“Super Sunday…Rocky, Paola and Taylor all were WINNERS,
and Rocky claims #1”
“Connor and Jordan took home some medals from the Jr. World Championships.”
My “Adult Championship Racquetball Team” led by Rocky Carson and Paola Longoria, BOTH #1 Pro Players in the World, had some tournaments in November coming off of a great showing at the US Open Championships in October. Paola was crowned the 2013 US Open Women’s Champion and Rocky was a finalist in the men’s pro division in the 2013 US Open Championships.
Rocky Carson had a tremendous showing at both the International Racquetball Tour (IRT) Pro Stops in November in Davison, MI and this past weekend in Garden City, KS.
In Davison, at the first pro stop after the US Open, Rocky beat Tony Carson in the quarterfinals and then went on to face a red hot Daniel De La Rosa in the semifinals and came up short. After that event Rocky was very disappointed in his performance so we regrouped and made a few minor adjustments to his game physically as well as mentally.
In Garden City, Rocky came back strong after the loss in Davison and went on to win the event. He went 5 games in the round of 16’s against Jake Brekenbeck, 4 in the quarters against Tony Carson, 4 in the semis against Ben Croft and again in the finals went 5 games against Alvaro Beltran. By winning the Turkey Shootout Crown, he claimed his first pro stop victory of the season. This was Rocky’s 18th career professional title which propelled him into the top spot in the IRT’s World Rankings, year to date, and is the new No. 1 pro racquetball player in the World. He last held the No. 1 ranking in 2008.
Rocky has appeared in the finals of three of the four IRT events so far in the early 2013-2014 season
Paola Longoria has a quiet month for the LPRT so she decided to play a tournament in her home country in Zacatecas, MX at the Club Bernardez, which had 150 participants. She entered the Men’s Open division that was a full 16 draw and she finished on top and won the event. She played very strong and solid getting ready for a few LPRT events coming up in December.
Taylor Knoth has been a full time engineering student at Oregon State University for the past 4 years and has not been able to make any of the IRT Tier 1 or Grand Slam events this season, but has been dominating locally in the Northwest Region. With that being said, Taylor just won the IRT Satellite Turkey Shootout in Beaverton, OR at the Sunset AC this past weekend run by a very successful tournament director, Paul Maduell. There were 172 entrants and 20 in the Men’s Pro Division. The finals went down to the wire as Taylor beat Jeff Stark in an 11-7 tiebreaker.
Rocky Carson and Paola Longoria both have events coming up in December before going home to enjoy the holidays with their families…Rocky heading to New Jersey and Paola defending her Virginia title and hopes to capture the title of her own event scheduled for Monterey, MX.
***All IRT and LPRT Tier 1 and Grand Slam events are streamed live on the IRT Network.
My “Junior Championship Racquetball Team” came home with 5 medals from Jr. World Championships in Bolivia in October 20-26, 2013.
Connor Laffey took home 2 Bronze medals for the overall Boys 3rd place and overall Team 3rd place.
Jordan Cooperrider took home 1 Silver medal for Girl’s 14 & U Doubles, 2 Bronze medals for Girl’s 14 & U Singles for overall Team 3rd place.
Enjoy your journey to your “championship game” like my “championship team.”
