East Coast DDC Championships

09/19/09 - 09/20/09 in Raleigh, NC

OPEN Division

Thanks to Harvey Brandt for the results.

You know how they say you should have been there? Well, for this past  
 weekend's East Coast DDC event, you should have been there. Great  
 weather, after threatening forecasts the entire week, greeted the very  
 competitive 15 teams. Play commenced Saturday morning with a full 15  
 team round robin, everyone played everyone. Carlton Howard, along with  
 his entire Raleigh crew (Dave, Curt, Raschal, Drew, Stu, Peter) all  
 put on another fantastic event. I have attended all three of the East  
 Coast tourneys, and they just keep getting better. Make your plans for  
 next year.
 This year, we were fortunate to have 3 players come in from California  
 (Rick LeBeau, Cody Kirkland, and Jon Freedman), 1 player all the way  
 from Alaska (Cade Loving) and others from: AZ, MO, FL, VA, CT, NY, MD,  
 CO. 11 states in all with the home boys, if my recall is on the mark.
 If you look at the attached pool sheets and results, you will get an  
 idea of the quality of this event. Everyone was playing for the semis  
 spots and it was not a given for most of the teams. Hesselberth / Aiu  
 ended up undefeated in the pool action, taking the final game from  
 LeBeau / Kirkland, their only loss. Sqeeking into the other two semi  
 spots were Brandt / Woessner and Freedman / Preiss. Pretty much  
 according to initial ranking, but there were several teams just a win  
 or so away. In fact, there was a tie for the last semi spot that the  
 team of Bass / Prost lost out on due to head to head results. An  
 indication of the depth this year - last year's champions finished in  
 7th place this year.
 Hard to run through all the results, so I suggest you check out the  
 attached PDF file. The semis both were finished in straight games,  
 though each defeated team gave the winners a run in at least one of  
 the games.
 LeBeau / Kirkland defeated Brandt / Woessner 21-11, 21-19.
 Hesselberth / Aiu defeated Freedman / Preiss 21-13, 23-21.
 In the finals it was all LeBeau / Kirkland over Hesselberth / Aiu  
 15-10, 15-8, 15-4. Rick and Cody kept them deeper and Dave and Randy  
 were attacking too much from deep in the court. Rick also had his  
 vicious backhand burn working to perfection.
 A very balanced, hard fought, and competitive event. Pick-up action  
 went on all day Sunday after the finals. Lots of teams will be hotter  
 next season with this experience. Don't forget to get to AZ if you  
 can. VA States will start the action in the spring.
 1- Rick LeBeau / Cody Kirkland
 2- Randy Aiu / Dave Hesselberth
 3T - Harvey Brandt / Jeff Woessner
 3T - Jon Freedman / Drew Preiss
 5 - Hank Bass / Mike Prost
 6 - Carlton Howard / Cotter Michaels
 7 - Richard Paschal / Curtis Progl
 8 - Jack Cooksey / Sam Kaye
 9 - Jim Elsner / Tom McMullen
 10 - Randy Lahm / Dave Taylor
 11 - Eric Olsen / Eric Wootten
 12 - Jim Gaarder / Stewart Hubbs
 13 - Nathan Joswiak / Gus Webb
 14 - Peter Andrews / Cade Loving
 15 - Ryan Olsen / Hunter Wootten