San Diego Fitness Club Tournament, June 2004

I was first introduced to racquetball during my junior year of high school. But what we did there in the gym of Susitna Valley High School could hardly be called racquetball; the teacher would split the gym into 4 sections using the lines of a basketball court as boundaries. There was only one wall, the front wall, and no ceiling. I loved playing. I was the school champion both junior and senior years at that school and that’s when I knew that I would get into the sport more once I had the opportunity.
But I had to wait for that for almost two years; after my graduation from Susitna Valley in 1993 I had no opportunity to play anymore because of the distance from my home to the Mat-Su Community College, the lack of courts in my neighborhood, my work, and my involvement in dogmushing.
My next opportunity to play again came up in 1995 when I started attending University of Alaska in Anchorage. For the first time I got to play on real courts and I quickly realized that I knew NOTHING about the real game of racquetball. So I took beginning and intermediate lessons offered by the school and I was very lucky because the instructor was a professional player, ranking #13 in the state that year. That year I learned that even after taking classes, even after playing extra few times per week I was not even close to being a C player; I entered several Anchorage-based tournaments and was always quickly eliminated within the first few rounds.
After moving to Spokane, Washington I got to play very little for the first year because of not knowing any players. Once I started attending Eastern Washington University in Cheney I once again enrolled in a class but this time the instructor did not even know the game rules! It was very disappointing; however I got to meet several good players and arranged a game or two each week besides playing intramural tournaments each quarter, winning once.
And then came sunny San Diego, California! After finding a job in Sorrento Valley in March 2001 I immediately got membership at the Sorrento Valley Racquetball and Fitness Center, a privately owned club considered to be the best in San Diego County. The club has some of the most unbelievable players, many of which are multiple national champions. Did I mention that the staff is equally unbelievable?
For the past two years I was lucky enough to play almost every day during lunch (I have two regular partner Bill as well as random free players when I’m without a game for a day). I love my weekly routine; jump on my bike @ 12:30, go to the club to play 2-3 games, take a quick shower and back to work. I hardly ever skip Thursday night or Saturday morning round-robin tournaments.
Still, even after playing at least 10-15 hours per week for two years, I can now call myself a B- player, and only on a good day.