Well, that was a lot of fun, spending almost every extra minute of the last week watching the World Junior Championships.

First, Congratulations to Team Mexico. They fielded a very strong team and were highly competitive at every age group ... can't recall what the numbers were but I believe they were far and away the best team. They really like hitting the ball hard … very hard. It shows in a lot of there swings .. but also with good placement. DelaRosa was very impressive in his composure, intensity, and sportsmanship. No disrespect to the B18S champion, Bolivian Carlos Keller, but DelaRosa seemed a bit flat in the final. Both had 4 matches (2 singles/2doubles) the previous day … of those Keller had 1 relatively hard match vs USA Jose Diaz at 9AM, while DelaRosa had 2 difficult matches vs USA Nick Montelbano at 4PM and 7PM B18D vs USA Montelbano/Hungerford. I watched both those matches and they were sick. I look forward to seeing more of DelaRosa on the IRT. I didn’t get a chance to watch 16yr old Rodrigo Garay, who had a very impressive tourney ending as the World Champ by taking out Adam Manilla from Colorado.

Second Congrats to 2nd Place Team Bolivia. Think they beat 3rd Place Team USA by a comfortable margin. They had a well-rounded team with their only real weakness at the 16yr age group and G14D.

Third, Congrats to 3rd Place Team USA. They were strong in the 18 and 16 yr old age groups but a bit thin at the 14 age group, notably with the absence of Ohioans Spencer Shoemaker and Kyle Ulliman who were the top 2 finishers at Nationals.
Also a big congrats to my daughter, Mercedes. I got to see several of her matches and she played better than I’ve ever seen her play doubles before. She and partner Kelani Bailey took the silver medal in the G16D and only came 2 breaker pts short of beating the champion Mexican team. Can’t wait for the new season to begin and start training for next yrs nationals.

Not sure how this affected the other national teams, but the US Nationals were just a month ago. Thus there was no JrNational Rball Camp this year where the players could get some standardized training and get comfortable. I believe my daughter went to the JrCamp a couple years ago when she was the alternate and it really made a huge impression on her and her game. A lot of our medal match losses were very close, at least 7 of these going to the breaker or a tough 2 games, with only 2 of these types of close matches going our way. But, perhaps all the other countries national teams were in the same situation so could be a moot point.

But ALL the kids from all countries played their hearts out and showed exceptional sportsmanship. My heart goes out to them all … can’t wait to see them continue to come up the ranks in the coming years.

Lastly, I'm glad it’s over cause I can now get on with my life :)

Great summary Spidey.

Bolivia came in second? I knew Mexico was pretty strong but Bolivia? Wow, impressive for them!

Bolivia has always have the best racquetball players south of Mexico. I believe even the President of the country helped them build some new courts.

One thing I like from this: Even though I want US team to win it every time, the more countries we have involved in racquetball, the better it is in the eyes of 'the public' to get recognition as an Olympic Sport! (don't get me wrong, I'm no fool and I know it is not that simple but it is just a dream!)