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In Prince George, Mark Cormack, a member of our national wheelchair team and Debbie Ward, a retired national team member, will serve as coaches. Ross Richardson will be the coach at the Regina facility. Another national team member, Chantal Turgeon, will be the coach in Rock Forest. In Halifax, where Racquetball Canada is putting a special focus in order to grow the game at both the grass roots and competitive levels, the coaches are Paul Keeping and Dale Haynes.

Elsewhere, three national team members will serve as assistant coaches at their respective facilities. Lori-Jane Powell, a long-time member of Canada’s national women’s team, has been selected to assist Roger Harripersad in Calgary. In Winnipeg, Jennifer Saunders, will assist head coach Ron Brown. In Montreal, team veteran Josee Grand’maitre will assist Michel Gagnon, and in Saskatoon, Rob Barclay, a long-time junior coach in the area, will assist Loren Prentice.

“It’s great that our national team players have chosen to give back to the game by helping develop the future stars of our team,” said head coach Ron Brown on the appointments. “We rely on their experience to help mentor the juniors who will soon be Team Canada members.”

The No.3 seeded team of Lori-Jane Powell and Julie Neubauer pulled off their second straight upset in the final, defeating top seeds Amanda MacDonald and Karina Odegard of Saskatoon 15-9, 15-13, after eliminating the No.2 pair of Josee Grande’Maitre (Que) and Jennifer Saunders (Man.) the day before.

Later in March, Burlington, Ont.’s Mike Green and Josee Grand ‘Maitre of Longueuil, Que., emerged victorious at the Singles Selection event at White Oaks Resort and Spa. Green, the tournament’s top men’s seed, defeated No. 2 seed Brian Istace of Calgary 15-11, 16-14, while women’s No. 2 Grand ‘Maitre downed No. 1 Lori-Jane Powell, also of Calgary, (15-7), 15-11, 11-8.

Both players staged comebacks in the deciding games of their respective matches to take the title, with Green emerging from a 13-4 deficit, and Grand ‘Maitre winning after being down 7-3 in the tiebreaker.

“To be honest I was just playing to get in good position for the tiebreaker,” said Green. “When I hit that serve on (14-14) though, I knew I could win it right there. It was a good game, Brian played really well and made some great shots, I was happy to win, especially coming back like that.”

Grand ‘Maitre’s comeback was even more dramatic, as she stared down defeat when she trailed 7-3. The victory was the third of three difficult matches she had during the weekend. “I had two really good, hard matches with Julie (Neubauer) and Chantal Turgeon (in the quarter- and semi-finals),” said Grand Maitre. “After those, I just had to keep my concentration and stay with (Powell).”

“I didn’t start out that strong, but when I got it back to 8-7 (in the tiebreaker) I knew I could do it, it was like ‘lets go now’.”

Green’s win is his second consecutive title in national competition, combined with his win at last year’s national championships. Grand ‘Maitre finished second at last year’s nationals.

Both the singles and doubles qualifying events would name athletes to the Canadian team to compete at the upcoming Tournament of the Americas in the Dominican Republic. The tournaments also served as secondary qualifying events for this summer’s Pan Am Games, which are also slated for the Dominican Republic in August.

Material edited from Racquetball Canada press releases, submitted by Peter Robinson [647.227.5540]. For more information about coaching, please contact: Ron Brown @ (204) 489-5889 or (204) 488-3025. Racquetball Canada website: www.racquetball.ca