Junior Worlds Underway
December 16th, 2005 by Adam Katz
2005 IRF 17th World Junior Racquetball Championships
Greetings from Juarez! I won’t bore any of you with any details of our 11 hour drive from Denver yesterday. The key is that it was uneventful!
The team all arrived yesterday as well and everyone is in great spirits. They practiced at the main Juarez Racquet Club for a couple of hours this morning. The club is going to be very nice when it is finished…I have no idea when that will be, but it will be nice…11 courts and this is a racquetball only facility. They are also using the San Angel Racquet Club for the Friendship Cup and some Espirit Cup matches, haven’t been over there yet, but I suspect I will be there quite a bit in the next week.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Junior Worlds format, there are actually 3 competitions. The main competition is the Junior World Cup, which features the top two singles players and top doubles team from each nation playing first in Round Robin pools for seeding and then a single elimination tournament. This competition is for the Girls and Boys in 14s, 16s, and 18s. There are 19 nations competing for this year’s World Cup.
The Espirit Cup features the Olympic Tournament Format of Gold, Red, White, and Blue divisions for players in the 8s, 10s, and 12s. Each nation designates 2 point earners for singles and 1 doubles team in this competition. Those not earning points towards the Espirit Cup are then earning them towards the final competition, the Friendship Cup.
The Friendship Cup is an Olympic format tournament for the 14s, 16s, and 18s that aren’t part of the Junior World Cup.
The US Team is led by Captain Kelley Fisher who is in her final juniors event and playing #1 singles in the Girl’s 18s. Sarah Hettesheimer is playing #2 Singles in the Girl’s 18s. The Doubles team is Katie Ferguson and Ashley Leggett,
Kara Mazur is playing #1 Singles in the Girl’s 16s and Michelle Key is playing #2 Singles. The Doubles team is Shannon Inglesby and Brittany Leggett.
Sheryl Lotts is playing #1 Singles in the Girl’s 14s and Danielle Key is playing #2 Singles. They will also team up to play doubles.
On the Boy’s side, Captain Anthony Herrera and Jared Torres will be teaming up in the 18 Doubles. Both of the singles players are in their 1st year in the 18s, so we can expect great things from them now and next year. They are Chris Coy at #1 and Mike Keddie and #2 Singles.
In 16s, Ishmael Aldana will play #1 Singles and doubles with Jose Rojas. #2 Singles will be Allan Crockett. At least we’re hoping this is the case. Ishmael awoke with some eye problems the other day and he is currently having trouble with light. I spoke with him earlier before the team took off for the Opening Ceremonies and he is hoping that he’ll be ok in the morning. He stayed behind this morning when the rest of the team went to practice.
In the 14s, Danny Lavely and Chad McGuffey will be playing both singles and doubles. To be honest, I forgot which one is designated at #1 in singles.
On the Espirit Cup front, we have a great team all with promising futures in racquetball. Elizabeth Brenner and Courtney Chisholm will be point earners in the Girl’s 12 Singles and Doubles. If you’ve never seen Elizabeth, she is only 12 years old but is already over 6 feet tall.
In the Girl’s 10s, Abbey Lavely and Elizabeth Vargas will be point earners in the singles and Victoria Fladstol and Hollie Hungerford will earn points in the doubles.
In the Girl’s 8s Elizabeth Vargas and Alicia Fladstol will be the singles point earners. There are no doubles divisions in the 8s.
On the Boy’s side Joseph Lee and Joshua Hungerford will be earning points in singles and Joseph Lee will team with Dylan Reid as point earners in the doubles in the 12s.
The 10s features John Lindsay and Sam Reid playing singles and Sam will team up with Adam Manilla in the doubles as point earners.
The Boy’s 8s will have Matt McAdam and Jesse Mendoza earning points.
In the Friendship Cup, I have two players entered that I will be covering their matches in this update because I help coach them and both of their fathers are currently serving in Iraq. So you’ll be hearing about Kevin Hernandez in the Boys 16 singles and doubles, and Chris Good in the Boy’s 14 Singles and Doubles. They took advantage of the practice time at the Juarez racquet club today and both looked very comfortable on these courts.
Everyone is currently at the opening ceremonies, so I will try and send some pictures later on tonight. I had to stay behind to get some work done and get this first update out to everyone as the internet access tends to be very slow at night. The plan for the ceremonies was to have 2 flag bearers for each nation walk in with the flag and the rest of the team would be assembled together. They’re hoping to have this ceremony done in 1 hour, but nobody was really expecting that.
I will try to send a report about each World Cup match and as many Espirit Cup matches as I can each day. The tourney starts tomorrow morning at 8am.
If there is any particular player that you want more in depth coverage on, please let me know.
Related posts:
- Junior Worlds – Day One
- Junior Worlds – Day Three
- Junior Worlds – Day Four
- Junior Worlds – Day Two
- Junior Worlds – Day Five
Entry Filed under: Racquetball News,USA Racquetball
Tags: 2005 Junior Worlds, Junior Worlds
