2018 IRF World Junior Championshps - Team results

Mexican players have dominated the International Racquetball Federation (IRF) World Junior Racquetball Championships for the past several years, so it was unsurprising that they were #1 in the overall team standings again this year at the 30th IRF World Junior Championships in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Mexico was also first in the Girl’s Team standings, but Bolivia edged them out of first in the Boy’s Team standings, although only by 16 points. (1176 to 1160).

Bolivia actually had the most gold medals across the 12 World Cup divisions - Girl’s and Boy’s U14, U16 and U18 - with six, while Mexico had four and the USA two. But perhaps most significantly Mexico swept gold in the four U18 divisions.

”The racquetball stars of the future”

When people see kids performing well, there is a tendency to predict great things for those kids when they become adults. We’d like to temper that enthusiasm, because in general, performance as a kid does not predict performance as adult very well. That is, few junior champions will be adult champions.

This applies across sports - not just to racquetball. There’s a lot of evidence for this, but just consider the results of any given sports draft. In a draft, people who are professionals at assessing talent within their sport regularly get it wrong: select one player rather than another only to see the player they didn’t select become an all star. Tom Brady was the 199th player selected in the 2000 NFL draft - the 7th player selected by the New England Patriots. Thus, NFL teams assessed 198 players as better prospects than Brady. Some of those players were good, but not Tom Brady good. There were 198 wrong selections in the 2000 NFL draft.

Now, kids still need to play sports, and players who are good at sports as adults will likely have played those sports when they were kids. Thus, we are in no way against kids playing sports and competing in junior tournaments. We just don’t want to make too much out of the results from junior tournaments.

And less should be made out of junior results, when the kids are younger. The differences between kids up to 12, 13 even 14 years of age are going to primarily be driven by maturity, rather than talent. Kids don’t mature at the same rates, so out of a given group of 13 year olds, say, the most physically mature kids will probably be the ones who win. But those kids aren’t necessarily the most talented, so they may not be the ones who are winning at 18, let alone 23.

Let’s remember that winning really only matters to adults, not to kids. Sure, it’s fun to win as a kid, but that shouldn’t be the focus for playing sports. Kids want to play sports, because it’s fun. If you make it about winning, then you’re going to be taking the fun out of it, and that’s not good.

After having fun, kids should be developing sports skills that will help them be better players - and hopefully better people, regardless of whether they continue to play any particular sport. And - fun fact! - if a kid has better skills, then the kid will likely have more fun, because the kid will be able to do more things successfully, which will boost their self esteem, and we could all use some of that.

So, congratulations to all the kids who played in San Luis Potosi last week, including all those who didn’t finish on top of the podium.

We love to see you play.

30th IRF World Junior Racquetball Championships
San Luis Potosi, Mexico

Boys Team Standings

1 Bolivia - 1176 points
2 Mexico - 1160
3 USA - 784
4 Costa Rica - 452
5 Ecuador - 388
6 Canada - 330
7 Chile - 272
8 Colombia - 256
9 Guatemala - 234
10 Ireland - 148
11 Honduras - 104
12 Argentina - 20

Girls Team Standings

1 Mexico - 1136 points
2 USA - 676
3 Bolivia - 656
4 Canada - 568
5 Costa Rica -408
6 Ecuador - 268
7 Guatemala - 212
8 Chile - 132
9 Argentina - 56

Overall Team Standings

1 Mexico - 2296 points
2 Bolivia - 1832
3 USA - 1460
4 Canada - 898
5 Costa Rica - 860
4 Ecuador - 656
7 Guatemala - 446
8 Chile - 404
9 Colombia - 256
10 Ireland - 148
11 Honduras - 104
12 Argentina - 76

U18 Boy's Singles

Gold - Eduardo Portillo (Mexico)
Silver - Sebastian Fernandez (Mexico)
Bronze - Fernando Ruiz (Bolivia) and Gerson Miranda (Bolivia)

U16 Boy's Singles

Gold - Diego Garcia (Bolivia)
Silver - Jose Ramos (Mexico)
Bronze - Juan Flores (Ecuador) and Guillermo Ortega (Mexico)

U14 Boy's Singles

Gold - Luis Aguilar (Bolivia)
Silver - Andrew Gleason (USA)
Bronze - Timmy Hansen (USA) and Andres Ruelas (Mexico)

U18 Girl's Singles

Gold - Montserrat Mejia (Mexico)
Silver - Gabriela Martinez (Guatemala)
Bronze - Angelica Barrios (Bolivia) and Ana Laura Flores (Mexico)

U16 Girl's Singles

Gold - Valeria Centellas (Bolivia)
Silver - Maricruz Ortiz (Costa Rica)
Bronze - Guadalupe Griffin (Mexico) and Maria Gutierrez (Mexico)

U14 Girl's Singles

Gold - Micaela Meneses (Bolivia)
Silver - Heather Mahoney (USA)
Bronze - Karime Estrella (Mexico) and Daniela Rico (Mexico)

U18 Boy's Doubles

Gold - Sebastian Fernandez & Rodrigo Rodriguez (Mexico)
Silver - Gerson Miranda & Fernando Ruiz (Bolivia)
Bronze - Julian Homberger & Andres Montero (Costa Rica) and Ricardo Diaz & Dane Elkins (USA)

U16 Boy's Doubles

Gold - Diego Garcia & Roberto Arellano (Bolivia)
Silver - Sebastian Longoria & Jose Ramos (Mexico)
Bronze - Ian Frattinger & Sean Sauvé (Canada) and Juan Flores & Esteban Janon (Ecuador)

U14 Boy's Doubles

Gold - Andrew Gleason & Timmy Hansen (USA)
Silver - Luis Aguilar & Mateo Claros (Bolivia)
Bronze - Juan Rodriguez & Duvan Torres (Colombia) and Sebastian Hernandez & Omar Gonzalez (Mexico)

U18 Girl's Doubles

Gold - Ana Laura Flores & Abril Sacristan (Mexico)
Silver - Maria Jose Muñoz & Ana Lucia Sarmiento (Ecuador)
Bronze - Hannah Carver & Megan Carver (USA) and Alexis Iwaasa & Marjolaine Parent (Canada)

U16 Girl's Doubles

Gold - Valeria Centellas & Micaela Meneses (Bolivia)
Silver - Juliette Parent & Cassie Prentice (Canada)
Bronze - Sofia Freer & Maricruz Ortiz (Costa Rica) and Maria Gutierrez & Ximena Martinez (Mexico)

U14 Girl's Doubles

Gold - Heather Mahoney & Julia Stein (USA)
Silver - Jessica Balderrama & Daniela Rico (Mexico)
Bronze - Ofelia Wilscam & Tamara Wilscam (Canada) and Luz Abigail Rivera & Abigail Solano (Costa Rica)

Follow the bouncing ball….