President's Message
Virginia ballers,
Welcome! First and foremost, thank you for your interest in racquetball and taking the time to invest in learning more about what the CVRA does! The sport of racquetball certainly took a bit of a hit during the pandemic, but we've seen more and more events coming back throughout the state and throughout the country.
There's lots of work to do to continue to grow and invest in the sport, and that's why we're here. Most of our board members are involved in other areas of racquetball, whether it's Outdoor, USAR, NMRA, or simply growing their local racquetball communities. We've hit some bumps in the road, but we are doubling down on our commitment to find new ways to get people playing!
In service of this, we have Megan Shelton focusing on finding ways to get women more involved in the racquetball. Seth Jordan is working on getting more engagement from college students. Jaime and Christine Torres and Maddie Melendez are working on getting more junior engagement.
We have taken a step back from the variety of awards we give out and have focused our efforts primarily on women's, collegiate, and juniors programs. Recently, CVRA not only sponsored a player attending Junior Nationals in Pleasanton, CA but also helped sponsor the tournament itself where over 100 juniors from across the nation assembled to enjoy old friends, make new friends, and share their love of the greatest sport!
If you are or know of a Junior that would like to participate in this great event, please encourage them to do so! We will continue looking for ways to raise funding and support more attendees. Players of all levels can compete, with some competitors having less than a month of experience before joining festival. Deadline for nominations is November 1st.
In addition to these investments, the CVRA helps support existing and new tournament directors put on all different sizes of events, from one-day shootouts to four-day tournaments, we are here to help! The average player never enters a tournament, and that's okay! Tournaments do provide unique opportunities to meet new people, expand your network, and test your skills against a wide range of talented players. The USAR partners with us to provide insurance in case of any mishaps, balls from Head Penn to minimize expenses, and will give free one-time-memberships for new players or players that haven't played in three years. Check out the main page on the USAR website to get more information and sign-up. Send the link to recreational players about free eMemberships and suggest that they sign-up. They’ll get a better picture of what's happening in the sport.
Good luck in your matches, have fun and play fair.
Respectfully,
Jaime Torres
President, CVRA