NEW DIRECTIONS
by Luke St. Onge

As we approach the end of the year 2000 I’d like to take a moment to reflect on several of the highlights of the past twelve months, beginning with the USRA Leadership conference at the Olympic Training center here in Colorado Springs last January. There — for the first time — the entire industry addressed the sport’s grassroots leaders and offered their total support for the Court Club Programming initiative. A new enthusiasm and energy was established for this critical long-range program with the 100% endorsement of not only the industry, but of the State Leaders as well. In conjunction with this plan to grow the sport, a goal was established to increase the USRA membership by 1200 by the end of the year.

The IHRSA convention followed quickly on the heels of the Leadership Conference and for the first time in many years there was a new spark for the sport among club owners, as retention and profitability was stressed from the Industry booth. This was a complete turnaround from only two years before when racquetball was not considered a part of the fitness mix. It was also exciting to convey to the owners that in the last 18 months over 2000 new courts were built in the U.S. Certainly an indication of progress!

The back-to-back Wilson High School Nationals and E-Force Intercollegiates fell in this same period and once again showed an increase in participation. The Ektelon Regionals followed suit with their own very successful upturns in participation, as did the Ektelon National Singles, which drew over 650 individual players to Houston. Three new members were inducted into the Hall of Fame – Van Dubolsky, Ruben Gonzalez and Jim Winterton — at the Annual Awards Banquet. 

The Summer found activity at its highest with the Head/Penn Junior Olympics in Minnesota, Elite camps in Colorado Springs and the World Championships in Mexico. All were great successes with probably the most noteworthy being the Canadian Racquetball Team winning the World Cup, outright, for the first time in the history of the World Championships, along with first-time individual title wins by Mexican National Team members in both singles and doubles.

In programming, AmPRO continued through this period certifying over 200 new instructors and programmers to bring the total active member roster to over 600. The USRA also opted to take over the management of the women’s pro tour, in an attempt to stabilize an athlete pipeline so critical to the success of a sport. Internationally, Keith Calkins of the USRA Board was elected President of the International Racquetball Federation and a new IRF Executive Committee was selected at the Worlds, with the added stipulation that a minimum of two women delegates would be required to be elected to it, for the purpose of fostering women’s development in the sport worldwide.

The Ektelon National Doubles opened the current season with over 673 playing in Baltimore, with some 30 late entrants being turned away because of the size of the event. Now, the Hilton U.S. Open looms before us, followed by the annual, year-end Pro Kennex Junior World Championships rounding out the year. In all, its been quite a non-stop, jam-packed year for racquetball from our end. We hope yours has been just as active and equally successful!