Hall of Fame speeches! Each year one to three folks are inducted into the Hall of Fame. I guess now that there are so many halls of fame I should delineate the USAR Hall of Fame. This is for indoor racquetball, and excellence of age groups, contributors and athletes. I have been thinking about the speeches which reflect the different personalities of all the people inducted. One thing really really stands out to me is the love and passion of racquetball. Each day thousands of people are introduced to this game but only a handful fall in love with the game and play it for years.
Every good player has had days where they go to the club at 8-9am and come home at 8-9pm. Each good player has gotten up at weird times like me at 3:30am to practice before going to work. Each player knows what it is like to work so hard and have victory escape their grasp with one or two bad calls by a ref or a bad bounce or two.
Each good player has the “forget it and move on” mentality. They learn from their mistakes and do not repeat them and eventually good things happen.
Victory is never guaranteed; work hard and smart you will attain it more than not!
I suggest you youngsters listen to those speeches. A few years ago I informed the junior team USA that they would not have a team if it was not for the two inductees. To their credit they went up and thanked Jim Hiser and Leo Klimaitis who were inducted in 2018.
Passion for our great game is the common denominator for members of the Hall of Fame!