WOR Update - March 2021

February 13-14, 2021, Huntington Beach, California

Thirty-seven doubles teams participated in a two-day Valentine’s Day shootout at the Marina Park Courts, long-time home of the Outdoor Nationals event in July. Pool play whittled down the fields in each division to a playoff single elimination draw. 

Here are the winners of the four divisions competed:

Upper Division: Micah Rich/Jason Geis defeated Geoff Osberg/Luis Avila, 21-13

New Southern California resident Geis, a powerful lefty who has major Outdoor 3-wall doubles titles to his credit, teamed up to win the title with long-time outdoor specialist Rich to top a field that included several future Hall of Fame outdoor players. This is a team to be reckoned with at the upcoming Outdoor Nationals event on these same courts.

Lower Division: Damian Zamarano/Terry Kisling defeated Pio Motera/Tom Quiroz, 15-2

Two Phoenix outdoor players made the weekend trip to Los Angeles and avenged a pool play loss to take the Lower Division title. The potent lefty/righty pair dominated the final for the win.

CPRT Division: Tony Burg/Scott St. Clair defeated Josh Tucker/Greg Solis, 21-20

Burg/St. Clair proved their mettle once again as a team, topping the Hall of Fame team of Tucker/Solis in the final. Burg/St. Clair also won the Vegas 3WallBall Centurion event last October, where they beat #1 player in the world Kane Waselenchuk and partner Gary Durbin in the final.

Mixed Division: Jeremy McGlothin/Katie Neils defeated Sam Barrera/Victoria Rodriguez, 15-10

Phoenix area pro Neils teamed up with solid outdoor regular McGlothin to win the mixed draw. Neils made some noise with some great mixed results in the 2020 Vegas event.

February 27, 2021, Tropical Park Outdoor Courts, Miami, Florida

Nineteen teams, including some of the top outdoor players in South Florida, participated in a one-day shootout at the Tropical Park Courts in South Miami on Saturday, February 27. The teams were broken into four round robin groups with the top two teams advancing to a single elimination draw.

Congrats to the winners Roy Hernandez/Marcos Gravier, who topped Kevin Vasquez/Timmy Hansen in the final, 15-8, 15-1, after a long day of outdoor play. Vasquez/Hansen upset Joe Young/Alejandro Barcelo in the semis, a great win over two of the better outdoor veterans in the state.

The participants celebrated afterwards by enjoying an annual tradition, BBQ pork and beverages.

3WallBall in Las Vegas has announced a CPRT/Legends division for its upcoming October event and has secured commitments from a number of the game’s legends. Past Men’s pro champions Hogan, Brumfield, Swain, Peck, and Gonzalez (who combine to hold 18 Pro tour titles) are committed to attend, along with other indoor touring legends and outdoor champions.

The r2sports site for the tournament is now up; surf to https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37265. The home page of R2Sports has a ton of tournament information, schedule of tournament play, list of planned events, and some important tournament entry information. Of key importance: the event is limited to 600 participants for 2021, so sign up early! With a major traveling Handball community, we don’t want to have the Racquetball players miss out.

Follow 3WallBall on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/3WallBall/

Follow 3WallBall on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/3wall_ball/

Here’s a quick guide to known upcoming Outdoor events. Mark your calendars! We hope to get more tournaments on the books as COVID-19 related restrictions begin to ease.

March 20-21: Sweet Lou’s Low Down Doubles, Huntington Beach, CA
https://www.facebook.com/events/840090003268282

March 20-21: WOR Shootout at Tropical Park, Miami FL

https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=32193

April 24-25: Eustis Long Wall Championships, Eustis, FL

https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=37333

July 9-11: 2021 Outdoor Nationals, Huntington Beach, CA 

https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=31967

Aug 14-15: Windy City 3Wall Brawl Championships, Chicago, IL (R2Sports site tbd)

Oct 21-24: 12th Annual 3WallBall Outdoor Championships, Las Vegas, NV

https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=37265

The absolute best way to stay abreast of Outdoor events is to follow WOR – Outdoor Racquetball on Facebook. We post updates for upcoming events as soon as they’re available!

https://www.facebook.com/WorldOutdoorRacquetball/

There are a slew of community-specific outdoor Facebook groups out there as well, which many local players use to coordinate play on their local courts. In the next newsletter, we’ll go through a review of these to help players connect with other local outdoor racquetball enthusiasts.

The Elkins family continues to look for their son, Dane, who has now been missing nearly three months.

Here is an article on Dane from NBC Dateline published on 3/1/21, with updates on the search areas.  Though he was last seen in the hills east of Los Angeles, there are thoughts that he might be further north in areas near Santa Cruz (where he attends college) or near Bakersfield (where he has often stopped to camp).

https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/family-holds-hope-safe-return-uc-santa-cruz-student-dane-n1259218

A Facebook group has been established by his parents to coordinate communication of updates. Please join the group “Searching for Dane Elkins” here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/findingdaneelkins.