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.
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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.
