Everything I know as an avid indoor racquetball player for years seems to disappear.  It’s a whole new ball game, literally.  The next thing I knew, he carried me all the way into the finals to win my first Outdoor in Mixed A division.  Never knew outdoor racquetball could be this much fun. It felt more like a party in the park than a sport.  At that moment, I knew I was hooked!

It must have been a combination of beginner’s luck and a lot of fate that led me to that first win in 2008.  I had devoutly followed for a few years the “Meet & Play” Forum in its heyday and became more and more interested in outdoor racquetball even though I had never tried it. Finally, I decided to reach out to Tony Gambone (aka Cap’t C.A.O.S), Cap’t Classic Authentic Old School, whom at the time, spearheaded the outdoor racquetball scene in Maryland.  Well, I did not make it to Centennial Park that time.  Instead, I hopped on a plane and played my very first outdoor tournament. 

Centennial Park is in Howard County, surrounds Centennial Lake, covering an area of 337 acres.  It is a beautiful park, with 6 fenced-in, long-wall courts, half ceiling, clean public restrooms, tennis courts, a paved-trail that go all the way around another side of the park, and ample parking.  This place became my hang outs for the next six years.  Along with Ruben Gutierrez and Jonathan Jones, we became the three Virginia regulars who made the one-hour trek to Ellicott City every Saturday to hang with the Maryland crew. We laughed, shared life stories, shot the breeze, played five hours of racquetball, enjoyed watermelon, and didn’t have a care in the world. The beauty of it was everyone played with everyone, there was no separation of what level you are.  It was pura vida at its best.

I also befriended Dave Bleyer who was a long-time paddleball, racquetball player at Centennial.  In 2009, Dave, Tony, and I ran our first “End-of-the-Endless Summer” shootout and it was quite successful.  On our second shootout event in 2011, “Dog Days of Summer”, Ruben Gonzalez graced us with his presence paired up with Momo Zelada.  They proceeded to win the Men’s Open division and happily took everyone’s lunch money.

In May 2015, Stratton Woods Racquetball/handball courts were born.  We celebrated the completion of the $644,000 project with a ribbon cutting at the park.  The project included the installation of 4 lighted long-wall racquetball and handball courts, and 3 one-wall courts.  We are blessed to now have these courts right in our backyard and we owed it all to Bill Bouie, Chairman, Fairfax County Park Authority. Thank you, Bill. 

After its opening, our sport gained traction.  Tony created Mid-Atlantic World Outdoor Racquetball Group Facebook page with now over 500+ members and growing.   That September, Ruben Gutierrez, former WOR Director for Virginia, ran our very first event with 34 players and several shootouts thereafter to introduce more local Virginia players to the game.  The torch eventually passed on to Carrie Hoeft from Chesapeake, VA who was also hooked on the sport after playing her first Beach Bash in 2015.  Carrie and Amie Brewer, the current Virginia state WOR Director, continue running many successful tournaments at Stratton Woods.  These tournaments brought attendance from long time outdoor players/legends from all over, including PA, FL, Detroit, Chicago, New York.  Last October, Maddie Melendez (a great contributor of Stratton Woods and also WOR, a former paddleball player) and I held “King & Queen of the Park” shootout event with many raffles and prize money given out. We LOVE our outdoor racquetball family.

When the pandemic hit in early 2020, with most local gyms closed, we noticed an increase interest in outdoor racquetball.  Stratton Woods was kept busy as players opted to be outside and enjoyed the fresh air.  We now have a great regular crew and proud to have many local talents at Stratton Woods.  Our goal is to expose more indoor players to this great sport.  We look forward to hosting you and meeting new players this summer.  Please join our Facebook page, “Mid-Atlantic World Outdoor Racquetball”.  Last but not least, I leave you with a tagline that I absolutely love from the Meet and Play forum by Vic Leibofsky, former WOR National Director:  “Outdoor Racquetball:  Sometimes it’s hot, but it’s always cool”.

 

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Mark your calendars for these Upcoming Outdoor Events for 2021

Here’s a quick guide to known upcoming 2021 WOR/Outdoor racquetball events.  Mark your calendars.  We hope to get more tournaments on the books as Covid-19 related restrictions hopefully start to ease.

Tournament Directors: when you setup your Outdoor event in R2sports, PLEASE make sure you select “World Outdoor Racquetball (WOR)” as  your Organization.  That way your event will show up on the new WOR webpage we’re working on in the dynamic “Upcoming Events” widget.  If your event doesn’t show up in this link below then it isn’t referencing the correct org in the tourney setup page.

https://www.r2sports.com/r2sports-event-search.asp?searchNow=YES&eventSportOrgID=58

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Keep on the lookout for Dane Elkins

The Elkins family continues to look for their son Dane, who has now been missing for nearly 4 months.

A Facebook group has been setup by his parents to coordinate communication of updates; please join the group “Searching for Dane Elkins” here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/findingdaneelkins

Please share!!! There were many recent possible sightings but only two credible sightings from the info witnesses shared. On Dec. 28th and Jan. 2 witnesses called police from Party Palace in Bakersfield and nobody came and I just found out.  On Feb. 5, witnesses interacted with Dane in Mojave, CA who said he was going to Portland and he was roughing it. Dane can be anywhere so please be on the lookout! Please share this flyer and tell followers to take a picture if they think they see Dane. Thank you! With social media we can find him! Thank you to all the kind people!!! Your support has helped our family through this nightmare!

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Stay in touch on Facebook

The absolute best way to stay abreast of Outdoor events is to follow WOR – Outdoor Racquetball on Facebook.  We post updates for upcoming events as soon as they’re available!

https://www.facebook.com/WorldOutdoorRacquetball/

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