January-February Update 2016 – HARD WORK = SUCCESS!

My “Adult Championship Racquetball Team” led by Paola Longoria and Rocky Carson, both started out the 2nd half of the season solid.

Paola Longoria In January at the 2016 kick off LPRT event in Cincinnati, OH  Paola cruised to titles in both the Professional Singles and Professional Doubles Divisions.

The win in the Queen City was Paola’s 66th career professional singles tournament title. The Queen of Racquetball only dropped one game all weekend long in both the singles and doubles divisions.

In Overland Park, KS this past weekend, February 19-21, Paola continued her dominance and won the event without dropping a game…her 67^th career professional singles tournament title. She did not play the doubles event as Samantha Salas was unable to attend the tournament.

Besides playing the LPRT pro tour each year Paola  must attend the Mexican National Team Selection Tournament to secure her position on the Mexican National Team. This year she once again played and won both the singles and doubles events in Chihuahua, MX…. making it 9 singles Mexican Championship tiles and 11 doubles Mexican Championship titles. She will be representing her country at the Pan American Championships in San Luis Potosi, MX (her hometown) in March and the World Championships in Cali, Columbia in July…. Making it 11 years on the Mexican National Team.

Rocky Carson played in both IRT pro stops in NY and SD in January and made it to the finals of 2 out of the 2 IRT events as well as he made it to the finals of both the singles and doubles US Team qualifying events in Tempe, AZ at the National Doubles Championships.

In NY he lost to Kane Waselenchuk in the finals and in SD he took 1^st with Alvaro Beltran in the Professional Doubles division. Rocky won the men’s singles qualification division, solidifying his place at the top of the current qualification list. He also made it to the finals of the doubles, but fell short to Jake Breckenbeck and Jose Diaz.

My “Junior Championship Racquetball Team” also started out strong and solid in their adult tournaments the 2nd half of the season.

Wayne Antone won the Corvallis Open with a very very tough field of Jason Samora, Sam Breckenbeck, Dylan Reid and Josh Lebow. He beat Jason Samora in the finals for the first time ever.

Jordan Cooperrider played her 1^st LPRT pro stop of the season in KS this past weekend and qualified for the 2nd time ever. Jordan’s round of 16 match was against the legendary Rhonda Rajsich and it went four tough games before losing 5-11, 11-6, 13-11, 11-9. Then Jordan went on to make it to the Women’s Open finals and had a tough lose to Carla Munoz.

Mitchell Turner played in the Men’s Elite and A divisions in the Corvallis Open gaining lots of experience playing in the adult divisions at the age of 16.

*Jordan, Wayne and Mitchell all got together in Salem, OR with me for week of training during Christmas and New Years. We were training for the H.S. National Championships in February as well as the Junior National Championships in June.

My “Championship Racquetball Students” played well at the National Doubles Championship…CONGRATULATIONS to you all as well:

Women’s Doubles 30+ B & 30 A/B: Dragana Bulatovic/Heather Hojat – Gold/Silver Medals
Women’s Doubles 45+: Tammarrian Rogers/Vivian Rodriguez – Silver Medal
Women’s Doubles 50+: Louise Winters – Bronze Medal
Women’s Doubles 60+: Carla Francis – Silver Medal
Mixed Doubles Elite: Tammarrian Rogers – Silver Medal
Mixed Doubles B: Dragana Bulatovic – Silver Medal
Heather Hojat – Bronze Medal
Mixed Doubles Centurion A: Richelle Kulju/Steve Kowalski – Gold Medal
Mixed Doubles Centurion+Open: Paul Julbes – Bronze Medal

Next up for Paola and Rocky. Paola is going to Warren, NJ and Rocky is heading to Chicago, IL in March.

**All IRT Tier 1 and Grand Slam events are streamed live on the IRT Network.

***All LPRT Tier 1 and Grand Slams are streamed on Livestream.com.

 

Enjoy your journey to your championship game, like my “Championship Team.”