My 17 game winning streak against my racquetball partner came to a screeching halt last Thursday. We play 3 or 4 games each week, depending on time, fatigue, etc. He defeated me in our first game last week 15-10, scoring the first 11 points. I was really tired from the games and sprinting I had done the night before and it took those first 11 points for me to sufficiently warm up.

My racquetball partner's name is Paul. He's 57, my former Calculus professor/boss, and a former Minnesota state champion. In 2003, my racquet strings broke and I was unable to find someone capable of restringing it. After a few weeks of not playing, I just stopped altogether -- after having played once a week for 5 years. I mostly only played Paul, with an occasional exception of when he'd put on a little mini tournament among his regular opponents.

I did once play in the U of M Intramurals tournament. In the first round of pool play, I faced an atheletic kid named Eric Gruen. Our match went 15-14, 14-15, 11-10. If you didn't already know, racquetball is NOT "win by 2" and the tiebreaker is a game to 11. So I won, but became worried that this was going to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. Every opponent from then on, however, failed to put up double digits on me. That is, until the finals where I met Eric again. I'd like to think that if IM Racquetball tournaments at Big Ten schools were at the forefront of the casual sports fan's interest, this championship match would have been the lead on SportsCenter because I intensely fought to repeat history in dramatic fashion as our match again went 15-14, 14-15, 11-10. I won the tournament and a "U of M IM Champion" T-shirt, which I proudly wore exactly one time before misplacing it.

I bought a new racquet and started playing again this Fall after two and a half years off. Before this hiatus, Paul and I matched up pretty evenly. I'd even say he had a slight edge. After two weeks, though, I started to dominate him. I've probably lost no more than 5 games to him out of roughly 60 that past 2 months. I'm not sure if it's his old age or that I've started playing other opponents regularly now, but he doesn't seem any worse and I don't seem any better.

I'm trying to get into the racquetball tournament scene at a similar level to the Ultimate tournament scene, but I've only played in 1 tournament since returning from my hiatus, and it wasn't nearly as dramatic. I played in the B division and never broke a sweat against anyone except one lefty who couldn't hit a backhand -- and he embarrassed me. He maneuvered around the court for nearly every shot to get a forehand swing. I was depressed after having lost 3 games to such a chump. My goal is to compete in the A division by the end of the year, but that was a huge blow to my confidence. Maybe getting to the Open division before I'm 30 isn't realistic.

Next tournament, February 25.

Next Ultimate tournament, this weekend in Tempe for New Year's Fest.