Spotlight On: The National Racquetball Club

Do you ever find yourself in a different city or state, with time to play racquetball, but don’t know anyone in the area?  We’ve all tried the Facebook or Reddit posts on a local racquetball page, hoping to get a response to the questions – where are people playing, and when? 

Rich Eaton, of West Chester, Pennsylvania, believes that a centralized hub for the recreational community may be the answer. He created the National Racquetball Club (NRBC) website with that in mind. In an interview, Rich talked about his many text threads with various racquetball groups in his area – set up by which gym they play at, or on which days. But the groups don’t talk to one another, and therefore, players don’t always know if people are playing when they want. This social aspect of racquetball is what got him thinking about a platform for people to find each other more easily. He wants members to quickly be able to find people playing nearby, wherever they are. 

About a year ago, Rich, a technology engineer, starting building the website and got his group of players to act as guinea pigs for the new site. They brainstormed ideas to make it bigger, and he kept adding features to the site. The website now has the capability to keep track of leagues, a local and national ladder system, a calendar of events, and tournament sponsorships, all with the goal of expanding interest in racquetball. He also added areas for juniors and high schools, and is working on the idea of an adult team-based league.

For USA Racquetball members, whose tournament information, rankings, etc. are housed in R2Sports, some of this may sound familiar. Rich hopes to work with USA Racquetball to figure out a way to feed information between the two systems. NRBC can record local league matches as well as your Saturday morning recreational matches, which is one area where he feels NRBC adds significant value for the racquetball community – a way to track your record outside of tournaments, so all players can have a ranking of sorts.  Stay tuned for potential future developments in this area. 

Rich emphasized that this is not a business venture. He wants the sport to grow and wants to have as many ways as possible for all players to reach each other and feel that they are part of a community. There is an annual fee, he says, “to keep the lights on”, as well as to allow NRBC to sponsor some tournaments, as it recently sponsored USA Racquetball’s Junior National Championships (thanks again for that, Rich!).

Interested in learning more?  Visit the website here: Home | National Racquetball Club

National Racquetball Club