Around the WPH Globe: Saturday, 3/28 Edition
The 2015 WPH Torneo de Juarez Pre-TPC Shootout and Junior WPH Clinic
The 2015 WPH Torneo de Juarez Pre-TPC Shootout and Junior WPH Clinic could have easily been mistaken for a WPH R48 stop, as six of the top 16 pros on the R48 tour attended Juarez’s biggest event in over a decade. Daniel Cordova continued his tremendous play, defeating Abraham Montijo for the second time in three months in the upper bracket quarterfinals. #1 seed Luis Moreno dispatched of Daniel Cordova in the semifinals, avenging his loss to the 22-year old hop artist in New York’s 9th place R48 Playoffs two weeks ago. In the bottom bracket, Mando Ortiz defeated Luis Cordova for the second time in five weeks in the quarterfinals, setting up a semifinal clash with #2 seed Sean Lenning. Lenning cruised in the battle of the bottom-board specialists, and will face Moreno in Sunday’s final.
WPH Pittsburgh League Playoffs
After a grueling three-month WPH Pittsburgh League regular season, Mike Semplice, Joe Delsardo and Andrew Joseph qualified for the WPH Pittsburgh League Playoffs. The first of three round robin playoff matches pitted “Smokin’” Joe against longtime adversary “JCC” Joseph. Delsardo had never before defeated Joseph in 27 career matches, and Joseph looked as though he was en route to win number 28, trouncing Delsardo 21-1 in game one. Delsardo, who will be playing in Salt Lake City’s WPH Aces Player’s Championship R48 qualifier in three weeks, bounced back, forcing a tiebreaker with a 21-14 second game victory. Leading 7-6 in the decider, Joseph appeared to be completely spent against the former “ESPN Top 10 Plays” standout. Delsardo scored the final five points of the tiebreaker to complete the improbable comeback and take a 1-0 league playoffs record into next week’s match with Semplice. Joseph still has an outside shot to win the playoffs if he defeats Semplice and Semplice defeats Delsardo. In the event of a tie, the player allowing the fewest points through two matches will be declared the league champion.
Junior WPH Clinic in Austin at the Southwest Regionals
Six colleges from Texas and Florida attended the Southwest Regional Handball Tournament in Austin, TX, and were treated to a clinic coached by former WPH #1 Allan “TBB” Garner, current top 25 WPH pro Adam Bernhard and special guest instructor, 2012 USHA Handball Hall of Fame inductee John Bike. “The clinic was really great,” stated Garner. “The participants were taught the warm-up, back wall drills and footwork exercises.”
The 2015 USHA National Masters Doubles & IHA State Doubles
The USHA is holding their annual Masters Doubles Nationals in Chicago, featuring the best 35+ handball players in the world. Rob Pearse, Charlie Wicker, Vince San Angelo, Andy Schad, Dan Zimet and Fred Chapman are six of the over 170 participants in this great event. Follow all of the results here: http://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=13592. You can also go to ushandball.org for more coverage