State Championships - Results

Well, it's official.  The 2011-12 Lincoln Racquetball team had its' best ever finish at the HS State Championship held January 25-29 at Cascade Athletic Club (Gresham) and Mt. Hood Athletic Club (Sandy).

The Lincoln team ended up with 5 State Champions:

Division	Players
Boys Singles #1	Sam Reid
Boys Doubles #1	Sam Reid/Evan Czopek
Boys Doubles #2	Billy Dougherty/Carson Morford
Girls Singles #5	Catherine Barton
Girls Doubles #2	Catherine Barton/Olivia Lanaras

Also, Lincoln Boys, Girls, and Overall teams had their best finish ever !!

Place	Boys	Girls	Overall
1st	Lincoln	Beaverton	Beaverton
2nd	Beaverton	Southridge	Lincoln
3rd	Southridge	Lincoln	Southridge
4th	Sprague	Sprague	Sprague
5th	Sunset	Sunset	Sunset

What a treat it was to watch the Lincoln players throughout the tournament.  Besides the 5 State Champions, we also had 6 second place Gold finishes, nearly all being decided by only a few points during the tiebreaker.

You can check all the official results on the tournament website.

Congratulations Lincoln Cardinals Racquetball Team !!!

High School Nationals at MAC February 22-26, 2012

If you enjoyed playing in the HS State Championships this week, then you are going to love playing in the HS National Championships taking place Feb 22-26 at Multnomah Athletic Club.  The size of the tournament is about the same as HS States (approx. 300 players), and the format of the tournament is nearly identical.  It is a 5-day tournament, with players playing Wed, Thursday nights, then playing most of the day Friday Feb 24, and Saturday/Sunday if you make it that far in the tournament. The main difference is that players can play both same gender doubles, and Mixed Doubles.  There will be approx. 100 players from Missouri, and about 25 players from other high schools around the USA.

This is an open tournament, any high school players can participate.  I would hope that most Lincoln players participate in this tournament, since it is here at our home club.  However, it certainly is not mandatory for Lincoln players to participate in HS Nationals.  The State Championships was the tournament Lincoln coaches expected players to participate in; participation in HS Nationals is optional for Lincoln players.

State Championships Match Times

The 2012 Oregon High School Racquetball State Championships start times are now posted.  Make sure you check where you are playing - CAC Cascade Athletic Club (Gresham) or MHAC Mt. Hood Athletic Club (Sandy).  Check both your singles and doubles match times.  After each match you will need to check the day, time and location of your next match.  We have some players who start on Wednesday, others on Thursday, and still more on Friday.  Remember, WINNERS will referee matches after a win.  Let’s all spend a lot of time refereeing this weekend!

State Tournament Preview 2 - Matches January 25-29, 2012

Team-

I apologize in advance for the several emails you will receive from me over the next week r.e. HS States.  There is just a lot of info to communicate.  I will try to limit the number of emails, but it is really important that this info be read by all players and parents, and discussed within each family.  HS States is a lot of fun, but it is also a hectic time for families, getting players to/from the clubs, playing and watching matches, and dealing with sore muscles.

Just finished our planning session with the other HS team coaches.  The draws have been finalized, and a plan for which divisions will be where has been finalized:

Club Locations for Each Division:

*   Boys #6 Singles - Plan is to play the first 2 rounds of matches on Wed night at Cascade AC in Gresham.  Start times will come out on Tuesday, but for now I would plan that you'll need to be in Gresham by 5 pm (maybe be 4:30 if you have a 5 pm match).

*   Boys #6 Singles, Boys #3 Doubles - Will be played at Mt. Hood AC (Sandy) on Thursday night, all day Friday, all day Saturday.  All matches on Sunday will be played at Cascade AC (Gresham).

*   All Other Divsions - All matches for all other divisions will be played at Cascade Athletic Club in Gresham.

Format-

*   Boys #6, Girls #6, and Boys #3 Doubles - Because of the quantity of matches, these matches will be played one game to 21.  The Gold round finals of these divisions will be two games to 15, tiebreaker to 11.

*   All Other Divisions - All matches will be played two games to 15, tiebreaker to 11.

*   Timeouts - Games to 21 will have 2 timeouts per match (per player/team)

*   Refereeing - Winners of matches must ref a match following their match

Inclement Weather-

The OHSRL Board (which I'm on) will be keeping a close eye on the weather.  We will be watching for potential snowy or icy conditions, and will make schedule adjustments if it is not save to drive to the club(s).  We have several different things that could happen, depending on what type of weather we are faced with and when.  We will be communicating any tournament changes to players and coaches due to weather conditions, on both www.oregonracquetball.org<http://www.oregonracquetball.org/> as well as the "Oregon High School Racquetball League" Facebook page.  Please "Like" the Facebook page so that you get updates.

ALSO - I have received replies so far from only 17 of the 47 players/families, that they have read my original message below.  IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY REPLIED TO ME, PLEASE REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE SO I KNOW YOU'VE READ AND UNDERSTAND THIS IMPORTANT INFO R.E. HIGH SCHOOL STATES.

Practice Schedule Week of January 22, 2012

This Sunday will be our last complete team practice prior to HS States.  Same practice groups and times as last week.

Monday and Tuesday nights there is a MAC Doubles tournament, so we will only have use of a few courts on Monday or Tuesday nights.  There is an opportunity for some Lincoln teams to play in the MAC tourney, but I'm working with the organizers to limit our player's play to 1-2 matches on Monday.