Grant Williams takes his first USAR High School title. Photo via USAR
Last weekend, the 38th annual USA Racquetball High School Nationals were held at the Vetta Sports clubs in St. Louis. Fitting since this is the home of the unique High School racquetball league that is responsible for a bit chunk of the junior development in this country right now. (note: the event generally flips between St. Louis and Portland every year and has for most of the last 2 decades).
Note: the Pro Racquetball Stats database does not store this information, but I do have it in a big XLS that i’ll link to here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1esBFXB4YrQNorKH6peEMJfAmCgenqev9TCyOE3IFlpk/edit?usp=sharing
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Singles Winners:
Boys Singles/#1 Gold: long-time USA Junior National team member and last year’s runner up @Grant Williams took the title, beating Mexican Junior national team member Alejandro Robles Picon in the final.
Girls Singles/#1 Gold: Andrea Perez-Picon, fresh off of a finals appearance at World Juniors 16U, won her third straight High School Nationals title, beating Violet Kennedy in the final.
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Doubles Winners:
– Boys Doubles #1: Ayan Sharma & Geffen Kama from Amador Valley High School, CA took the #1 doubles title, representing the 209 well.
– Girls Doubles #1: Alexis Boyko & Rebecca Christopher from the St. Louis powerhouse Kirkwood took the Girls title as the #1 seed.
– Mixed Doubles #1: The PIcon duo of Alejandro Robles Picon & Andrea Perez-Picon teamed up to cruise to the Mixed Doubles title, giving them both double golds for the weekend.
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Team Winners:
– Overall Team: Kirkwood HS, St. Louis, MO
– Boys Team: Kirkwood HS, St. Louis, MO
– Girls Team: Kirkwood HS, St. Louis, MO
For the third year in a row, Kirkwood has pulled ahead of the entire field to sweep all three team competitions.
The Home page for the Missouri HS league does a great job of record keeping: bookmark their home page here: https://www.mohsrball.com
Congrats to all 311 players and all sponsors/parents/coordinators for another awesome HS nationals event, and thanks to everyone who keeps the Missouri and Portland-area HS leagues so well run. You’re doing a massive part to keeping grass roots racquetball alive in this country.
– Women’s Doubles Alexandra Herrera & Montse Mejia
TL/DR Executive Summary: Huge weekends for Portillo and Herrera, who both win their first ever Mexican National adult singles titles. Portillo & Parrilla win their second National doubles title in the last 3 years, while Herrera/Mejia win their 3rd out of the last 4 years.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=52435
Mexican Nationals runs as the rare double elimination event, at least for its singles draws. Qualification works like this: the winner of the winner’s bracket in Singles is qualifier #1, then the winner of the Loser’s bracket becomes qualifier #2. This may not necessarily be the other winner’s bracket finalist, and often is not. We only load the winner’s bracket matches into the PRS database.
Furthermore, unlike USA, Mexico does not run Mixed Doubles draws, instead choosing from their qualifiers to put together a mixed team at each Int’l event.
Here’s the Match report links to the four main draws this past weekend:
– Men’s Singles: https://rball.pro/363a40
– Women’s Singles: https://rball.pro/a7ff86
– Men’s Doubles: https://rball.pro/fc5f23
– Women’s Doubles: https://rball.pro/0f9c1a
And, here’s some historical links showing all the past Mexican champions in one spot. This data only goes back to around 2014 or so, which is when the current FMR regime “took over” and basically wiped out all the history. I’ve tried to create some placeholders to give past champions due credit, but if you’re reading this and you’re from FMR or from Mexico and you’d like to help build older Mexican nationals history so we can recognize accomplishments of Mexican Legends like Aliv, DLR, Gilberto Mejia, etc reach out please.
– Mexican National Champions history: Men’s Singles: https://rball.pro/1ae500
– Mexican National Champions history: Women’s Singles: https://rball.pro/1ae500
– Mexican National Champions history: Men’s Doubles: https://rball.pro/298f76
– Mexican National Champions history: Women’s Doubles: https://rball.pro/298f76
Let’s recap the four draws.
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Men’s Singles
The big early upset was Sebastian Hernandez, who just aged out of Juniors by reaching the semis of World U21s last December, taking out Andree Parrilla in the qtrs. Hernandez has NEVER played on the IRT but has represented Mexico internationally at the adult level twice. Mar took him out in the semis but he continues to get results. Portillo upset Montoya in the winner’s bracket semi with relative ease, then topped Mar for the title and #1 qualifying spot. Montoya dropped into the loser’s bracket and beat both Trujillo and Parrilla to get to the consolation final, where his doubles partner Mar gave him a walkover for the #2 spot on the team.
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Women’s Singles
I generally don’t like to talk about who wasn’t there … but in this case it needs discussing. Paola Longoria, who has won every single Women’s Mexican national title save for one since the 2007-08 timeframe, was not here. It was inevitable that she’d eventually have to miss an event like this due to injury, work, or life, but here we are. It will be the first time in a generation that she’s not leading the charge for her country internationally. In her absence, the two top seeds Mejia and Herrera cruised into the final, with the lefty Alexandra topping her doubles partner to claim her first national title. Mejia took out Jessica Parilla in the consolation bracket to claim the #2 spot on the team.
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Men’s Doubles
Portillo and Parrilla may only have a couple pro titles under their belt, but they’re becoming a force in world doubles. They cruised past both Hernandez/Trujillo in the semis and Montoya/Mar in the final to regain their title first won two years ago.
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Women’s Doubles
The Mexican National doubles title has historically been a battle between Longoria/Salas and Herrera/Mejia … the two pairs have met 7 times out of the last 8 years for the title. But, with no Longoria or Salas here, Mejia & Herrera faced little resistance rolling to their 3rd title together. They beat Jessica Parrilla and Anna Rivera in the final.
There was an IRT satellite last weekend in Portland which we’ll recap soon, then next weekend is the IRT Minnesota Hall of Fame event as well as USA Racquetball High School Nationals.
Erika triple-qualified at US Nationals. Photo 2021 US Open via Kevin Savory
Congrats to your Open winners and new US National Team representatives: weekend:
– Men’s Singles: Jake Bredenbeck d Daniel De La Rosa
– Women’s Singles: Michelle (Key) Anderson d Erika Manilla
– Men’s Doubles: Daniel De La Rosa & DJ Mendoza
– Women’s Doubles: Erika Manilla & Michelle (Key) Anderson
– Mixed Doubles: Adam Manilla and Erika Manilla
Executive Summary: Erika Manilla wins 2 golds and triple-qualifies, while DJ Mendoza makes the adult national team for the first time. DLR also double qualifies in a Worlds year and will have a chance to defend his 2024 world singles title. Adam Manilla returns to the national team after a year’s absence due to injury. Michelle (Key) Anderson wins her first ever National singles title. Lastly, Jake Bredenbeck continues his long run on the National team by winning his first National singles title since 2019.
Congrats to all.
They join a distinguished list of direct US National team qualifiers, which I keep a roster of at this link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hfxiw8chi8Dpl8U0E4LjShVKaqY2OLqbhqBDpgYX7zU/edit?usp=sharing
The Winners and Finalists of the Singles competition, plus the Doubles winners in each discipline will have first right of refusal to represent the USA at two upcoming 2026-27 events: the 2026 IRF Worlds in August at a site TBD, and then the 2027 annual Pan American Racquetball Championships in late March 2027.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=50421
Here’s links to historical US National Team finals for the various disciplines. These go back all the way to 1968 for the Men, 1970 for the women, and 2022 for Mixed as a relatively new category.
– US Men’s Singles finals; https://rball.pro/85i
– US Women’s Singles finals: https://rball.pro/24a5f1
– US Men’s Doubles finals: https://rball.pro/adf3cd
– US Women’s Doubles finals: https://rball.pro/9c5514
– US Mixed Doubles finals: https://rball.pro/ffd5bf
Lastly, here’s the links for the 5 match reports for the 2026 event in one spot:
– US Men’s Singles 2026 Match Report; https://rball.pro/95a133
– US Women’s Singles 2026 Match Report; https://rball.pro/f9a662
– US Men’s Doubles 2026 Match Report; https://rball.pro/d03fe6
– US Women’s Doubles 2026 Match Report; https://rball.pro/0a6212
– US Mixed Doubles 2026 Match Report; https://rball.pro/c58778
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Let’s review the notable matches in the National team qualifying draws.
Men’s Singles:
There weren’t any major surprises in this draw early; #5 Sam Bredenbeck upset #4 Thomas Carter in the quarters to make the US semis for the first time in his career; for his troubles he had to match up against his brother Jake. The two had only played competitively once in their entire careers, amateur or professional, prior to this meeting. Jake took out younger brother Sam in the semis to make the finals and guarantee his 6th singles qualification to the US team. Meanwhile, a rusty Daniel De La Rosa had to fend off an in-form Adam Manilla in the bottom semi, eventually pulling away in the 5th to win, advance to the finals, and setup a third successive match against Jake for the US National singles title. More importantly, he guarantees his 4th US National singles spot. DLR didn’t play for the US in any of the 2025 competitions thanks to his pickleball commitments, but in a Worlds year he’ll be highly likely to look for a shot at defending his 2024 World singles title.
In the final, Jake dominated play, with solid defensive ball and excellent court coverage. He wins going away 11,8,3 to claim his first National singles title since 2019.
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Women’s Singles:
The Women’s singles draw was upset-city from the start. Defending US Champ Naomi Ros was ousted in the 1st round by veteran American player Lexi York, immediately ending any thoughts of a back-to-back title for the Texan. York ended up pushing #1 Manilla to five games before falling, but achieved her best singles result here in more than a decade (she finished 3rd in 2014).
Meanwhile, it was a tournament to remember for Michelle (Key) Anderson, who upset #2 Lotts and #3 Sanchez to reach the singles final and directly qualify for the US Team in singles for the first time in her career. This won’t be the first time she’s played singles internationally, but it’ll be the first time she’s in a US final.
In the final against her doubles partner, Anderson overcame Manilla’s power and played a better end game at every step to win a 4-game close match and claim her first ever National Singles title.
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Men’s Doubles:
Daniel De La Rosa won his third US National title, this time with a player with whom he had little to no prior playing experience with, dragging along Texas junior DJ Mendoza to the title. DLR and Mendoza, seeded 4th, had to dig deep just to upset the top seeds Carson & Manilla in the semis, then played a very close tactical game against the Bredenbeck brothers in the final, outlasting them 11-7 in the fifth. It’s the 5th time in the last 6 years that the brothers have made the national final but come up short, ending an agonizing day for the Minnesotians.
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Women’s Doubles:
Three teams of ladies battled it out for the US National title. The two 20-somethings Naomi Ros & Annie Sanchez fell in quick succession to the two veteran teams, leaving the defending champs Manilla/Anderson to face off against two long-time Team USA combatants Lexi York & Sheryl Lotts for the title. After two games of shot making split the teams, Manilla & Anderson pulled away and claimed their 2nd title in a row. It’s Manilla’s 4th Women’s doubles national title, Key’s second.
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Mixed Doubles:
The Mixed Doubles competition was the first to finish, with the finals played late Thursday before many had even arrived at the event. The first National champions crowned were the brother/sister duo of Adam and Erika Manilla, who earned the title with a hard-fought 5-game thriller over Jake Bredenbeck and Michelle (Key) Anderson.
With the win, Manilla earns his 3rd career National Team appointment and his second career Mixed Doubles title with his sister. Meanwhile, Erika earns her 3rd career Mixed US National title and ensures her 7th straight US National team appointment.
There’s an IRT satellite in Portland honoring the late John Pelham, a long-running IRT-affiliated event. Mexico has their National championships next weekend as well, always one of my favorite tourneys to cover. Then we get into a very busy March on the calendar, with a slew of major events across pro, international, and outdoor disciplines.
Adam Manilla is back after a year’s absence and ready to compete for US titles.
Photographer Kevin Savory
This weekend, the top players from around the country descend on Arizona State University in Tempe for the National Indoor Championships. This is the 58th year of National Singles in this country; every year save for 2020 since 1968, the absolute longest running single event in the sport. We combined National Singles and Doubles a few years back into the “National Indoors” event, so in addition to all the amateur events this tournament will name the participants to the US National Team for the 2026-27 season (2026 Worlds and 2027 PARC).
Here’s quick previews of the five US National team draws
Men’s Singles: defending champion Daniel De La Rosa is here, and faces an interesting career decision. The 3-time IRT pro tour champ left professional racquetball for professional pickleball, but is currently out of contract with the pro pickleball tour. He has not appeared in a pro pickleball event since his contract termination last October, but has been seen on the racquetball courts, so he should be somewhat in-form to defend his title. He’s the #3 seed here; US National team qualifying draws goes straight from the current USAR rankings, and does not “protect” last year’s finalists like we used to do. Jake is #1, Adam Manilla is now #2 ahead of DLR.
DLR has to fend off Charlie Pratt to face Manilla in the semis, while Jake looks set to face the winner of his brother and Thomas Carter in the top semi. I’d guess we’re going to see a rematch of 2025’s final between DLR and Jake, with Jake taking the title over DLR. But I honestly have no idea how rusty or in-form DLR is; Manilla has been playing great lately and absolutely could take him out in the semis. We’ll see.
Women’s Open Singles: In a cryptic message, long-time US National team member Hollie Scott announced on the eve of the event that she was switching countries and would play for Guatemala going forward. This robbed the Women’s Singles draw of its top seed (Scott is currently the #1 ranked American) and elevated 3-time National champ Erika Manilla to the #1 seed. Long-time top US player Kelani Lawrence has stepped back from playing events as well, which thins the field significantly. Manilla projects into the defending US champ Naomi Ros in the semis, meaning someone’s going home off the National team between the two most recent Singles champs. From the bottom half, I could make an argument for any of the four to make a run: Annie Sanchez has been playing great lately, Hall of Famer Rajsich can still get wins, Michelle (Key) Anderson is a threat, and #2 seed Lotts has been getting career wins lately.
I’ll go with Ros over Sanchez in the final, a big youth movement statement for the two current/recently matriculated juniors.
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Men’s Doubles:
Defending doubles champ Rocky Carson is back, this time with lefty Adam Manilla, to form the formidable #1 seed. They’ll have to fend off 2-time champ De La Rosa, playing this year with fellow Texan DJ Mendoza, but should be the favorites in the final against the Bredenbeck brothers.
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Women’s Doubles:
There’s just three teams competing; the top seeds Manilla & Key are probably favorites, but if I just predicted a Sanchez-Ros singles final there’s no reason not to think that Sanchez/Ros as a team couldn’t win this.
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Mixed Doubles:
Last year Erika won the mixed with Erik Garcia (her brother was on the mend); they’re back together this year with a strong chance of repeating their 2024 title together as brother & sister. They’ll likely have to go through the very strong looking Bredenbeck/Key team to do so.
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Look for Carrie Reitmeier, Richard Eisemann, Sandy Rios, and Karen Grisz on the mike streaming off of the USAR’s facebook page all weekend.
Thanks to the Tourney Director Jonathan Greenberg of the USAR staff.
Juliette Parent takes the Canadian Women’s singles title. Photo by Mike Sudoma/COC *MANDATORY CREDIT*
Congrats to your Open winners on the weekend:
– Singles: @samuel murray
– Doubles: @juliette Parent
TL/DR Executive Summary: Murray continues his dominance of Men’s racquetball north of the border, with his 22nd career Canadian national team event win. Meanwhile, Parent takes advantage of Lambert’s absence to claim her second career Canada-level title.
Trackie App home page for event: https://secure.racquetballcanada.ca/event/racquetball-canada-easterns-winter-national-team-selection-event/1017382/
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Men’s Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/d89e3a
The final came down to Murray and Iwaasa, as it has done for nearly every single Men’s event for the last decade. Sam wins again to take a big lead into Canadian Nationals in May to continue to represent Canada on the international front, even as his pro career seems to be waning. Solid runs by Leyton Gouldie to get to the semis for the second time. Also, a rare sighting by Canadian legend Roger Harripersad, now 61 yrs of age, who lost in the first round.
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Women’s Singles recap
match report in PRS: https://rball.pro/f18826
Five ladies battled it out in a Round Robin, with Juliette Parent topping all comers to take the title.
Joe Kelley with the double on the weekend on his home court. Photo via Ken fife
Last weekend the Kelley Brothers invited out some of the best talent on the East Coast to their home #4 court for the 6th Annual Average Joe’s Tournament. Here’s a quick recap of the action.
I have to admit, I didn’t even know this was going on this year, despite posting recaps on it every year since its inception. I’m lucky to have seen some of the live streams pop up from players I’m friend with on FB.
Singles recap:
The top 8 seeds went (in order): Jeremy Dixon, Cole Sendrey, Ezekiel Subieta, Victor Migliore, Joe Kelley, Dylan Pruitt, Jose Flores, and Sam Kelley. There was a full round of 16 and play-ins to there, meaning there were nearly two dozen players hanging out on the Kelley property this weekend.
In the quarters, top seed Dixon held off the host Sam Kelley, the 2023 champion, enabling Sam to work on hospitality the rest of the way. Host Joe Kelley and 2021 champ upset Ohio-native Migliore, who is a two-time finalist here exiting early. Bolivian U21 star Ezekiel Subieta took out his former Maryland-neighbor Dylan Pruitt, and lastly 2024 champ Sendrey, fresh off a trip to World Juniors last month, took out top NE player Jose Flores to move on.
In the semis, Joe Kelley kept up the upset run, taking out Dixon with a dominant show of drive serving. From the bottom half, Cole took out Subieta to get back to the final. In the final though, Kelley was on fire, bombing more drive serves against his young Texas rival and took the title 10,4. He wins the title on his home court for the second time.
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Doubles recap
Joe Kelley teamed up with Ezequiel Subiata to make it a double on the weekend. From the #3 seed, they upset Jeremy Dizon & Jose Flores in the semis, then took out the top seeds Dylan Pruitt & Cole Sendrey 14,13.
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These champions join the following honor roll of past champs in this event:
Singles:
– 1st Annual 2021: Joe Kelley over Austin Cunningham
– 2nd Annual 2022: Kyle Ulliman over Victor Migliore
– 3rd Annual 2023: Sam Kelley over Victor Migliore
– 4th Annual 2024: Cole Sendrey over Kyle Ulliman
– 5th Annual 2025: Jake Bredenbeck over Sebastian Franco
– 6th Annual 2026: Joe Kelley over Cole Sendrey
Doubles:
– 2021: (no doubles event)
– 2022: (no doubles event)
– 2023: Pruitt/Bleyer
– 2024: Pruitt/Cunningham
– 2025: Bredenbeck/Bredenbeck
– 2026: J.Kelly/Subieta
That’s it for the 2026 Average Joe’s/Kelley Invitational.
Racquetball Canada athlete Juliette Parent poses for their headshot on May 24, 2023. Photo by Mike Sudoma/COC *MANDATORY CREDIT*
Racquetball Canada kicked off its 2025-26 National team qualification process this past weekend with the first of three events that will shape the national team composition for 2026-27 season. This event was in Brossard, in the Montreal suburbs.
Click here for the tourney site and draws: https://secure.racquetballcanada.ca/event/fall-national-team-selection-event/1017224/
Congrats to the singles champs this past weekend:
– Men’s Open Singles: Samuel Murray
– Women’s Open Singles: Juliette Parent
Links to the draws in Proracquetballstats.com database:
– Men’s: https://rball.pro/73294e
– Women’s: https://rball.pro/674df8
Here’s a quick recap of the draws.
Men’s: the final came down to the two top players in Canada once again, as Murray took out @Coby Iwaasa in four. Murray gets some revenge from his May 2025 Nationals loss to Iwaasa, and improved to 18-7 over Coby in his National career. The win gives Murray his 21st career Canadian National event win, and extends his reign at #1.
Women’s: in a possible “Changing of the Guard” moment, #2 Parent upended #1 @Frederique Lambert in the final in 5 games. Lambert had not been beaten in a Canadian National event since 2014, and had won the last 18 straight events that she had entered. Bravo to Parent, who wins her first national event title.
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The next Racquetball Canada event will be the Feb 8th 2026 weekend in Burlington, the same weekend as USA Racquetball’s national indoors. Then, the 2025-26 season wraps up with Nationals in late May to crown the 2026-27 national team.
As always, I keep a master major event calendar where this and other upcoming events can be found: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing
This past weekend featured the 2025 Mexican Junior National tournament in the Mexican racquetball hotbed of Chihuahua, Mexico. Mexico is the last of the “big 3” North American countries to hold its Junior Nationals, and the results of these events determine the national team members that will represent their country at the upcoming World Juniors in the Dominican Republic in mid December later this year.
Here’s a quick recap of the qualifiers and some commentary.
Mexican Junior tournament and qualification goes as follows: the entrants play a double elimination draw; the winner of the winner’s bracket is the champion and Junior National titlist, while the winner of the loser’s bracket is the 2nd player to join the delegation. This consolation bracket champ often is not the winner’s bracket finalist, and the format gives players hope of getting back on the team even with an early loss. Mexico does not play any official doubles competitions at its junior nationals; the singles qualifiers will form the doubles teams at Worlds.
R2 site for 2025 Mexican Jr Nationals: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=48744
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Congrats to the following Boys Singles winners and finalists for team Mexico (each has the winner’s bracket titlist listed first, then the consolation bracket champion and second national team representative second)
(click here https://rball.pro/olf for a Matrix of all Mexican boy’s titlists loaded into the database currently, dating to 2012)
– Boys 21U: Sebastian Hernandez, Jorge Gutierrez
– Boys 18U: Eder Renteria, Diego Romano
– Boys 16U: Santiago Castillo, Emilio Jurado
– Boys 14U: Elias Medrano, Alejandro Perez Picon
– Boys 12U: Max Soto, Hermann Gracia Castro
– Boys 10U: Kerman Gracia Castro, Isaac Soto
– Boys 10Udb: Jose Enrique Caro, Diego Diaz
– Boys 8U: Angel Perez, Esteban Sandoval
– Boys 8Udb: Luis Enrique Rivera, Esteban Sandoval
– Boys 6Umb: Angel Perez, Alex Nunez
Commentary on the divisions:
Hernandez repeats as U21 champ, but has still yet to appear in an IRT event. Eder Renteria wins his first Jr title since 2018. Santiago Castillo also returns to the title-holders club after a few years off, having been shut out of the entire 14U cycle. Medrano wins his 2nd title in three years. Soto wins his 3rd title in three years and is setup to plow through the Mexican Juniors. Kerman Damian Gracia repeats as 10U champ and gets his 3rd overall title. Lastly, newcomer Angel Perez wins both the 6U and 8U multi bounce competitions to start off his junior career with a bang.
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Congrats to the following Girls Singles finalists for team Mexico:
(click here: https://rball.pro/qcm for a Matrix of all Mexican Girls’s titlists loaded into the database currently, dating to 2012)
– Girls 10U: Jocelyn dominguez Chavez, Ana Paula De la Riva
– Girls 10Udb: Ana Paula De la Riva, Andrea Carrasco
– Girls 8Udb: Maria Rivera, Areai Maldonado
Commentary on the Girls divisions:
Ortega gets back on top, adding her 5th career Junior title to her bookshelf with one year of eligibility left. Trujillo claims her 5th title and now has one in each of the 5 traditional age slots (10,12,14,16,18). Former USA national Andrea Perez Picon wins her first Mexican junior title as the #1 seed in 16s. Michelle Gomez returns to the winner’s circle after a year off. 12U champ Jurado earns her 3rd career title.
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Congrats to all the Mexican Junior National title winners and National team qualifiers for 2025.
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.
