In the Spotlight
[Photos: Erik Meyer]

Exclusively online! Full transcripts of interviews with the top players & coaches at the World Championships —
Beltran | Bustillos/Moreno | Gudinas | Hallander/Russell
Ceresia/Green | Coach Brown | Coach Travers

I feel fantastic. I knew this moment was going to happen, because I trained so hard. I knew that everything was as it was supposed to be, so that I could be world champion. I practiced. It was a tournament in Mexico. I was doing good in all the tournaments. I love the nationals. That really helped me. I was over-confident at [the nationals], and by losing that tournament, I knew I had to win this tournament to get my reputation back. I wanted this tournament so bad, that I don't think anyone could have taken it away from me.

[Playing Rocky before] helped me a lot in the finals. I played him twice this year. We were one and one. He's really tough and a great player. I wasn't nervous, because I knew his game and he knows my game. I knew the one that won it was the one that wanted the world title the most.

[On the World Cup turnaround] We want to win always. The guys played really hard. I feel happy for that, because they gave their heart. The Canadians were playing good. There's nothing to say about that. Just to congratulate them.

Luis Bustillos: Javier started before I did. He used to play me right-handed, and he's left-handed. I started playing with his dad. He's the one who taught me to play. As I got better, I got the opportunity to play with him. He showed me how to play doubles at Junior Worlds.

For me right now, I was just honored. This is something that is going to keep us together. It's something that we are going to have in common for the rest of our lives. No one can take it away from us. We can look back and tell our grandkids, "Hey, we were the world champions in doubles." I'm pleased. I'm not satisfied though. It's a great thing that we did, but it's not about doing it once. I want to do it again. Maybe in singles. Maybe again in doubles. Maybe in Team. It's a beginning of a new era in Mexican racquetball. I think we have just proven to the world that we are there.

Javier Moreno: We grew up together. Our dads grew up together. Since they were little kids, they knew each other. When I won my first nationals, I was 16. And he won the C division. I used to play him right-handed, and now he's kicking my butt, even using my left hand.

I'm so happy, because I haven't played for two years after the Worlds in Bolivia. We just got back from a tournament in Juarez. We lost in the first round a week ago. We already knew we were going to play worlds. It gave me a good sign that we would do good. Because when you win a tournament, you get your butt kicked the next tournament.

The day before, I dreamt that something good was going to happen. Our quote was 'Something good is going to happen in San Luis Potosi." My dad kept saying that too me. I kept telling the crowd 'we want to win the world championship.' [Photo L-R: Moreno & Bustillos]

Luis: Before the awards ceremonies at nationals, the first time I had become a national champion, Coach [Winterton] comes to me and says that he might want to put me in doubles with Luis. I said ok without any hesitation. Even though we hadn't played in two years, if that's for the good of team, then I'll do it. Then I sat back and had second thoughts, but then I thought Beltran would do better in singles, because he lost. He couldn't defend his title. We have trust in each other. We went back home and we worked. We did what we had to do. And we came back, we put it together.

I hoped that we could have taken the Team title as well. We are the world champions. No one is going to take it away. Tonight we felt a little bad [about losing to Canada in the Team round], but I think we over-achieved. Because, we expected to do well in Team competition. We expected it, but it came out better.

We hope that the kids know that dedication, discipline and dreams, you can achieve. Becoming a world champion has been my goal. I want kids to look at us as a role model. I want to tell them, if you want to be a doctor, go ahead and study it. You can do it. You can save lives someday. Look at me at how I train. Look at how fast I am. Look at how focused I am. Because I did it. And he did it. And you can do it. And I'm glad I did it in our country. Coach Winterton told us yesterday after we lost, when you win, you're never as good as you think you are. When you lose, you're never as bad as you think you are.

I haven't had a chance to analyze it yet, but I just really feel the last year and half, I've had a lot of good fortune. Someone is really looking out for me. In '99, in that tiebreaker, I said this will be one of the greatest comebacks, and I came back. And when I was down 8-10, I said I've been here before. This is just like Canada. What are the chances? But I can do it again. And then it happened. So I'm just kind of blown away. It's probably one of the greatest matches I've ever played.

[On who she preferred to face in the final] Definitely Christie. We have the rivalry going. Because no matter what, it's the semifinal matches in the pro stops that get the attention right now. Because there is always somebody up on the top, and its usually Jackie, who has an easier time getting into the finals. While Christie and I have to duke it out. Hopefully Jackie will get her game back together, and there will be three rivalries going, at least.

My record against her is really good since Rosarito. I wanted Jackie to win, obviously. I think I know Christie's game, and I know how to deal with her when I played her before. So, when Christie won, I wasn't happy or unhappy. I was just like, "Ok, now I have to go to work."

[On the team re-match] I was hurt, and I'm a little worried about it. I was lucky to get through that first game with Christie. Kevin did a great job of keeping my knee together. I'm going to have to a lot of pool work when I get home.

I'm disappointed [for the World Cup loss]. I was in tears when the girls were playing doubles, because I feel like I've always contributed here, and I wasn't able to. And the men seemed like they were going to win, and they didn't. If I had won that match, we would have won. But I wanted to be the one to make the play. I did it when I needed to. The girls won. They are great. Malia helped me the most. She was at most of my matches as the coach assigned to me.

Kersten Hallander: Kim and I have been friends for a long time. And, I think that it's probably about over 10 years. We played a tournament about 10 years ago in Atlanta or something. We clicked then, and I knew we'd click here. I think during the course of the week, its hard to develop a team strategy. I think you just have to count on being able to learn which shots your partner wants to take, and getting comfortable with them. [Photo L-R: Russell & Hallander]

Kim Russell: I qualified in doubles. I realize that it takes a lot to pick up a partner and have to go from the start. Not having played in a couple of years together, communicating was the big key. We had to communicate with each other. To start it was kind of so-so, but as the games and matches went on, it began to flow.

Mike Ceresia: [On knowing that the World Cup rested with their match win] We had no idea. We didn't know until after. We thought the girls had won. We didn't until I asked Michel [Gagnon] at 5-5 in the second game. I asked how the girls did, and they said they lost. So I said, 'ok, we've got to win the match.' When he said that, I knew we had better make sure we took care of business. We knew that we had to win the match for the men's title. Which was enough to have on the line.

[On the re-match semi-final win over Mexico] To win the overall is a big bonus. Not so much putting them out of the Team competition, but really focusing on what we wanted to do in the Team event, which I feel is the more important half. We wanted to focus on winning the gold medal in the second half. That was our goal after having lost to the Mexicans. Not necessarily to beat them, but winning the gold.

Mike Green: We have played [Bustillos & Moreno], but not together. I lost to them twice in Bolivia with Kane. When I lost to them the second time, it was for a spot in the finals. It came down to the same as last night. That was on my mind. I have been thinking about beating them for two years. [Green pictured at left]

Ceresia: We were waiting to find out if we were going to have to play, first of all. And then once we found out we had to play, we knew that they were a tough team. Rubes is probably the greatest player ever. And Guidry has been a fantastic player for 15 years. We knew we'd have to play a great match to win. We knew they weren't going to give it to us. Our plan was basically the same as our plan last night. To move the ball around. We felt that they were kind of the same match-up. To play our game and play with some heart.

Green: We thought that the first match that we played against them, the big difference was serve return. And that was the only reason that we thought they beat us. We wanted to make them change their serve. Rather than them use their best serves, we wanted to make them change it up. I think it worked.

Ceresia: We wanted to take advantage of Mike's serve return, which was definitely carrying our team. We wanted [Green] to be returning the tough serves. That's probably why we concentrated on short-hopping the ball when they served down the middle. And it worked out all right.

Ceresia: [On being scrubbed from the Pan Am Team last summer] I think that we have been on a mission all year to show that we should have been on that Pan Am Team regardless, because we have been two of the best players for the last five years. I think we wanted to show that [the replacement] shouldn't have happened. We proved that when push comes to shove, and the big matches are there, Mike Green and Mike Ceresia have what it takes.

Green: [On the injury that scrubbed them] We never used it as a crutch, but we would have been ready for the Pan Am Games. We would have been very tough to beat, as we were here. There were three times this week, where winning that match meant advancing. Today, winning that match meant winning the men's team, and even though we didn't know it, winning the overall. So there were three pretty important steps that we pulled out for Canada.

For me it's kind of neat. I was coach in 1984, which was the first time that we competed as a country in the world championships. To see the difference between '84 and 2000, was kind of special for me. I have a real sense of history, and I know that we made history today. But I don't know that it will sink in for a while. [Brown is pictured below, far right]

We had real mix. With the retirement of Sherman, and the emergence of Kane, we had a passing and coming at the same time. We had a link to the past with Mike Ceresia playing. With the two younger girls, you really never know how people are going to perform. You know how you would like them to perform, and how you'd hope it would turn out. But even I have to say that this is beyond my expectations.

Michel had been working with [Ceresia/Green] all week. I think that in the beginning, since these guys are a veteran team, they had worked out good strategies for themselves. But Michel kind of intervened, and he's a great tactician. Michel gave them some really good strategy. It was the same strategy they used against the Mexican team. We had to compensate for having to left handed players, while playing two good teams with a left and right handed player. We had a lot more play in the middle. Better serves. Much better execution. They executed in the last two days. They got us past Mexico and finished it off against the United States.

I have to say that I was really pleased with everybody's performance. We haven't always come to these and had solid performances straight through, but the younger girls I know will learn from this. And I know they will be there again. We are looking at the beginning of two very good careers. Christie is always very tough, and plays like a champion every time. But L-J, to me, was the biggest surprise of this tournament. I know she's been working really hard, and it paid off. She took Cheryl to a tiebreaker. She took Jackie to a tiebreaker today, which was the difference in the games between us. I will give L-J credit. She believed in herself. She worked hard. And it probably is beginning to pay off right here.

Our selection process is different than what you have in the U.S. You have your nationals. We have our nationals, and then we have two selection events, in January and February, where we play singles in one and doubles in another. People who make the team now, it's a cumulative effect from those two events and nationals. And then we will usually run a training camp. And there will be tournament opportunities throughout the year, for not all of them, but for a good deal of them.

[The players] are spread across the country. We get together about six or seven times a year, usually for an event. I have seen some incredible things, but this would be hard to surpass. We have had some great racquetball players who have finished second to the U.S. their entire careers. Today is the day that everyone on this team can say that they were the best in the world. And I think its going to happen to them again. I think we should get used to winning.

[Reflecting on the week] I think the team played its guts out. Played as hard as they could play. I think we had a young team. We had to replace one of our girls in doubles, so it was struggle to get them through, but they came through as world champions. Cheryl, of course, came through as the champion that she is. She is a world champion now.

It's a tough loss to take as a team for the team title. Even though we equaled our matches [between the men's and women's squads], we just happened to lose on total games by one game. It came down to our last doubles match, and Canada was just a couple shots better than we were.

It was a real high-pressure day. We played a couple of the players from Canada earlier in the week, so we had a pretty good look at what they could do. I think that we were just out matched on a couple of games. Cheryl won the world championship earlier in the week, and its awfully tough to win twice in one week, playing the same person. She played as hard as she could, but she came up two points short. This game is a little bit of inches, and we just came up a little bit short. I really called that match ... I knew it was going to be a tough job to come back and win again.

I don't want to take anything away from the Mexican's. They won the world championship in doubles and singles, and I knew it would be very tough for them to repeat that. I really thought that Canada would step it up and try to overcome that. I think their experience really showed over Mexico there. I felt like we would be playing Canada. I felt like the Mexican team was a little bit quicker, and they played the front court better, but the Canadians had more experience. They laid back and pushed the Mexican team and made them shoot longer shots from deep court. When you make a team shoot from 30 feet constantly, with drives and passes and ceiling balls, you're going to come out on top. And that's what they did.

We knew that was the final match. The team title came down to the final match. We had actually, up to that point, been tied with both teams having won seven games apiece. We needed to win that match for the title. Like I said, we came up short.

I think I learned quite a bit from this team. This team was a young team. Being on several trips before this, I think the talent that we had on the trips before this was a talent that was a little more experienced. We had to put together a doubles team. We just didn't quite have the experience on this team that other teams have had. What it taught me was that these guys really put forth an effort, but that is what makes scouting even more important. That's what makes coaching even a little bit tougher.

[On interaction with former Head Coach Winterton] We actually talked quite a bit. We are good friends. It wasn't awkward at all. I think it was a little tough on some of the players. It was a little awkward to see him out there in a green uniform, instead of a red, white and blue uniform. But after a match or so, they overcame that. [Pictured (above) Travers & (below, in hat) Winterton]