Curt Rettke 1962- 2005 USAR State President's Award (posthumously) May 28, 2005

In late 1995, Curt Rettke was an internet pioneer. I was a rank novice. He knew what "www" stood for. I was just learning about email. He said he had "server space" – I thought he was talking about where the waiter had parked. He said he could help me build a website for the AARA. I said ... "okay."

We began working together to organize and structure all the office reference material into some kind of order. He talked me through some HTML basics, then magically made the pages come alive on the net. I gradually came to use the word "upload" with authority.

A few months later, the May/June 1996 edition of Racquetball magazine featured an article by Curt Rettke that fully detailed the first comprehensive racquetball "rollout" on the web [see page scans below]. That year, the national singles results were reported in text form on the site, for the first time.

Other than the magazine itself, this very-first official website was the biggest and most ambitious communications project ever begun by the AARA. Later, Curt guided me through the trials and tribulations of finding a way to offer the online draw information that everyone enjoys so much at events like this one. Back then, if my mastery of "upload" fell short in the middle of the night, I knew I could call him and he'd make it right. By morning, you'd have your results.

When Curt moved on in his career, the USRA websites moved on as well. Another east coast racquetball enthusiast stepped forward with another kind offer and I said "okay" – but I never stopped appreciating all those late nights on the phone with Curt, and the wealth of knowledge that he shared – with patience and good humor, intelligence and grace. He was a wonderful friend to me, and an even better friend to racquetball.

Ten years later, he was still at it – guiding the Commonwealth of Virginia Racquetball Association throughout the very last year of his life [view obituary]. If you visited the USRA website, even once, in the last ten years, you've been touched by his legacy. I think we'll all miss him, very much.

March, 2005: WHEW ...  It's hard to believe that more than a year has passed since being laid off from USA Racquetball, but after a little post-traumatic stress syndrome activity in January, I feel confident that my recovery is near-complete. I've kept my little racquetball-habit alive by playing a bit more (even winning the CRA state doubles with long-time partner Mary Keenan), and volunteering myself into a frenzy. I made a pest of myself about the CRA website, offered to re-do it last spring and it went live in July. Now I've gone full circle, and am back on a state association board.

I also manage the website for the Lynmar Racquet & Health Club, and the annual Racquet for the Cure tournament, and have partnered with two gentlemen to produce RACQUETBALL.COM. Jay Mathis, Dan Aranda and I are rapidly building community in the sport with that marquee site, by compiling everything good (and timely!) about racquetball in one place. Check it out, and let me know what you think.

Lastly, I threw my name into the hat to volunteer for the USAR Board last fall, and was not selected for the "board approved" slate of candidates -- that's right, not selected (too inexperienced, I guess). So ... I had to go through the "petition process" (collecting 200 member signatures) to be placed on the ballot. But I managed to get that done and submitted to the office by the deadline. Then I crafted my tight little 200-word platform statement and had a not-so-scary headshot photo taken for publication, with the ballot, in the March/April magazine. Got that in by deadline, too, but ...

Just last week, I learned that all that hoop-jumping had been a waste of time, since one of the pre-selected candidates had pulled out, leaving only three candidates (myself included) in the running for the three available seats. The upshot? No election. No runoff. Win by default.