This year’s Northshore open bracket featured 2019 champion Dave Schiller in his fifth appearance, Michael Miller in his third, Tikhon Esaulenko & Al Leveille in their second, and Bryan Trejo, Nathan & John Stoffel, & Graeme Kempkes in their first.
Pro-circuit player Trejo, possibly the highest-ever talent showcased in Duluth, was with little doubt the favorite. With determination to win it all, he put on clinics against Miller and J.Stoffel to reach the final against an always-formidable Schiller who, in not dissimilar fashion, had defeated Kempkes and N.Stoffel. Schiller played well enough for Trejo to work hard for his points and even made him sweat but, with a scoring ratio better than 2:1, the title marched steadily into Trejo’s hands (21-6,21-11).
Competition was much tighter in the consolation bracket, with Leveille forcing a tiebreaker against Kempkes (18-21,21-13,11-3) and Miller all but earning the same accolade as Esaulenko surged late in game 1 from 13-20 (21-20,21-7). Esaulenko and Kempkes, representing separate Mankato State eras, seemed about equal going into the consolation championship. But, perhaps from a combination of youthful endurance and training in the crucibles of MNSU’s current juggernaut era, Kempkes would prevail with relative ease (21-6,21-13).
In one of the most exciting developments in the tournament’s history, Schiller and Leveille arranged for a group of furloughed inmates to compete against each other and mingle with public citizens in a beginners’ bracket. The format was single two-bounce games to 25 points, which allowed for both the excitement of long rallies and the completion of all matches on Saturday alone. Knowing the game from its traditional one-bounce format was likely a key factor with runner-up Ganesh Jagannath and champion Huy Tran topping the group. This event brought a lot of positive energy to the YMCA courts and we hope inmates, as well as the broader handball community, find this to be an enriching experience for years to come.
The awards banquet followed at Dubh Linn Irish Brew Pub with players and guests in attendance. Awards included prize money and woodcraft medallions for the top 5 finishers, and a new engraving plate for Bryan Trejo on the Alva Rankin Memorial Cup. Items were also raffled off, concluding with a 50:50 of the funds raised.
Organizers and participants are very grateful for everything that went into this year’s event. Special thanks go out to many, including:
- Alva Djerf for providing Friday night dinner & lodging hospitality
- Stevie Aho for lodging hospitality, for handcrafting welcome gifts & raffle prizes, and helping in numerous other ways
- Dave Schiller, Al Leveille, and the authorities at Duluth’s minimum-security Federal Prison Camp for arranging participation in the beginners’ challenge by furlough
- Michael Miller for filling in on short notice to round out the main bracket at 8 players
- John Stoffel for live streaming action on Friday and Saturday, concluding with the championship
- Minnesota State Mankato Handball for sustaining a deep well of talent for all events in the region
- All the players for making time for the event, recruiting new faces, and including family & friends
- Duluth YMCA for helping with setup and always keeping excellent facilities
- Dubh Linn Irish Brew Pub for accommodating the handball crowd with a classy banquet venue, outstanding servers, and free stand-up comedy tickets
- Fox21 for shining the media spotlight our way
- WDIO for profiling us in their Up North series