Charlie Brumfield, the sports first dominant champion, passed away earlier this week on June 1st. He was a few days shy of his 78th birthday.
Brumfield was Racquetball’s first GOAT. He was a top-level Paddleball player in the late 1960s, won the National Paddleball Association’s Open Singles title in both 1969 and 1970, and partnered with fellow San Diego resident Dr. Bud Muehleisen to take the Open Doubles titles in 1968 and 1969.
(see https://npa.paddleball.org/tournaments-2/national-champions/ for the NPA’s list of champions historically).
Soon, like many of his Paddleball colleagues, he pivoted to Racquetball and was a dominant force in Racquetball’s early days. He brought his dominant paddleball control game to Racquetball, but also incorporated the speed that stringed racquets enabled in the sport. Brumfield made the National Racquetball Singles final in both 1969 and 1970, then won it in both 1972 and 1973 during a time that predated any professional tournaments in the sport. He also claimed three Amateur National Doubles titles in the early 1970s before moving completely to the pro game.
(see https://rball.pro/85i for US Nationals singles titlists, https://rball.pro/a2ef0b for US Nationals Amateur Doubles titles).
Pro racquetball really got its start in 1974, and Brumfield was a force early. By the time the 1974-75 season rolled around, Brumfield was the clear #1 on tour. He won the first two Pro Nationals titles (the equivalent of a “Pro Title” in the early days) held in 1975 by competing pro entities IRA and NRC, then won the 1976 DP/Leach Nationals on home soil in San Diego to get his fifth career “National Title” in singles (three pro, two amateur). He topped Marty Hogan in June 1976 for the title, a significant win because it would mark a changing of the guard in the sport. After dominating Hogan for much of 1975 and 1976, Hogan flipped the table and went on a tear in 1976-77 season. Brumfield would win just one more title after his 76 Nationals win as Hogan took the upper hand in their years-long rivalry.
( see https://www.proracquetballstats.com/irt/year_end_titles.html and https://rball.pro/000f20 for a list of all Finals on tour).
Brumfield continue to tour mostly full time for the rest of the decade, but the introduction of power to the game and Brumfield’s rising age led to him retiring from the pro game after the 1980-81 season at the age of 32. He retired with 16 official career pro wins on the NRC/IRA (still good for 11th of all time) and a W/L record of 185-48, good for a W/L percentage of .794, which sits 4th all time in the history of the sport behind just Kane, Marty, and Sudsy.
(see https://rball.pro/96a384 for his Career Pro Summary page, https://rball.pro/d590ca for a ranking of tourney winners, and https://rball.pro/da9ff5 for Career W/L rankings)
Brumfield was also instrumental to the early days of Outdoor Racquetball, and participated in the first two iterations of Outdoor Nationals, giving the event credence and helping to convince his fellow “indoor” pros to play it as well. He won the first two Pro Outdoor singles titles in 1974 and 1975, winning the Doubles title in the inaugural event with Dr. Bud in 74, and losing in the final of 1975 before “retiring” from outdoor pro. Nonetheless, his importance to outdoor earned him a place in the 2nd ever WOR Hall of Fame class.
(see https://rball.pro/91u for Outdoor Nationals historical singles winners, and here https://rball.pro/9fk for Outdoor Nationals historical doubles winners).
Brumfield’s home in San Diego was also home to a custom-built court that resembles a historical archive of the sport. Dubbed the “Pacific Paddleball Association” the club has hosted both racquetball and paddleball competitions for decades. See https://www.pacificpaddleball.com/ for more.
Brumfield’s exploits have earned him multiple Hall of Fame inductions:
– Paddleball: 2014 (3rd ever person inducted)
– USA Racquetball: 1988 (6th ever person inducted)
– USA Lifetime Achievement recognition in 2013
– WOR Outdoor Racquetball: 2013 (2nd ever person inducted)
(see these links for Hall of Fame bios: NPA: https://npa.paddleball.org/npa-info/hall-of-fame/, USAR: https://www.usaracquetball.com/programs/hall-of-fame/inductees/1988 , and WOR: https://www.usaracquetball.com/wor-hall-of-fame-inductees/charlie-brumfield )
During the duration of his early playing career, Brumfield was also attending his hometown University of San Diego, where he earned a BS and a Law degree in 1973. He delayed the start of his career for years after his Law School graduation due to the simple fact that he was out-earning lawyers during his time playing for money on the courts (and, as he noted, it was a lot more fun). He eventually had a long career in the law, retiring as an in-house counsel to a Biotech firm.
Brumfield is known for being an absolute fierce opponent on the court, combining his fitness and skill with a level of physicality that would shock today’s tender, avoidable-seeking players. It was not unusual for players of the mid 1970s to give each other elbows mid-rally, or to hip-check a player out of the way. Brumfield and Hogan’s matches were legendary, as were his matches against other colorful contemporaries of the day. By the time yours truly got a chance to meet him, he was retired, gregarious, hilarious, and could spin yarn about the sport for hours on end. I enjoyed a couple of dinners with Brum in the last few years at 3WB in Vegas, and I’m completely grateful to have had the opportunity to meet him and talk to him.
Huge double gold weekend for Iwaasa.
Photo 2015 Portland IRT event by Kevin Savory
This past weekend, Racquetball Canada held its all-encompassing National championships in Burlington, Ontario. National titles and National team spots were handed in in Singles, Doubles, and Juniors. Here’s a quick summary of the winners and a recap of the surprising results in the Adults.
Congrats to your 2025 Canada National Open Singles winners on the weekend:
– Men’s Singles: Coby Iwaasa
– Women’s Singles: Frederique Lambert
Congrats to your 2025 Canada National Open Doubles winners on the weekend:
Congrats to Iwaasa in particular, getting the double Gold at Nationals for the first time ever. Also props to double-gold winner Lambert, who continues her run atop Canada racquetball despite a full time Medical career.
(Reminder: Canada doesn’t separately compete Mixed Doubles as US & Mexico does, instead selecting the international Mixed partners from the qualified pool)
Congrats to your 2025 Canadian Junior National Singles Champions:
– Boys 21U: Nathan Jauvin
– Boys 18U: Leyton Gouldie
– Boys 16U: Kyrylo Tkach
– Boys 14U: Oren Gouldie
– Girls 21U: Ofelia Wilscam
– Girls 18U: Chloe Jauvin
– Girls 16U: Kaitlyn Couckuyt
– Girls 14U: Talia King
We’ll do some commentary for each of the groups down below.
Trackie Sports App home page for event: https://secure.racquetballcanada.ca/entry-list/matches/1014510/4625/0/F/
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Men’s Open Singles
PRS report: https://rball.pro/a74e99
We had a relatively huge upset in the Men’s Open finals, with long-time #2 @Coby Iwaasa topping #1 Samuel Murray in four games for the title. This is the first time Sam has been dethroned as Canada’s national singles champion since 2017, and its Coby’s first title since 2015. These two have met in the finals of the last 18 straight national-level events in Canada (qualifiers and nationals), and this is just the second time Iwaasa has taken a match from Big Sam in that span (Iwaasa topped Murray for his 2015 title).
Webb & Cullen made the semis as #3 and #5 seeds.
See https://rball.pro/879898 for a list of all Men’s Canada National finals.
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Women’s Open Singles
PRS report: https://rball.pro/5deb35
Dr. Frederique Lambert won her 5th straight Canadian National title, and her 7th overall dating back to 2015, by beating 3-time runner up @Juliette Parent in the final. The women’s field was a bit thin this year, missing a couple of perennial competitors in Keay and Richardson who are normally semis/finals competitors.
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Men’s Doubles:
PRS Report: https://rball.pro/7254d9
The Men’s draw was opened up early by an injury to #1 seeds and 2024 champs Trevor Webb & Christian Pocsai, which opened a pathway for the 2023 champs Iwaasa & Cullen to the throne. This is Iwaasa’s 5th National doubles title and Cullen’s 2nd. They topped 3-time champions the Murray brothers Sam & Tommy in the semis to earn their spot in the final, where they defeated the newbies @Leyton Gouldie and @Asher Pocsai.
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Women’s Doubles:
PRS Report: https://rball.pro/d603c8
Lambert and @Michele Morissette combined to take their fourth straight National title together. Each now owns 6 titles overall (Lambert won two others earlier in her career, and Morissette won two in the late 2010s with Keay. They topped a small round robin group for the title.
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Boys Junior Results.
Matrix report of all Canadian Junior boys champs: https://rball.pro/ny4
Nathan Jauvin took the 21U title, his 8th career Junior title in Canada. He wins 21U in his last year of eligibility to compete a sweep of the five main age groups in his career. Leyton Gouldie tacked on a gold in 18U to his silver in Adult doubles, repeating as champ. Kyrylo Tkach got his first 16U title after winning twice at the 14U level. Lastly. a younger member of the Gouldie family Oren Gouldie repeated as 14U champ.
The Boys 14U draw was, by far, the largest draw at this event, with nearly 20 competitors as compared to the handful of juniors in most other draws. I’m not sure if there was a wave of middle schoolers picking up the sport in Canada or not, but it’s great to see and I hope that class continues.
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Girls Junior Results.
Matrix report of all Canadian Junior boys champs: https://rball.pro/5zu
The 21U awarded a champ for the first time in several years, with Ofelia Wilscam moving up from last year’s 18U title to claim the 21U title over Mercy Coughey. Canada definitely had a weird “gap” in their Girls Junior ranks, skipping 18U and 21U for a couple of years, but they seem “back” now. Chloe Jauvin won her 7th Junior title and she’s won in every age group available so far during her career. Kaitlyn Couckuyt repeated as 16U champ and has now won 3 straight Junior national titles. Talia King is a first-time junior national champ in 14U.
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That’s a wrap for Racquetball Canada Nationals for 2025. We’ll be back next fall with their qualifier.
There’s an IRT satellite in New Mexico next weekend, then the LPRT has a spot at an old stoping ground of mine in Herndon, VA. Later this month is Outdoor Nationals, which has teamed up with @3wallball this year.
Exec Summary: Erika Manilla double-qualifies. DLR retains his US National singles title. Michelle Key returns to the team with her doubles win. Horn returns to the time for the first time since 2019, while both Garcia and Ros secure their first ever National team spots.
Lastly, Carson qualifies for what I believe is his 22nd US National team, returning to the team after a three year hiatus. He qualified for his first team in 2000, then was a near annual member for the entirety of the 21st century before semi-retiring from competing two years ago.
The 2025-26 US National team is now set. The winners above along with the singles finalists have first right of refusal for the next set of international events: The World Games in August 2025 in China and the annual PARC tournament next spring in a site TBD (usually Guatemala City).
Former IRT touring pro and now pickleball professional returned to racquetball for the first time since Worlds last August to repeat as US National singles champion. Despite being the defending titlist, he was for some reason seeded third here, but eased his way through Ayan Sharma, Sam Bredenbeck, Bobby Horn, and then beating Jake Bredenbeck in a rematch of the 2024 championship.
It was great to see long-time US National team member Rhonda Rajsich competing; we havn’t seen her since an LPRT stop in Arizona a couple years ago. She fell to Hollie early. A last minute withdrawal of four-time Nationals finalist Lawrence opened up the bottom half of the draw, and Texan Naomi Ros took full advantage, topping her fellow recently-matriculated junior Annie Sanchez in the semis to secure her first spot on the Adult national team. She didn’t stop there, beating defending national champ Scott in the final to give her both the 18U national title and the Adult team national title simultaneously, something that has only been done twice in the history of the sport (Michelle Gould in 1989 and Jack Huczek in 2001).
Grizzled veteran Rocky Carson teamed with Bobby Horn (playing in his home club) to shock the defending US National doubles champions De La Rosa/Fernandez in the semis, then finished off their title-run by beating the Bredenbeck brothers in the final. It’s the fourth time in the last five years Jake & Sam have been losing national finalists. Horn returns to the team for the first time in 6 years, while Carson makes the team just a few days before he turns 46, a level we havn’t seen on the team since the Ruben Gonzalez glory years.
Just three teams entered this year’s Women’s US team qualifying, and 2023 champions Manilla & Key held firm to re-qualify for 2025 by beating their two rivals. They certainly had to work for it, with the “final” going 5 games against Scott & York.
As has become tradition, the Mixed Doubles event was the first to play to completion, and it started off with a huge upset. Defending Mixed National champs De La Rosa & Scott were upended by #5 @Robbie Collins and Annie Sanchez (nee Roberts) in the semis in four games. Perhaps DLR’s time away from the sport showed in his play, but they went one-and done. Collins & Sanchez couldn’t complete the deed, falling in the finals to #3 seeds Erika Manilla & Erik Garcia for the title. Manilla recaptures her Mixed title won in 2023 with her brother, while Garcia qualifies for his first ever National team.
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Other notable draws:
– Men’s Open: @Ty Hedalen repeated as Men’s Open champ, beating the visa-less Veronica Sotomayor in the final.
– Women’s Open: 15-yr old Andrea Perez-Picon, who switched to compete in Mexico for the 2024 season, swept through the Women’s Open RR group, defeating her sister Estefania in the final. In case you’re wondering, non-US citizens can compete in non-US Team qualifying at US Nationals … as well as dual citizens.
– Men’s Open Doubles: Rocky didn’t get enough doubles work winning the National title, so he competed in Open Doubles with Charles George and took that title too.
– Women’s Open Doubles: Hometown favorites Angela Grisar and Erica Williams took the Women’s Open Doubles title.
– Mixed Open Doubles; The Perez-Pincon brother/sister team of Alejandro and Andrea out-pointed Mark Frank & Veronica Sotomayor to take the Mixed Open title.
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Thanks to the Tourney Directors from @USA Racquetball for putting together 2025’s National event. Congrats to the Hall of Fame inductees, the others recognized at the annual awards, and for those 175 or so players traveling to compete.
Thanks to the Tourney Sponsors this year, which included WIS International, Gearbox/Rafael Filipini, KWM gutterman/Keith Minor, FixmyRacquet.com, RacquetX, and AGE Solutions/Andy Gomer.
Here’s the next in the Todd & Sudsy conversations. Random musings about the speed of the ball, which pivots into MPH radar gun readings, streamability, the squash court, World Games 2022 broadcasts, and other related information.
If you’d like to listen to the conversation, here’s a link to Sudsy’s Spotify podcast.
If you’d like to read the lightly edited transcript, read on.
—
Sudsy & Todd Conversations – Is the ball too fast?
⏰Fri, 03/21 15:10PM · 16mins
Transcript
Todd Boss
All right, here we go. Well, hello, Mr. Sudsy. It’s been a long time. Do you know what I want to ask you about today?
Sudsy Monchik
I have no idea and I kind of like it because then it’s much more organic I do not know where we’re gonna go with this.
Todd Boss
So the other day, in the midst of doing some commentary about the state of our sport, I had someone pull out for me one of my pet peeves regarding why racquetball is dying. The claim is, and stop me if you’ve heard this before, the claim is that racquetball is dying because the ball goes too fast. Have you heard that one before?
Sudsy Monchik
Sure, I mean, I’m sure we’ve heard most of these the reasons why right? Everybody’s got an answer.
Todd Boss
So when I say that to you as someone who grew up playing in the 90s, I mean, what’s your immediate thought?
Sudsy Monchik
Silly. It’s nonsense. The speed of the ball has nothing to do with it. There’s been so many changes, not just in our sport, in society, in the world, options for kids. In every sport, there’s an evolution in technology or the way it’s played or the athletes. That’s not the reason why.
Todd Boss
Here, I’ll give you some interesting thought points here. When Marty Hogan hit the scene, he was clocked hitting the ball 142 miles an hour in the late 70s, before oversized rackets, before 22 inch rackets, before any of that.
Now I know that you hit the ball 190…
Sudsy Monchik
Well, thank you.
Todd Boss
142 miles an hour for context is about what your run of the mill pros hit the ball at today. I’m not talking about the power players; if I gave you some names of what we would probably call “control players,” that’s about what they hit.
Sudsy Monchik
Yeah, I agree. I would agree that a high average speed for sure. As an example, they recently did a women’s speed gun contest, and I think that wasn’t more than 10 miles per hour faster. And I’d say on average today, a lot of top pros outside of some power players are right around there. Yeah, I’d agree with that.
Todd Boss
So in May of 2022, at the Sweet Caroline, they put the players on a radar gun and did three readings each.
– Erika Manilla came in first; her forehands were measured at 125, 127, and 128.
– The next closest was Samantha Salas, 119, 118, 120.
– Vargas and Munoz were right in that same range
– Then there was kind of a gap down to Centellas, Scott, Lawrence, Mendez, who were hitting like the 112, the 113 range.
– Then we also got readings for like Meneses, Longoria, and Parilla. Interestingly, Paola only hit it 107 to 108 at her max speed
Sudsy Monchik
The hardest hitting female is that I’ve ever been on a court with….
Todd Boss
Let me guess, are you married to her?
Sudsy Monchik
I’m not, no. Backhand, yeah, maybe she is. But Maricruz Ortiz [International ladies player from the Costa Rica] hits the ball harder than anyone.
Todd Boss
Oh, yeah, she does put its charge into it.
Okay, so so point is, is that the ball has been going 140, which is harder than any pro female hits today. And it’s harder than probably 20 to 30 miles an hour harder than most, amateurs hit the ball.
Sudsy Monchik
That’s fair
Todd Boss
That’s part of my argument here. You can make the argument that racquetball distinguished itself from paddleball in the late 70s precisely because it had power.
Sudsy Monchik
Sure. Yeah, of course. Yep. It was it was speed. It was faster. It demanded a lot more movement explosive movement. I’ve played them both.
Todd Boss
Yeah, here’s a question. Here’s another trivia question for you.
When, or in what era or what year do you think that USAR membership peaked?
Sudsy Monchik
What year did it peak? Okay. I’m guessing some, am I right to say in the eighties?
Todd Boss
Nope, a little bit later.
Sudsy Monchik
90s?
Todd Boss
90s. early 90s.
Sudsy Monchik
Really? Okay.
Todd Boss
The highest publicized membership figure, and I’m going based on the figures that they put onto their 990 because every year they would say that they have X number of members and X number of people play.
So in 1993, they peaked at 32,000 members. By the way, we have about a tenth of that right now.
Sudsy Monchik
So it peaked at 32,000 members USA Racquetball, and you’re saying today, March 21st, 2025, we have maybe 3,000?
Todd Boss
I think we have 3,000, 3,500 something like that. I don’t have the exact figures and I don’t have access to that information since I left the board,
Next, what year do you think the IRT had its most pro events? What season?
Sudsy Monchik
Ninety-four?
Todd Boss
That’s right. In the 93-94 season you had 19 tier ones in addition to a bunch of satellites You guys were so busy and, I don’t need to tell you this but, you guys were so busy that the rules were in place so that if you missed an event you would get default points commensurate with your average finish in an event.
Sudsy Monchik
Yeah, we, that was the first year I won my first pro stop the pro nationals in 94 and yeah I remember it was it was play a final on Sunday, get ready to travel on Tuesday or Wednesday again. I mean it was constant.
Todd Boss
I mentioned all this because it’s all kind of part of the same argument here.
– So the ball was going 140 in the late 70s.
– It’s why the sport exploded and differentiated itself from from from paddle ball.
– In the 80s, it grew, grew, grew.
– We peak in terms of participation and organizationally in the in the early 90s.
By the way, the 22 inch racket was introduced in 95 and codified into the rules in 96.
So basically, the 22 inch racket, the non pressurized balls have been in place since the exact same point when our sport was at its peak.
So here we are in the year 2025. Why do people now claim that the speed of the ball is the reason that we’ve had this inexorable decline in the sport?
[The argument that “speed killed the sport” is essentially claiming that the sport was dying in 1977, before it even got popular]
Sudsy Monchik
Yeah, it’s the age of the internet. And I think when you say “people,” you know, who? What people? Just because there’s a few people, and that’s maybe another conversation, but welcome to the internet, right? In Social media, one or two people out of thousands make a claim. And like, all of a sudden, people buy into it that that’s the reason, or this is a potential reason. It’s just a claim. I don’t think there’s a ton of people, but I think there’s definitely some chatter about it.
But in our sport, Todd, sadly, we’re all looking at what are the reasons for the massive decline. The ball being too fast is laughable. But again, I think we’ve seen most of the people out there that think they know the answer. And what we need to do.
I could tell you this, I don’t know the answer. I don’t have the answer today. We can talk about mistakes, maybe that have happened or lack of vision. Sure, we can talk about that. When we were peaking, what was the plan to sustain that peak and sustain those memberships? I think that’s probably another discussion, right?
But you know, being that this is the ball discussion, you know, could we lend to it potentially turning a few players away? Maybe as much as we would lend to, you know, golf, making a new ball or title is making a new ball and telling somebody, Oh, no, you’re gonna hit it too far?
I’m not buying it. I’m out on that. I’m out on that theory.
Todd Boss
I think the ball going too fast also pivots into another topic, and it’s related to the streamability or the viewability, the “televisibility” if that’s a word.
Sudsy Monchik
Yeah, no, that’s BS. I disagree with that. In today’s day and age? No. I’ve spoken to major producers about it. Shawn Royster [former pro player who produced racquetball productions for ESPN and who works in the industry] said it: anything can be filmed today. Come on, we can film it. Plenty of technology, plenty of cameras. It is not that at all.
Todd Boss
I get the sense that the only way that most people consume racquetball right now is via Facebook streaming, frankly. The pro tours streaming their matches.
So if you’ve been onsite when the when they [the IRT’s Pablo Fajre or the LPRT’s Jerry Josey] sets up this equipment, they’re basically getting like a $5,000 camera and they’re hanging it kind of center back of the court. And they’re dependent on the local Wi Fi for bandwidth, and they don’t have multiple angles generally, or if they do, it’s just basically, you know, center mid plus right and left side.
And, it’s really difficult for someone to switch between angles in real-time. We’re not talking like an NFL game with a truck out back, and a dozen people like trying to kind of coordinate the experience. Therefore, the way most of us consume the sport is a grainy ball that you can barely see on a TV on a phone or on a computer screen. So I can I can understand why some people make that claim.
Sudsy Monchik
Yeah, it’s an excellent point and it’s one of the things that I’ve been saying. If I was to invest or bring the investors in to try to help it, I would create a controlled environment. If I was trying to bring it to the masses, put it out there because the masses are on devices, on social media, on your computers and laptops and streaming.
I would create an optical spectacle for the world to see racquetball, and to do that I can’t rely on a small little local mom and pop club with spotty Wi-Fi and dirty scratched up glass. I would build a court that is catered to what I am going to be pushing out to the viewer. I would not worry about the people or players on site. It would be what is happening inside that court to show the incredible athleticism, power, strength, everything that we see in racquetball
Then I would introduce it, show it that way, and then I would also explain to every other sport and parent with a child and say, “hey, here’s how racquetball can help you, not only in your other sports, but in life.” And then who knows, maybe we have a chance. But we have to create it so that it’s consistent and it’s just an optical spectacle.
Todd Boss
The last time that we really had really well done video was at the World Games in Birmingham. They brought the brought the portable court, put it into a local gym at the University. Then, they brought in for-real professional, like NFL-quality cameras to broadcast. And you can find that that broadcast out there right now.
[note: to go see broadcasts from the 2022 World Games, go to DailyRacquetball’s page on the event:
Direct link to the Men’s final: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7KEz4U3hCc&list=PLaVzJlpz0Eyaf9kS1rCFiZa3–fFnpCLi&t=10s ]
Sudsy Monchik
Yeah, it looks fantastic. But again, and I’ll say this to all of us out there that are putting it out there. I don’t care who you are, where you are, just try to put racquetball out there. Obviously, we all have different abilities, capabilities, time, right? If I just go stream at the club it takes time, it takes money. It’s easy to say, and then some people listen to this, right? And they’re like, “Oh, BS, just turn your phone on.”
Yes, I agree with that. You could do that too. That’s doable as well. Maybe the associations are trying to improve streaming, but I would stop catering to the onsite crowds. Those people will always be there. Instead, figure out how to produce something at a minimum quality of The World Games broadcast that you’re talking about.
Todd Boss
Yeah, no, it’s a good point. I certainly get caught up in the commentary of the people that are in our sport. We don’t have to sell them: they’re already sold. They’re engaged, they’re passionate.
Sudsy Monchik
They’ll always be there. I say it all the time. It’s not about us. We will always be there. We are talking like a living eulogy, right? And, you know, we’re all doing the best we can.
Todd Boss
All right, I’ve got one more question for you. You ever watch squash on the Internet?
Sudsy Monchik
I have come across it, so I wouldn’t say I’ve like stopped to watch it for an extended period of time, but of course I’ve seen it, yes.
Todd Boss
So Professional Squash, and I’m going to caveat this by saying that, in case you didn’t know, they are incredibly well funded, both in the US and internationally, so in a lot of ways, this is an apples and orange comparison.
But you know, squash has this space-age purple court that they take around with a white ball. And when you stream it, people make the argument that it’s a lot easier to see that ball on that court. And then they make the inevitable argument that, hey, that’s what racquetball needs. We need a PSA or professional squash association style purple court with white equipment. And that’s going to solve all of our problems.
Sudsy Monchik
Again, that would be part of my plan to build this court that is specifically made for however I’m going to stream it, produce it, and send it out there. I’ve been to that court, the squash court, I was at Grand Central Station, I know the court you’re talking about. My court would have some LED lights, it would take money, right? But again, if we’re swinging for the fences, yeah, we would need to build a court specific for audio and video, absolutely, and you got to just leave it stationary. It was fun to think about the portable court, but let’s try to get back to a stationary court concept.
At this point, we’re just trying to do everything we can to, quite frankly, stay alive, keep the sport relevant, not be the laughingstock on Twitter or X or whatever you want to call it, you know, and it is what it is.
Todd Boss
Very cool. Well, thanks for talking through my pet peeve topic du jour. I’m sure that everyone will listen to this and either vehemently agree or vehemently disagree and tell us why we’re morons. And I look forward to it.
Earlier this week, @3Wall Ball owner and operator Mike Coulter (aka MC Vegas on Facebook) announced he was “pausing” the annual 3WallBall outdoor event for 2025 due to the rising costs and current economic climate. The event, which is incredibly expensive to stage to begin with, has seen its projected costs nearly quadruple this spring and Coulter made the understandable decision not to risk personal financial ruin in order to stage the 16th iteration of the event.
Mike has been running major events in Las Vegas for decades, dating back to the old Pro Nationals events that sometimes out-drew the US Open. He’s given more to the sport in terms of time and resources than almost anyone out there, but even he couldn’t pull a rabbit out of his hat this year, and I wonder if we’re seeing the end of an era.
The 3WB team is searching for an alternative venue, likely in Southern California, where courts can be rented instead of constructed, to hold the 2025 version of the event. My bigger worry is the future of the event; once you take an event off the schedule, it’s awfully hard to get it back. Will the STRAT even entertain a return of the event in 2027? Will the staff that supported the event even be there by that time? Will sponsors who skip a year be willing to sign back up after a year away? Will volunteers do the same? All of these issues conspire against events once they’re gone, and its why tournaments in general are dwindling year over year.
In social media in the wake of the event, the tourney directors of another of the sport’s three outdoor majors Geoff Osberg disclosed that three of his primary sponsors for the 2025 Outdoor Nationals event in July have pulled out, putting that event in serious jeopardy as well.
Thus, starkly, are displayed the major issues that tournament directors face in the modern racquetball world, especially for “national” level events that depend on top players to travel from around the country/world and spend money on flights, hotels, and meals for several days, and thus demand a prize purse worthy of their attention and attendance on top of all the other costs that tournaments have (in no particular order, facilities, food, prizes, shirts, labor, permits, etc). Increasing tournament entry fees is met with the typical resistance from long-time players who remember paying $50 for two events in the 1990s and getting 300+ draws and solid prize money. So sponsors are vital to offset costs… but making ROI arguments to sponsors is a tough sell, and generally speaking racquetball tournament sponsors are of the same ilk as national level sponsors: rich guys willing to write a check for charity out of love for the sport. Unfortunately, those guys are dwindling year over year, and we see one event after another drop off the schedule.
This is not a “how do we fix the sport” post, nor is it commentary on the value of tournament/pro events versus grass roots/club play. SFIA’s 2024 survey reports that we still have 900,000 “core” participants who play frequently and another 2.7M casual participants in this country, which pales in comparison to the few thousand actual USAR members who pay for their tournament licenses. Interestingly these two figures are heading in opposite directions; core participation in racquetball is down 9% over the last 3 years, while casual is up 20%. But it’s these “core” participants who buy memberships and who play tournaments and who drive the sport. Which is why we continue to care.
There’s no easy answers here; if there was, we’d be doing them. I suppose this post is just lament for an event i’ve attended multiple times, and to express support for a guy in Coulter who i’ve tried to support the best way I could for years. I hope 3WB finds a 2025 home, and I hope we can return to Vegas somewhere, somehow in the future, with the full support of the community, recognizing that these events are dwindling.
The 36th annual Pan American Racquetball Championships tournament (at least the singles and doubles competitions) is in the books. Here’s a recap of the group and knockout action, along with links for the results as entered into the Pro Racquetball Stats database.
Executive Summary: Argentina showed up big this week, making the finals of four of the five competitions. Garcia wins his and Argentina’s first ever Men’s gold in IRF play. Mejia wins her 2nd career IRF singles title. Natera & Munoz win the first gold for Chile since the 2007 South American games.
Pro Racquetball Stats DB match results. Click on these links to see the match results in the DB:
– Men’s Singles: https://rball.pro/2c0b4e
– Women’s Singles: https://rball.pro/a39615
– Men’s Doubles: https://rball.pro/a11b14
– Women’s Doubles: https://rball.pro/f0ea0d
– Mixed Doubles: https://rball.pro/2987af
Team Points Results From Knockouts
PARC now includes a “Team Competition” where the countries compete against each other at the end of the individual competitions, but for decades the “Team Standings” were determined by an algorithm that awarded points based on group stage and knockout performance. I’m unclear whether IRF continues to name “team winners” in this same way, but here’s the team results using the historical methods:
(You can get these “team results” via queries available from the IRF singles page off of proracquetballstats.com for past history)
Combined Team (Overall)
1st – Argentina
2nd – Mexico
3rd – USA
4th — Costa Rica
Summary: four finals will do a lot for your combined team totals, and it was the Women’s Doubles final that made the difference for Argentina’s combined team to finish top. Argentina becomes just the 5th ever country to win a Combined team title at an IRF event.
Men’s Team
1st – Argentina
2nd – Bolivia
3rd – Mexico
4th – USA
Summary: Argentina squeaked past Bolivia for the mens’ title, ironic since both of Argentina’s men were born in Bolivia.
Women’s Team
1st – Mexico
2nd – Argentina
3rd – USA
4th – Chile
Summary: Mexico’s mixed team results made the difference here.
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Let’s run through the individual draws and talk about notable results.
Men’s Singles:
In the group stage, Guatemala’s @Edwin Galicia shocked Argentina’s @Gerson Miranda, which sent the Argentine to the back-draw. Some commentary here: I HATE the splitting of the knockout phase into a “red” and “blue” draw like we do in junior competitions so more kids can get trophies. It eliminates top players who had one bad loss in the group stage like Miranda, and you can see the results: a guy who’s making the quarterfinals of pro events is relegated to a competition with A-players and he just totally bailed, not wanting to waste his energy there. If someone tells me they don’t have “time” to play one more round of a knockout stage, i’ll laugh in your face; these players are in country and onsite for 8 straight days.
Other surprising RR results: Mexico’s #2 @Sebastian Hernandez had an awful event, losing twice in group play to also get relegated to the secondary knockout. Two other interesting group results: Canada’s #1 @Samuel Murray took out Bolivian Carlos Keller; both players are paring down their pro tour schedules lately, but Keller’s always a tough out in international play. Lastly, great win for the DR’s De Leon, beating Ecuadorian veteran Jose Daniel Ugalde to finish second in the group.
In the knockouts, some upsets early as Murray took out Costa Rica’s @Andres Acuna
, who has risen to #2 on tour. The biggest knockout shock was Argentina’s @Diego Garcia , Bolivian born but converted for $$ and opportunity, beating both USA’s #1 @jake Bredenbeck and then Bolivia’s @Conrrado Moscoso to make the singles final. I’ve long espoused about Garcia’s capabilities and he showed up in this event.
In the final, #1 seed Mar had no answer for Garcia’s quickness and power and fell in three close games.
—
Women’s Singles:
The shocker of the RR stage was the play of USA #2 @Lexi York, who beat both Lambert and MRR to top her group. Chile’s Carla Munoz held firm against Argentinian Valeria Centellas to claim the top spot, and a great s howing by CRC’s Larissa Faeth to top Canada’s #2 @Juliette Parent.
In the knockouts, former tour champ Mejia ousted Munoz in the quarters, and York continued her run by beating her teammate Michelle Key to make the semis. #1 Mendez got a great win over Mexico’s #1 Herrera to make the final, facing off against Mejia.
In the final, Mejia outclassed her fellow LPRT pro in three games for the gold.
—–
Men’s Doubles.
Notable group stage results: team USA the Bredenbeck brothers beat Team Mexico (Trujillo/Hernandez) to take the top spot in a solid win. Nothing else notable in the group stage.
In the knockouts, Bolivia beat USA in the semis in an upset, while Argentina’s young guns ousted the top seed Costa Rica to setup an all-Bolivian born final between Garcia/Miranda and Moscoso/Carrasco. In said final, Moscoso (who took a serious injury on the IRT a month ago) salvaged the event and took gold with veteran partner Carrasco by holding off the strong Argentinian team.
—-
Women’s Doubles:
The two four-team group stage pools went as expected; Mexico, USA, and Argentina were clearly a step ahead of the rest of the field. Curiously Team Guatemala did not feature Gaby & MRR, which severely thinned this field.
In the knockouts, USA (Key & York) couldn’t overcome Argentina (Mendez & Centellas) from the top half, while Mexico (Herrera and Salas) dominated into the final from the bottom half. In the final, the Argentines shocked team Mexico with a dominant 3 game win to defend this title from last year.
—-
Mixed Doubles
Defending champs Team USA (Sam Bredenbeck & Michelle Key) cruised into the knockouts as the #1 seed. Chile’s husband/wife team of Natera & Munoz shocked team Canada to take the #2 seed, while a group of death saw team Argentina shockingly lose to CRC and head into the knockouts seeded 9th of 9. This proved to be fateful, as Mendez/Miranda took the opener, then shocked team USA in the quarters to send the defending champs home early.
In the bottom half, team Chile did not take their foot off the gas, shocking the presumed top Mixed team in the world Montoya/Salas in the semis to make the final.
In the final, Natera & Munoz held firm against the solid Guatemalan team and outlasted them 11-9 in the fifth for a well-deserved gold.
——
Commentary on the State of the PARC and International competitions
2025’s PARC event saw yet more evidence of the changing of financials and the changing of the guard in this sport. Bolivia didn’t bother to send females. Some of the countries didn’t send enough players to field doubles teams. Some teams sent teenagers to compete in the Adult competitions. Many countries didn’t send their top players, so the event was missing the likes of defending World champions DLR, Longoria, Vargas, Scott, etc. Canada’s top doubles team was missing, and its best player didn’t play singles, a continuing trend from Murray & Lambert. Colombia’s Amaya now plays for Italy since her home federation collapsed in corruption. Team USA had to self-fund with gofundme campaigns because USAR has no money.
At least we have places like Guatemala, which has hosted four major IRF events this decade already, willing to fork over the fees to run these events. And, I love how we’re getting golds from outside the top three countries now; that’s great for the development of the game.
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Congrats to the International Racquetball Federation for another successful event. Thanks to the IRT streaming crew, and thanks to @Gary Mazaroff and all his co-announcers for their hard work all week.
Next up on the Racquetball Calendar: USA Nationals at the end of May. Zero pro events for months.
– Women’s Intercollegiate Singles Champ: @Ella Boaz, University of Missouri.
Missouri gets its third Intercollegiates champion, following @John Dowell’s title in 2023 and Hall of Famer @Jerry Hilecher , who won the very first intercollegiate title held in 1973. Sendrey wins Texas A&M’s first ever individual title, defeating 2024’s champion @Benjamin Horner in the final. Chicago legend @Tim Sweeney remains the sole 4-time Intercollegiate champion in the history of the sport, though we’ve had several 3-time winners (Andy Roberts, Jack Huczek, Ben Croft, Barb Faulkenberry, Tammy Brockbank, Kristen Walsh, and most recently @Carla Muñoz .
Memphis State (now the University of Memphis) remains the leader in individual singles titles, with 12 on the Men’s side and 7 on the Women’s side, having dominated the collegiate level of the sport for much of the 70s and 80s.
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In the team competition, Oregon State swept all three team events (Men’s, Women’s, and Combined). This is the first team sweep since Missouri did it in 2022, and is Oregon State’s 2nd such team sweep (they first did the deed in 2013).
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I maintain a list of all the individual and team champs at this Google xls, now updated for 2025:
Dylan Pruitt took the singles title and played well in the team events. Photo 2022 Beach Bash via Rick Bernstein
The Louisiana crew in Monroe held their annual Warhawk Open last wekeend, a well-attended event that draws from all over the southeast every year and continues to host IRT touring pros annually. This year, in a fun twist, the organizing group got with World Team Racquetball’s head Mike Kinkin to host an the 2nd iteration of the WTR team racquetball competition with some dignitaries on hand to watch and participate.
Two of the alumni teams from last year’s inaugural event were on hand: the Dovetail Thunderbolts and the KWM Gutterman Kingz, and they were joined by four new teams with increasingly awesome logos: the Texas Outlaws, the Culligan Waterboys, the Louisiana Lasers, and the Mississippi River Hogs. There were two competitions: a Pro version and an Amateur version.
Here were the team rosters (pulled from https://www.worldteamracquetball.com/ along with Kinkin’s help)
4 Pro teams:
KWM:
– Jaime Martell Racquetball
– Austin Cunningham
– @Naomi Ros
Coach: Kane Waselenchuk
Dovetail:
– Eduardo Portillo Rendon (hurt)
– @Maria Renee Rodríguez
– @jordan Walters
Culligan Waterboys
– Robby Collins
– Dylan Pruitt
– Annie Sanchez (last minute replacement for Erika)
Louisiana Lasers
– Cristina Amaya Cassino
– Maurice Miller
– Troy Warigon
Additionally, 6 amateur teams competed:
Texas Outlaws (amateur)
– Marcus Zuniga
– David Mendoza
– DJ Mendoza (coach)
– William J. Craig
Mississippi River Hogs (amateur)
– @Tim Risler (coach)
– Bradnado Turnquest
– Bob Jackson
– Michael Yourell
Culligan Waterboys (amateur)
– David Kerr Jr.
– @Blake Lockwood
– Craig Clement
Kings (amateur)
– @David Anastasio (coach)
– Raymond Flowers
– Chris Kendrick
– Matt Ray
Dovetail (amateur)
– Mike Kinkin
– David Graves
– Joey Limocello
– Steve Semones (coach)
Lasers (amateur)
– Brian Acuna (coach)
– Al Schof
– Kip Atwell
– Shawn Dedebant
(apologies for any typos here)
——————–
Lets recap the Team events and then the conventional divisions.
Pro Team event:
– In the top semi, #1 seed Dovetail took down the Louisiana Lasers, while the #2 seeds KWM ousted the pink-clad Culligan Waterboys.
In the final, KWM took advantage of a hobbled Portillo (nursing an arm injury he got in Chicago) to take the title.
Amateur Team Event:
– The Texas Outlaws squeaked by the Waterboys 11-10 to earn the final from the top-side, while KWM’s amateur team tried to emulate their pro counterparts with a solid win over Dovetail’s amateur side in the other semi.
– In the final, KWM made it two for two on the weekend with an 10,10 win over Texas.
———————–
Men’s Open/Pro Singles:
– #1 seed Pruitt held serve, topping USA Junior national DJ Mendoza in one semi.
– #2 Robbie Collins took out former IRT touring pro Maurice Miller in the other semi.
In the final, Pruitt got a very solid win over the #15 ranked IRT pro Collins, winning an 11-9 tiebreaker thriller for the singles title.
———————–
Men’s Open Doubles:
– Mendoza teamed with his junior national coach Collins to form a solid lefty/righty pair, and delivered the title. In the final they beat the top amateur team of Pruitt & Austin Cunningham in a breaker.
———————–
Bravo to all the team owners and those who participated. Can’t wait to see the next iteration, and I can only hope we get the same quality team names and logos as we got here.
HoFamer Sostre takes home 3 golds. Photo Steve Fitzsimons 3WB 2020
Hello Racquetball fans. The first Outdoor “Major” of the 2025 season just finished up on the sunny courts of Garfield Street in Hollywood, Florida, and here’s a recap.
Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Men’s Pro Doubles: McDonald/Sostre
– Women’s Pro Doubles: Key/Maldonado
– Mixed Pro Doubles: Sostre/Maldonado
– Men’s Pro Singles: No event this year.
– Women’s Pro Singles: Michelle Key
Executive Summary: A great showing for NY this weekend, with double pro golds for Sostre & Maldonado. Michelle Key also took home two titles, and Floridian Chris McDonald won his first ever Beach Bash title.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=46008
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Reports on ProRacquetballStats.com:
Match reports for 2025 Beach Bash:
– Men’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/fd1c7d
– Women’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/04cc18
– Mixed Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/c8e4bf
– Men’s Pro Singles: No event this year
– Women’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/e55d02
Triple Crown Reports for all past WOR major champions:
– Men’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/3lj
– Women’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/zoa
– Mixed Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/obz
– Men’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/9ey
– Women’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/h27
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Lets run through the draws, recapping the action.
——————
Men’s Pro Doubles:
So, I’m part of the 3WB seeding team and have helped in the past. Seeding outdoor events is really difficult. There’s practically no points you can really depend on, pros flow in and out year by year, top players who miss an event one year suddenly aren’t ranked at all, while players who happen to live in areas where there’s plenty of sanctioned one-wall events get over-seeded just by virtue of being able to play events. Often times we seed a team 11th, knowing that they’re better than the 11th best team and knowing they’re likely to beat the 6th seeded team, and that ends up being the fairest way to do a draw. Sometimes we tweak seeds slightly so that four players who flew a 1000 miles who are from the same club don’t play in the first round. It isn’t ideal to do these manipulations, and every year it leads to arguments, but there’s too many factors that just can’t be worked around.
Unfortunately, a confluence of events in this draw led to the final being competed by the #7 and #9 seeds. I’m sure some will look at this and talk about how incompetent the TDs are. Well, i’m sure they gave it a lot more thought than you might think, so cut them some slack.
Blatt & Rolon (the 2018 winners and constant presences at the back-end of one-wall major events) were seeded 9th, and, true to form, when they met the #1 seeds Montoya & Mar … not only did we get a quality match, we got an upset in what probably should have been at worst the semi final in the pro draw. Rolon & Blatt then cruised past Morales & Heymann to get to the final.
In the final, The #7 seeds Chris Mcdonald and Robert Sostre (who should have probably been seeded higher but likely placed at #7 knowing that they’d be the favorites over the #2 seeds anyway) ended up topping the #9 seeds in a breaker for the title. It’s McDonald’s first ever one-wall pro title, while Sostre wins his 6th career Beach Bash pro doubles title (fun fact: Sostre has made the final here in 11 of the 15 pro doubles events ever held).
——————
Women’s Pro Doubles:
Michelle Key and outdoor legend @Anita Maldonado were not threatened as the #1 seeds, cruising to a title. In the final, they topped outdoor specialists Katie Neils and Aimee Roehler.
With the win, Key gets her fourth career Women’s Doubles title here, and extends her amazing collection of Pro Doubles outdoor major titles to 19.
——————
Mixed Pro Doubles:
Taking advantage of a last minute withdrawal that cost the Mixed draw its #1 seeds, New Yorkers Erika Tinalli & Brian Romero cruised into the final with solid wins over Arizona’s Key/Anderson and fellow NYers Blatt/Guinan. However, they fell in the final to the experienced Sostre/Maldonado team
——————
Men’s Pro Singles:
There was no Singles event on the men’s side this year, the first time since 2014 that the draw didn’t field enough players to be held. Both of last year’s finalists and the 2023 finalist attended the competing Warhawk Open, 4-time champion DLR is out of the sport, 3-time champ Sostre is north of 50 and saves his body for the four doubles divisions he generally enters. Lets hope we don’t have fixture congestion and can get a full draw in 2026.
——————
Women’s Pro Singles:
Just three women entered the Pro singles here, with the draw missing a slew of names who typically play here. Munoz, Parrilla, Scott, Laime, Lawrence: all past finalists or semi-finalists.
In the end, @Michelle Key took her first Beach Bash singles title, improving on her finalist finish last year, topping Miami’s @Chanis Leon in the final.
——————
Other Notable draws:
– CPRT 40+ Doubles: Sostre/Harmon took out McDonald/Miller for the title, Sostre’s 3rd on the weekend.
– Men’s 75+: Rodrigo Montoya teamed with San Antonio’s Phillip Beverly to take the 75+ combined, beating Mar & Perez in the final.
– Men’s 100+: Stratton Woods in the house! Northern Virginia residents Allan Small and Suresh Vemulapalli beat teams that included legends Rocky and Beltran to take the 100+ combined title.
——————
Some additional commentary here.
Unfortunately, for the second year in a row Beach Bash ended up caught in a bit of a fixture congestion issue with too many racquetball events in March. Last year’s early Easter date pushed up PARC, which caused Beach Bash to be held on the same weekend as the IRT pro stop Shamrock Shootout, which caused all sorts of angst in the industry.
This year the Warhawk Open in Louisiana fell on the exact same date, and then when the new World Team Racquetball concept was added, players who have historically played BB instead flocked to ULM. Beach Bash’ attendance was just 125 players at R2, which is shocking for an event that usually sells out well in advance and pushes past a player cap. A slew of regular ladies tour players were missing, and the draws suffered. It’s unclear why so many of the regular outdoor ladies pros were missing this weekend, but the ladies and mixed draws really suffered for it.
The WTR event’s presence led to some nasty back and forth on social media between major sponsors, stuff that’s becoming all to common in our sport, and stuff that we just can’t afford to happen. Inevitably one guy gets pissed and pulls funding, then suddenly we’re out events and the sport continues to decline.
Could someone have moved their event? Maybe, but remember everyone has to work within the parameters of their host sites. Warhawk is on a college campus with availability set months in advance; Beach Bash is on public courts that have to be arranged with permits months in advance. It’s just a shame that the sport has a bunch of major events inside of a few weeks in March (two IRT events, and LPRT event, HS Nationals, Beach Bash, and Warhawk Open) but basically two events in the next two months (PARC in April, Nationals in May).
We do talk about a fixture scheduling call in the sport, but in the end we always work around what the IRF and USAR does as a default. But, maybe we can try to work together in the future to avoid this stuff.
——————
Thanks to the Tourney Directors Peggine Tellez , Jen O’Meara , @Mike Coulter, @vic Vic Leibofsky and the entire 3Wall Ball crew for putting this event on and ensuring the legacy of outdoor majors.
——————
Next up?
Per our handy master racquetball calendar https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing
Intercollegiates is next weekend at NC State. Then, PARC in April, USA Nationals (and Canada Nationals) in May. Not much else going on at this stage.
Hello fans. My good friend Sudsy Monchik and I talk racquetball all the time. Maybe not as much lately, but we frequently catch up on important events, the state of the sport, pro tours, USAR, etc etc.
Sudsy suggested, hey, why don’t we frigging tape these conversations? We’re often talking about topics that cut to the heart of where our sport is right now, and we try to mix in stats and opinion from one of the most decorated and involved names in the sport. So lets see if you guys like to listen in to the kinds of stuff we talk about on the regular.
So, here’s the first cut.
You can listen in (the first one was a zoom audio, though we could try saving video for subsequent ones) here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgKwHYFO-Wg
For those of you want to read instead of watch, here’s a transcript (lightly edited for clarity).
Sudsy & Todd discussion –
International Youth movement in Racquetball at the IRT Shamrock Shootout
⏰Tue, 03/18 13:00PM · 24mins
Transcript
Todd Boss
All right, you ready?
Sudsy Monchik
Ready.
Todd Boss
Sudsy, how are you doing?
Sudsy Monchik
Doing good, doing good, Todd. Driving to my real job.
Todd Boss
Yeah, I’m on lunch break for my real job. So this works out for both of us.
Sudsy Monchik
But we both love racquetball so much that we can’t help it
Todd Boss
That’s right. So here’s the context of today’s conversation.
Are we seeing the next generation of pros, and does it matter based on the state of our sport?
For some Background, when I did the recap of last weekend’s Shamrock Shootout, I noted that a ton of U21 or junior world champions were in Chicago competing. Just to run through them really quickly:
– We had reigning U21 champion Joel Alexis Acha
– You had the world U21 semifinalist Trujillo and Barrios.
– You had the USA U21 champion Benjamin Horner.
– You had the reigning U18 champ and Jonathan Flores, who made a huge impact. We’re going to talk about him in a sec.
– You also had the likes of Sendrey, Mendoza and Herrera Jr., who are top junior national players in the U.S.
– You had top Mexicans like Gastelum here
– And, you had a couple of a little bit older recent Junior World champions, former Bolivians now turned Argentinians, Miranda and Garcia.
Well, that’s a lot of U21 players, and many are starting to get real results on tour.
So the question I have for you, Sudsy is this: Is this the next generation of talent on tour?
Sudsy Monchik
I think clearly you just named a bunch of really talented players, but the thing that jumps out at me is that you didn’t name nearly as many Americans. It’s clear that the level of play of these South American and Mexican Central Americans is so much greater right now than what we have to offer, and that’s that’s something that really bugs me. You know that that hurts my soul, but it is what it is.
When you say next generation, I think that’s connected to the age, right? You said 21 but historically we’ve seen that at like 18 and 19 years old, right?
Sudsy Monchik
When players get into their 20s it’s kind of like, ‘well we’re not really seeing much different now,’ so like I’m looking at who’s 17,18,19 and who is out there, traveling to play tournaments. You have to be playing events and you can’t do it in your hometown, home city, or home country.
The first thing I did when I got to Ecuador; I said, ‘let me see the budget you guys have to get out of here and play internationally.’ You have to get out, you have to play other players, you have to deal with other game styles, and you have to experience adversity and uncomfortableness.
There’s no doubt it’s the “next generation” but how would you define “next generation?”
Todd Boss
Well, if you look at the players who have been ranked in the top 10 as of late,
I’ll just run through them quickly. At the end of last season:
– Kane was 43
– Conrado was 29
– Adam Manilla 29
– Sam Murray’s 31
– Rodrigo 28
– Andres Acuna 29
– Jake’s 33
– Natara is 29
– Martel is 32
– Thomas Carter is 28.
These are the players that you see day in and day out reaching the quarters and semis. Where are the young guns?
Even someone who we think is kind of young is Eduardo Portillo, he was 25 at the end of last season and he’s already turned 26. You know, these are not the young kids. These are not 22 year olds flowing through. So the tour has been dominated by players in that are kind of getting old.
That’s what I thought was notable about the total volume of young players in Chicago.
Sudsy Monchik
Yeah, it was great. I would counsel the young guys to take advantage of it while they can now, because those older guys and players need to really start considering how they are going to parlay their racquetball career into what’s next, right? Like, is it sustainable for a 33 year old to continue to travel around trying to be a professional racquetball player?
I think it’s turning into a young man’s game. Now that seems a little opposite of what you just said, right? I think that the younger generation certainly need to focus and kind of maximize the time they have now because it goes fast. It doesn’t last a long time.
I think the bigger question is, when do you really start seeing those guys you just mentioned, the mid twenties and up, say, it’s time for me to look at what’s next.
Todd Boss
I think you already see it. We know Montoya has an engineering degree. Same with Javier Mar. They’ve been top players for a while, but full-time.
Sudsy Monchik
But there’s not enough stops right now for them to “tour full time.”
If the IRT is successful the first thing they’re gonna do is release like double digit tour stops If we see that happen then that’s a great start especially for the younger generation but when you say “they don’t tour” I mean how many stops were there last year?
Todd Boss
That’s a good point. There were only six stops last year.
Sudsy Monchik
Yeah, I mean, Mark Frank and I, we played more local events.
Todd Boss
No, it’s a good point. Pivoting a little bit, almost every one of these top U21 players we mentioned is from South America. So for them to get to the United States is tough. You lived in Ecuador so you tell me, how long of a flight is it from Buenos Aires or from in or from the middle of Bolivia to get up here so they can even compete?
Sudsy Monchik
Yeah, it’s a full day, it’s a full day of travel. You said Argentina; just to get to Miami and then from Miami go wherever, that’s eight or nine hours. From Bolivia, same thing, seven or eight hours. Not to mention, depending on the city you’re from within that South American country, you might have to make a connection. It’s a full day of travel.
I did it from Ecuador for seven years. And we were actually a lot closer where it was easier for me from Ecuador because one of the major airports went right to Miami. That was wheels up, wheels down in about four hours. But within the country, I still had a three hour drive to get to that airport. So it’s a full day.
The biggest benefit that these players have, Todd, is that their governments financially support them.
Now, I don’t know how many people know this: the tour is actually used as a training/practice platform for these players. All these international countries are more interested in the medals at the international events. Pan American Championships, World Championships, Pan Am Games, World Games. That is more valuable to them in the country and they use the tour, both IRT and LPRT, as training mechanisms to prepare them for those.
Todd Boss
What you just said is absolutely consistent with the conversations I’ve had with the previous commissioner, Pablo Fajre. I won’t name names, but a couple of seasons ago, we were looking at the end of the season rankings and it was going to be really close as to who won, right? And there was an international player who was prominently involved in the race, if that person did really well, they could have finished number one.
Pablo told me that, not only did that player have no idea where he stood in the rankings, but he couldn’t have cared less whether he is number one on tour, because of exactly what you just said. His country, his federation, and his priorities were in order, Winning worlds, Winning the Pan Am games, winning PARC, and then winning whatever other regional competition there was. Then if he happened to come up and take home four grand for winning a pro tour event, great. Four grand is the equivalent of like three months wages in Bolivia, which is obviously a lot. But that’s kind of an interesting mindset for people in this country to consider.
Sudsy Monchik
It’s a fact. I mean, you know, me, I played my whole career, it was all about professional titles, right? It was about that. In fact, the era of the Cliff, Sudsy, Ellis, Mannino; We didn’t do the international thing. Rocky was the only one that did it, and he openly admits he did it for the health insurance.
The US open title was less valuable to these countries than a bronze medal at one of the international events, because that’s how their government funds the team, entirely based on results at the international events.
Todd Boss
So that puts a different spin or a different color on why you see international participation in some of these tournaments. Another side note, oftentimes you’ll see a pro event, whether it’s an IRT or an LPRT event, and you’ll see like the entire Guatemala national team there suddenly, right? This weekend in Chicago, you didn’t see a single Guatemalan player there that I can remember. And it’s because their federation chooses to send the team to get practice for an upcoming international.
Sudsy Monchik
Correct, exactly how it works. So when I had the Ecuadorian Racquetball budget, we get a budget at the beginning of the year from the Olympic Committee, and then we pick and choose the events we’re going to go to to use as training platforms. That’s it, period. Yeah. So Guatemala just didn’t choose to fund this one.
Todd Boss
I’m going to ask you a different, more difficult question. If the next generation is predominantly Bolivian and Mexican, how can they flourish if there’s no pro events in Bolivia or Mexico?
Sudsy Monchik
That’s their biggest obstacle. They need to be able to get out. But here’s the thing, Todd, getting out used to be coming to the US or Canada because we were the best. They don’t have to do that now. They can go around South America, Mexico, Central America and deal with better players.
The travel and getting out is what will help them to be more well-rounded to have to deal with being uncomfortable, right? Like take Conrado. Conrado is a rock star superstar in his little country and little city in Bolivia. And like he’s in his comfort zone. But when he gets out and comes out here, it’s very different. So if they don’t have enough travel events (and I do think rumor has it there might be a planned international professional event or not. I don’t know yet, we’ll wait and see. Hopefully the IRT is making that happen), they still will do that internally. So they’ll pick and choose where to go, when to go and how to go.
But still, yeah, I think it’d be great if there were more events. I think it’d be great for the IRT, for the LPRT and they’re working behind the scenes to do that. But who it really hurts is our players, our next generation of players here in the States.
Todd Boss
We talked about our new generation. There were four good examples playing in Chicago. That was Cole Sendry, DJ Mendoza, who were both on the 18U national championship team that played in the last worlds. Plus you had U21 champ, reigning champ, Benjamin Horner. And we also had a lesser known player who played in 18Us in high schools this year, Juan Herrera Jr.
No, they’re not the only top juniors that get out and about. There’s other names out there, especially in the NorCal area where you have like Prasad and Chauhan and players like that who are winning junior national titles, but almost never travel.
But, What is their impact? We’re not talking about those American players right now as pushing for top 10 spots. We’re talking about Trujillo, who’s ranked in the top 10. We’re talking about Gastelum and Miranda, who show up and get wins. And then there’s the kid we’re going talk about in a moment, Jonathan Flores, who looks like he might be the next big thing. What’s going on with U.S. juniors here?
Sudsy Monchik
Yeah, we’re well behind and I think it started years ago and Todd, I mean, you followed my career, and of course Kane’s results speak for themselves. When you go to international junior tournaments, you have to win gold medals.
Are USA juniors winning gold medals and championships and matches? No they’re not. I think we’re a little bit too much of, “Oh, you’re doing great.” Like kind of mediocrity and like, that’s acceptable. But who’s winning? That’s what I want to see. Who are the gold medalists? Those are the next best players, and those are the players doing everything in their power to be the best they can be or the next best player in the world.
It goes back to, well, what’s their motivation? USA isn’t funding them, right? What if the U S Olympic committee said, “Hey, Cole and DJ, if you guys go win a gold medal at the junior worlds, we’re going to pay you a couple of thousand a month and give you health insurance” for being on team USA, maybe they would be more inclined or have the ability, the resources to do everything in their power to wake up every day with that goal in mind.
Or, maybe they’re doing that anyway and we just have a talent gap right now. Because of the years of these other countries doing it, right?
Todd Boss
Yeah. A hundred percent agree.
All right, one more player I want to talk about is Jonathan Flores, Bolivian, two-time 18U Junior world defending champion. I’m just going to read you a couple, some of his recent exploits. He’s now played a handful of pro events. I’m going to start a year ago in Minneapolis.
– In March of 2024, he flies in, and he plays the Hall of Fame event in Minnesota, loses in 32s to Jake Bredenbeck.
– Two weeks later he enters the Lombard event, beats Jake 5,7, turns around and beats Robbie Collins and then in the 16s takes a game off of Kane before he loses 11-7 in the tiebreaker
We don’t see him again in the states, and he wins Junior Worlds 18U without too much trouble.
He shows back up here a couple weeks ago in Minnesota.
– He beats Javier Mar,
– Then he loses 11-10 to Andree Parrilla in the 16s
– A week later he’s in Chicago he beats Diego Gastelum easily
– then in the 16s he trashes the number four seed Alan Natera 9,6
– He faces Andree Parrilla, beats him 15-4 in the first game and then had the match on his racket and loses another 11-10.
The Parrilla match we just saw was a match that, as I wrote and I think that you believe, he really should won to put himself in the semis.
So, what do you make of Jonathan Flores?
Sudsy Monchik
How old is he?
Todd Boss
He’s just finished his 18 year season so he’s playing in his age 19 year.
Sudsy Monchik
Yeah, so one other time in the history of my career, did I ever look at a player and say, that’s different. And that was about Kane Waselenchuk. It was when Kane was 18 or 9 in Chicago. And Cliff said, “hey, take a look at this kid, what do you see?”
I watched about five points of Kane. And I said, “that’s different. He reminds me of us.” That was my exact quote, Todd. And I’ve never said that about any player in the history of the sport, except Kane.
Today, Flores, from what I see with my eye and experience right now, after a healthy Kane and a healthy Conrrado, is the most talented, best all-around player in the sport, period. Now, does that mean he’s the third ranked player in the world? No. I think that all things being equal, weapons, tools, ability, he’s got it. What I don’t know, does he have a dog in him? Is he a fighter? Is he tenacious? Does he have balls? As far as skill, ability, talent, he’s on a different level. Let’s not forget Daniel, too right? But Daniel just isn’t playing right now.
Once he learns how to play, how to win and close those matches out, He’s the most talented player in the world after the first two guys. I just said, I just don’t know if his DNA is made up to now go put it all together.
Todd Boss
I agree. And, then going back, of course, to the first part of this conversation, he lives in Bolivia. So he’s facing a day long flight every time just to get up here, you know, those flights are not cheap. And is he going to have the same kind of priorities as Moscoso?
Is it more important for Flores to win Pan American Racquetball Championship versus come up here every time there’s a pro event and try to win? I guess it remains to be seen, but what I worry about is exactly what I worry about with all these all these Bolivians. I’ll throw the likes of Garcia and Miranda in there as well, even though they are now represent Argentina.
Sudsy Monchik
Can I represent Poland? I’m going to go represent Poland, playing a tournament. I’m Polish. Filipino too.
Todd Boss
I mean, who was it that Woody Clouse represented in one year? A small country in Africa. Eritrea?
Sudsy Monchik
You’re a better speller and much smarter than me, you tell me.
Todd Boss
Yeah, well anyway, so that’s what I wanted to talk about today. Sudsy, any parting words before you crash your car?
Sudsy Monchik
I think there’s a ton of great talent and players out there. Hopefully, the IRT keeps doing what they need to do. To really showcase these players, you know, and see truly who is or who will be the next best player in the world, because until Kane Waselenchuk hangs up his sneakers, it’s still not close.
So I would love to see what’s next. And I would tell a lot of these young guys that, you know, if that’s what they want, they need to do everything in their power to make sure that they can reach that goal and I know these countries support them. If that’s training and coaching and getting out and playing, do that.
But again, Todd, you and I both know, we don’t know what what they’re made of. It’s easy to “hit a ball, get a ball, see ball,” but like, what are you made of when the dust settles and you know you got to go to a dark place to try to get to that finish line? I’m telling you when I saw Flores, I was watching, you know, one of the top three players in the world in the moment, and he didn’t even win that match so whatever that tells you.
Todd Boss
Sounds good. All right, thanks, Sudsy. Drive safe.
