“Rocky Carson makes it to the finals in 3 out of 3…in FL, IL & CA”
“Paola Longoria won 4 out of 5…in CA, DR, CO & TX”
“Wayne Antone wins 1st Open Tournament…in OR”
“Jordan Cooperrider wins in FL & makes noise at the LPRT Pro Stop…in CO”
“Mitchell Turner plays Men’s Elite at the Oregon State Championships”
My “Adult Championship Racquetball Team” led by Rocky Carson and Paola Longoria, both have maintained their #1 Pro rankings on their respective tours, the International Racquetball Tour (IRT) & the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT).
Alvaro Beltran and Rocky Carson team up to win the IRT Long Beach Doubles Open.
Photo Credit: RestrungMagazine.com
Rocky Carson continued to play well and made the finals of 3 out of 3 events…. 2 Professional Singles tournaments and 1 Professional Doubles only tournament.
It began in Sarasota, FL, February 26- March 1, where Rocky beat Markie Rojas in the quarterfinals and Daniel De LaRosa in the semi-finals before losing to Kane Waselenchuk in the finals.
A new event was added in Chicago, IL, March 12-15, and Rocky made the finals again. He beat a red hot Ben Croft in the quarterfinals and Jose Rojas in the semi-finals before falling to Kane Waselenchuk in the finals.
To start off April there was an IRT Professional Doubles ONLY event in Southern CA and Rocky teamed with Alvaro Beltran again to win that event. They met a tough team of Charlie Pratt and Jansen Allan in the semi-finals and won that mentally grueling match, 11-9 in the tiebreaker. In the finals they played Jose Rojas and Daniel De LaRosa who upset the team of Kane Waselenchuk and Ben Croft in the semi-finals in a tiebreaker. Rocky and Alvaro cruised to an easy victory over Jose and Daniel in the finals.
Rocky continues his steady play in the IRT events. He has 2 more IRT tournaments, one in TX this weekend and one in OR in a few weeks. He is also gearing up to represent his country in the Pan American Games in the singles competition in Toronto, Canada in July.
Paola Longoria bounced back from a rare tournament defeat earlier in the month to win the Southern
Paola wins Battle of the Alamo in San Antonio, TX.
California Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour event March 20-22. In addition to winning the Professional Singles division in Fountain Valley, Paola captured the Professional Doubles division.
The win in California was Paola’s 57th career tournament title on the LPRT.
The following week Paola left with the Mexican National Team for the Dominican Republic where she took home 2 Gold Medals both in the Women’s Singles and Doubles competitions at the Pan American Championships adding to her already 18 Gold Medals on the International scene. This tournament served as the seeding event for the upcoming 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada, July 2015. Paola is the current defending Single’s and Double’s Pan American Champion (Guadalajara, 2011).
After a few weeks off Paola was at it again in Denver, CO, April 19-21, demolishing the competition by not dropping a single game in the whole tournament. The win against Marie in the finals in CO became Paola’s 58th career tournament title on the LPRT.
This past weekend, April 24-26, in San Antonio, TX, I coached Paola to her 59th career title on the LPRT. This was her 4th time winning the “Battle of the Alamo” tournament. An added bonus to this year’s event was Professional Doubles, which Paola and Samantha won and added to their dominating victories this season on the LPRT.
Paola continues her domination of the LPRT and the International Tournaments as she gears up to defend her Pan American Games Singles and Doubles Championships in Toronto, Canada in July.
Charlie Pratt at the Fran Davis Jr. Training Camp in Sandy, OR. With Juniors Wayne, Jordan and Mitchell.
My “Junior Championship Racquetball Team” is fairing well at all their adult tournaments they are playing in the second half of the 2014-2015 season:
Wayne Antone won his first Men’s Open tournament in Portland, OR, May 4th. Wayne teamed up with Dan Cramer and took 1st in Men’s Open Doubles and 2nd in Men’s Open Singles.
Jordan Cooperrider continues to dominate the Women’s Open divisions in Florida and took 1st place in the Women’s Open division at the Sarasota, FL, IRT Pro Stop February 26-March 1 after getting advice from Rocky, who was at the same event.
Jordan played in her 2nd LPRT event in Denver, CO, April 19-21. Jordan took 3rd place in the Women’s Open division after beating Dominique Davis, ranked # 10, in the quarterfinals and then went on to take 2nd place in the Women’s Open Doubles division with Erika Manila.
Mitchell Turner was in the Men’s Elite Consolation Finals at the 2015 Oregon State Championships. This was his first time playing Elite at the State Championships, which is a high level tournament. He’s way ahead of schedule at the age of 14 and is on track to be competitive in the Boy’s 14 & U at the Junior National Championships in Stockton, CA in June 2015.
Wayne Antone, Jordan Cooperrider and Mitchell Turner training in Seattle, WA with Coach Fran Davis.
*Wayne, Jordan and Mitchell trained with me over their Spring Breaks in Mt. Hood, OR. It was a week of serious training on all aspects of the game. We made adjustments on technique, drilling, playing, routines, game plans/strategies, mental toughness techniques, conditioning based on what we saw through their video analysis.
Charlie Pratt at the Fran Davis Jr. Training Camp in Sandy, OR. With Juniors Wayne, Jordan and Mitchell.
**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.”
