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| Canadian Racquetball Newsletter |
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September Issue CONTENTS World Championships National Team Members Racquetball Roundtable Brandon Stars National Racquetball Week IRT Season Opener Referees Required Team Leader For Pan Am Games Sough World Championships Canada brought home the Silver Cup in the Overall Team standings, and the Silver Cup for the Women's Team, and the Gold Cup for the Men's Team. Congratulations to Mike Ceresia, Josee Grand'Maitre, Mike Green, Brian Istace, Amanda MacDonald, Karina Odegard, Jennifer Saunders, and Kane Waselenchuk, as well as the support team of Usher Barnoff, Ron Brown, Bob Fong, Michel Gagnon and Cal Smith. Details and photos are available at the Racquetball Canada web site www.racquetball.ca , with more to come in the next issue of Canadian Racquetball, due out by the end of September. National Team Members Ron Brown, Director of Coaching for Racquetball Canada, and Michel Gagnon, coach of the Canadian Espoir Team, are pleased to announce the 2002-2003 Senior and Espoir Teams: Espoir Team: Véronique Guillemette, Julie Neubauer, Genevieve Brodeur, Vincent Gagnon, Françis Guillemette, Bill Shepley, Kris Odegard, Ryan Powell, Kam Barteski, François Viens Senior Team: Jen Saunders, Josee Grand'Maitre, Karina Odegard, Amanda MacDonald, Chantal Turgeon, Lori-Jane Powell, Kane Waselenchuk, Brian Istace, Mike Green , Mike Ceresia, Tom O'Brien, Corey Osborne Racquetball Roundtable Ray Davis from New Jersey writes: Since 1997, I've hosted a talk radio show called Racquetball Roundtable broadcast from WNJC 1360AM radio station in Sewell, New Jersey. Along with my co-host Jason Fingerman we do rule reviews, interviews with the IRT players, LPRA players, and industry professionals, product reviews, and give performance tips. We're on the air every Tuesday evening from 9pm to 10pm EST. Our goal is broadcasting our show live to the internet within the next couple of weeks. We are currently doing testing and things are looking good !! Bottom line is that we're trying the best we can to promote the sport of racquetball !!! We now have our own web site ...... www.racquetballroundtable.com Check it out. You can see the staff of the show, the history of how it got started, listen to sound files of our 2002 shows, and also take our monthly challenges. Each month we have 4 challenges .... 1) YOU MAKE THE CALL - We give you a rally scenario and then stop the rally at a certain point. You're the referee. From the menu ... make the call !! 2) PICK THE SHOT - We give you your position and your opponents. Then we give you 4 shots to pick from. Select the one you think is the best shot in that situation to take. 3) RATE RACQUETBALL VS ANOTHER SPORT - Each month we compare racquetball to another sport. See how racquetball stands up to the challenge. 4) IN MY OPINION - We toss out a topic and ask you a question. Sometimes it's a Yes/No response .... sometimes it's multiple choice. But the bottom line is there's a comments box for you to tell us why you made the choice you did. We're trying to make the site as interactive and fun for everybody. We're also trying to have as many racquetball players find out about our site as possible. After you check out our site, please give us your comments. And then pass this e-mail on to as many racquetball players that you know. The radio show has been on the air for 5 years, but our web site is fairly new. All suggestions and comments are welcome. Thank you for your time. Check it out at www.racquetballroundtable.com Brandon Stars Two of the Brandon juniors -- Alicia Reid and Michael Burgess-- were chosen to be the SportsStar of the Week on Winnipeg's CKY TV. They were interviewed on Aug. 1st in Winnipeg. This is great for the kids, great for racquetball, and great for Brandon. Both Alicia and Michael won double gold at the 2002 Junior Nationals, and placed well at the 2001 Junior Worlds. National Racquetball Week For the 2002-2003 season, National Racquetball Week will be held March 8-16, 2003. Most provinces will hold their Junior Provincials (or a major junior event) during this week. As well, the National Team Singles Selection Event will be held during this time (location TBA). Check with your provincial association for ideas about how to celebrate National Racquetball Week in your community. International Racquetball Tour (IRT) Season Starts The first IRT tournament of the 2002-2003 season was held August 23-25 in New Orleans and the finalists were Canadian Kane Waselenchuk and Mexican Alvaro Beltran, in the first ever finals without any Americans. Kane defeated Alvaro 7-11, 11-2, 7-11, 11-9, 12-10 for the win. In earlier rounds, Kane revenged his loss in Puerto Rico by taking out American wonderkid Jack Huczek 13, 2, (6), 5 in the quarters, then squeezed by the top seed Jason Mannino 4-11, 5-11, 11-2, 11-8, 11-1. Alvaro defeated #3 seed John Ellis and US National Champion Mike Guidry on his way to the finals (Guidry took out #2 Cliff Swain in the quarters). Mike Green also played in New Orleans, defeating Derek Robinson 7, 6 and 11 before being eliminated by Mannino 3,5,9 in the quarters. Information on the IRT tour can be found at http://www.racquetballweb.com/irt/index.htm while the Ladies Pro Racquetball Tour schedule is at http://www.ladiesproracquetball.com Referees Required Level 3 Referees will be required for 2003 for the position of Chief Referee for the Singles and Doubles Selection events, and for the Junior National Championships (Saskatoon) and the National Championships (Vancouver). If you are presently a Level 3 referee and wish to apply for any of the aforementioned positions, please submit your application to Randy Pentland, care of the National Office. Qualified individuals will be selected by the Officiating Committee which consists of Randy Pentland as Chairperson, Michel Gagnon, Valari Hendrickson, Usher Barnoff and Cal Smith. Team Leader For Pan Am Games Sought In August, 2003, Racquetball Canada will send its finest players to the Pan Am Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. In addition to the players, coaches, referee and physiotherapist, a Team Leader will accompany the team. The person who fills this position must be able to liaise with the Canadian Olympic Committee staff, and function with the racquetball team. The Team Leader must be an effective, efficient individual who knows the sport of racquetball and the national organization thoroughly. The Team Leader will work with the athletes and the coaches. Some of the characteristics of a good Team Leader include: Strong organizational skills, solid people skills, persistence to get the job done, flexible, solid knowledge and experience with team dynamics, creative problem-solver, high energy, good physical fitness and general health, enthusiastic, ability to work under stress, humility, positive attitude, multi-tasker, bilingualism (French and English) an asset, knowledge of host country/city, strong communication skills, sense of humour, team player - willing to go above and beyond your job description, ability to work in an intense environment for an extended period of time. The Team Leader must attend a meeting in Ottawa in the Spring of 2003. Individuals interested in applying for this position should contact the National Office as soon as possible for further information. |
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