It’s the best time of the year for handbill and you can get involved!
The WPH Race4Eight Professional Handball tour, powered by ESPN3, finalizes it’s last two stops of the 2015/16 season when Salt Lake City (April 15th-17th) and Portland’s Player Championship & USHA Master Singles go seemingly back-to-back (May 5th-8th). Best of all, you do not have to be a pro player to participate!
The WPH designed the tour to allow anyone to play at any stop. Want to give the pro bracket a try? Enter the qualifier!
In Salt Lake, the deadline approaches in nearly a week, so get your name in. Salt Lake will also have 4WallBall’s (Big Ball) Elite on hand (Santos, Hernandez, Ruiz, Duenas, Cordova, et al); where the Chino Hills Ford WallBall Cup will head indoors for some huge cash and ranking points, plus some serious ESPN3 airtime. This reverse Xrossover (where more small ball players are x’ing to wallball…) feature some big name small ball players trying to interrupt the organized WPH Outdoor Tour by showing the field who knows their way better around a 4 wall court.
Still on Salt Lake City and in the Elite Men, Paul Brady will be gunning for consecutive wins while Emmett Peixoto, Dave Fink, Daniel Cordova, Killian Carroll and Luis Moreno all look for their first wins of the season. Lenning and Ortiz, possibly two of the hottest players on tour since October ’15, look to gather yellow jerseys in the land of Zion.
Voted the Best in Show, by the touring pros, for three straight years, Salt Lake’s Aces event is run by a top three nationwide down-home group that loves to party, play handball, give back, spoil and promote the sport. This event is a must attend for the surrounding beauty alone and by the time you get past your first round you will be reminded just how strong and talented and fun the locals are at their favorite sport.
You can enter plus get hotel, tournament, prize money and scheduling info, HERE>
Portland’s Multnomah Athletic Club is one of the premier show courts on the planet and it is home of the big Player’s Championship May 5th-8th, in conjunction w/the USHA Master Singles. Qualifiers and Women’s pro singles begin Friday; meanwhile, WPH 40+ pros will start on Thursday. ESPN will cover the action, like Salt Lake a few weeks earlier!
The Women’s bracket will be comprised of all skill levels, when #1 touring pro, Catriona Casey; current collegiate national champ, Ciana Ní Churraoin; Tracy Davis, Danielle Daskalakis, Sandy Ng and others take to the grand finale in this unique multiple drop down conclusion to the WR48Pro season. WPH reminds women athletes of all levels that there will be multiple drops using the White 21 (Red for the pro bracket), huge prize money and bonuses and tons of competition with a format that brings out the very best in competitive play.
As with all WPH tour events, the brackets are open to any competitor. So, let’s play!
In the Elite Men, the true top eight will be on hand, like the women and 40+ Seniors, to gather last minute points in the attempt to nab the most possible points and over $30,000 in combined bonus money (over $20k more in prize money!!!).
Say what?
Brady is in-line to gather $15,000 in cash as a bonus if he wins Portland (plus another $5k for taking first), as his accumulative point total would put him again, …above the rest. However, there are manageable scenarios where Ortiz and Lenning could jump into the #1 spot based on winning-out and/or poor Irish performances (in the State of Deseret three weeks earlier). Big tournament cash is up for grabs (biggest season ending purse in handball’s history since the Pro Handball Showdown) in the City of Roses when the most talented players in the game come crashing onto center court and you can play alongside them!
WPH Qualifiers begin Friday Morning and anyone can play!
The USHA Master Singles comes back to the MAC (35+, 40+, 45+, 50+, 55+ et al) and if you thought Salt Lake’s community had a strangle-hold on the country in the talent department, just wait until you see what the Great Pacific Northwest has to offer! Once calculated as having over 200 combined national championships by just active MAC’ers alone, this hot bed for handball reaches up past Vancouver to the north, east of Hood River and Bend and as far south as Klamath Falls and Grants Pass back up the coast toward Corvallis and inland to Eugene; a circle that almost encompasses the size of Ireland—all playing handball~ all playing Damn Good Handball!
If you think you can compete with the best handball players in the country, then give Portland’s Master bracket, or WPH Pro divisions a try.
The WPH Player’s Championship will also piggyback onto the USHA 40+ division; where Naty Alvarado looks to get back on track; Marcos Chavez (Alvarado’s biggest foe) aims to stay atop the rankings; Andy Schad gears up for another top three finish. Dan Armijo, Dan Zimet, Leo Canales, et al, will try to spoil the prize money party for the top four while nabbing a bit of points and gold for themselves.
You can play too! Senior brackets begin Thursday afternoon.
To gather tournament info, to register or see schedules, visit the Portland event page, HERE>
For pro tournament questions, please contact Dave Vincent or Dave Fink @ info@wphlive.tv
For Salt Lake General questions, please contact Birthday Boy, Ted McManus @ utahhandball@gmail.com
For Portland Seat Sales and General questions, please contact Professor Mike Steele @ steelem@pacificu.edu