WPH Press
The WPH has proudly presented the Race 4 Eight Sunday Stats since the start of the pandemic, highlighting the Race 4 Eight’s greatest champions, longest winning streaks, greatest accomplishments, tournament directors, nicknames, obscure stats, handball’s origins and history, and so much more. This Sunday we’ll continue to focus on the WPH Icebreaker Tour.
The pandemic has deprived handball players and fans from traveling to our favorite events and watching the best players in the world. The WPH kicked off the Icebreaker Tour in September to slowly and safely welcome back pro handball to our living rooms, showcasing a number of the game’s top players at Tucson’s beautiful Clark Park.
“We want to show people that we can safely hold an event with all of the COVID protocols in place,” stated WPH Executive Director David Vincent. “We have allowed a limited number of socially distant fans, while ensuring the players are distanced as much as possible.”
2020-2021 Icebreakers By the Numbers III
- Undefeated Icebreaker players: Carroll (3-0)
- Most Icebreaker titles: Fink (3)
- Players with zero Icebreaker wins: Esser (0-5), L. Collado (0-2), Mattioni (0-2), Ni Churraoin (0-2), Cooney (0-1), L. Cordova (0-1)
- Oldest Icebreaker player: Fink (43)
- Youngest Icebreaker player: Esser (24)
- Youngest Icebreaker champion: Canales, Jr. (25) in Icebreaker #4
- There have been 19 different Icebreaker pros through the first nine Icebreakers (14 men, 5 women)
- Six of the 19 Icebreaker players reside in AZ
- Six of the 19 Icebreaker players reside in CA
- Most points scored in Icebreaker history: Fink (262)
- Most lopsided game in Icebreaker history: Moler def Mitchell 21-0, game one, Icebreaker #5, Lenning def Fink 15-0, game one, Icebreaker #8, Moler def Ni Churraoin 11-0, game three, Icebreaker #9
- Coldest Icebreaker match: 43 degrees at the start of Icebreaker #5 (Moler vs. Mitchell)
- Warmest Icebreaker match: 103 degrees at the start of the Icebreaker #1 final (Fink vs. Ruiz)
- Furthest distance traveled to compete in an Icebreaker: 2,640 miles (Carroll traveling from Boston, MA to Tucson, AZ for Icebreaker #8)
- Shortest distance traveled to compete in an Icebreaker: 2.2 miles (Montijo for Icebreaker #1)
- Closest Icebreaker match: Ruiz def Canales, Jr, 11-21, 21-8, 11-10 in the semifinals of Icebreaker #6
- Icebreaker tiebreakers: 1 (Ruiz vs. Canales, Jr. at the Icebreaker #6, Lenning vs. Fink at the Icebreaker #8, Ruiz vs. L. Cordova at Icebreaker #8, Moler vs. Mitchell at Icebreaker #7, Bernhard vs. Mattioni at Icebreaker #8, Davis vs. Mitchell at Icebreaker #9
- 118 balls have been hit over the fence and lost in the 37 Icebreaker matches (3.2 per match)
David Fink
WPH Icebreaker Historian