ISRA Website Update – March 1, 2008

Hallelujah, it's March! Can Spring be right around the corner? Don't know about you, but getting through January and February, plus looking forward to the change to Daylight Saving Time in a week, does wonders for the spirit. Let's take a few minutes to get caught up on ISRA doings in the past month...

ISRA State Singles is in the record books. A great turnout of 150, with state champions crowned in a number of divisions. The R2 Sports tournament management system worked beautifully for planning the tournament and keeping everything on time. There is, however, one feature of the system we want you to know about. A number of players asked right after the tournament where results could be viewed. This actually depends on the membership status of players in the tournament. The R2 system is set up in such a way that results cannot be submitted to USA Racquetball until every player has a current membership. This is an effective stopgap, but for a tournament director, it can cause frustration. The "delinquents" have to either be tracked down or the ISRA has to ante up for the memberships in order to clear the tournament results for submission. To further complicate things, sometimes players can prove that they paid at another recent tournament (producing a receipt), but if that tournament staff drags its feet in getting memberships in, it means that everything gets backed up in subsequent events. So, Tournament Directors...please move heaven and earth to get those memberships in!

The ISRA Annual Awards Ceremony was held on Saturday afternoon of State Singles. ISRA President Laurel Davis presented the awards, and the winners are: Distinguished Service Award -- Michelle Halverson; Female Player of the Year -- Julie Vincent; Male Player of the Year -- Pat Taylor; Most Improved Player of the Year -- Trevor Snyders. Geoff Goldblatt was the winner of the James B. Dvorak Junior Award and scholarship. Congratulations to the winners and to all the nominees!

The following week, twelve Illinois players got on airplanes to Tempe, Arizona, to compete in the 2008 National Doubles Championships. We'd like to say that the weather was heavenly…not so much. But, it was still a good 40 degrees warmer than Chicago, albeit with a day or two of clouds and rain. Illinois brought home 14 medals, with Golds earned by Barbara Curran and Malia Bailey in Women's 40+; Nancy Kronenfeld and Merijean Kelley in Women's 55+; Keith Minor and Brad McCunniff in Men's 35+; and Terri Graham and Jimmy Lowe in Mixed 45+. Look for a full report on Tempe in the next ISRA Newsletter...

March, April, May, June…at least one event per month upon which to set your sights! The perennial favorite Shamrock Shootout will commence at Glass Court March 14th…the entry deadline is March 10, just over a week away! April 23-27 brings the 2008 Motorola IRT Pro National Racquetball Championships and USA Racquetball Adult Regionals presented by Verizon Wireless. Tournament Director and IRT Commissioner Dave Negrete has plenty in store, including the unveiling of the new all-Lucite court! Check out www.irt-pronationals.com for all the details. The 2008 National Singles Championships, May 21-26 in Houston, will be even more exciting this year as USA Racquetball celebrates its 25th year for this tournament in Houston, and most especially the 35th Anniversary of the Hall of Fame. An impressive number of Hall of Fame members will be in attendance. If you're planning to be there, haul out your fancy duds and bring them along...the banquet will be of Academy Award proportions! MC Shawn Royster will be sporting a top hat and cane...need we say more? Moving into summer, Peoria's Landmark Health & Fitness Club will hold its 4th Annual Racquet for The Cure tournament, June 27-28. The planning committee never fails to do an outstanding job with this tournament...make this your year to support their great work on behalf of Susan G. Komen for The Cure!

Last but not least, another big thank you comes from Kevin Brylski and his fellow servicemen and women in Afghanistan. As a result of donations at State Singles, five more boxes of items were sent over to help them make a difference to the desperately poor local citizens. Kevin wants you all to know how much it means to him to have the support of racquetball buddies from home. Kevin's tour of duty will be up in a few weeks...it'll be great to have him back in the Illinois fold!

See you on the courts!

Your ISRA Board