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2013 "The Wack" PADDLEBALL -- Trophy Winners (From Top Left) Greg Keenan (OPEN), Randy Wackerle (B DIVISION), Al Harris (A DIVISION) and Paul Chritz (C DIVISION).

Greg Keenan Wins 1st Annual City Paddle Tournament

Dow Bay Area Family Y Hosts 2013 Event

March 23, 2013       Leave a Comment
By: O. J. Cunningham

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Greg Keenan won three straight matches to claim the "Open Title" in the First Annual (Bay City) Wackerle City Championship Paddleball Tournament at the Dow Bay Area Family YMCA.

Keenan defeated a battling and determined Scott Wittbrodt 21-11, 21-13 in the tourney finals to cap a hard-fought Saturday championship.

Earlier in the day, Keenan beat Al Harris in the first round 21-11, 21-11 before battling to a tie-breaker win over Chad Schwall in the semi-finals.

Kennan, in a marathon match, dropped the first game to Schwall 11-21 and then rebounded with a strong 21-2 win before prevailing over Schwall 11-6 in the third game tie-breaker.

Tournament Director Mike Wisniewski was pleased with the turnout and happy about the full day of paddleball. "We had four solid brackets and had some really hard-fought matches," Wisniewski. "We're already making plans for 2014," Wisniewski said.

In Class B -- It was only fitting that Randy Wackerle, the tournament namesake, would take home a trophy after playing in the tournament named after him. Wackerle defeated Mark Kudwa in the "B Division" after a hard-fought championship match.


2nd Place Bracket Finishers (L/R) Scott Wittbrodt - Open, Mark Kudwa - B, Rolf Kleinau - C and Adam Koehler - A Photo Courtesy of Mike Wisniewski - © MyBayCity.com


In the Kudwa-Wackerle match, Kudwa battled back in game two from a 10-point deficit to get even with Wackerle at 18-18 in their 2nd game. (Wackerle had won game one.)

Wackerle called time-out and exited the court for a breather and a quick drink of water. "It's a war in there," Wackerle said about the play of Kudwa. "I really don't want to play a tie-breaker."

After the time-out, Kudwa won the next point to take a 19-18 lead before Wackerle got control of the match and ran off three straight points to claim the game 21-19 and the Division B trophy.

"I haven't played in a paddleball singles tournament in almost ten years Wackerle said after the match with Kudwa. "He (Kudwa) played tough the whole match," said Wackerle. "That second game easily could have gone either way.

Wackerle, who just turned 65 years old is also recovering from knee-replacement surgery that was performed on Halloween - just 4 short months ago.

"I won 8 straight games today," Wackerle said. "It was not an easy day," Wackerle went on. "This may be my last singles tournament for a long time."

Other weekend champions were Al Harris in Class A and Paul Chritz in Class C.


Greg Keenan fires a backhand down the wall during his Finals match against Scott Wittbrodt on Saturday afternoon. Photo by Thomas Bodary - © MyBayCity.com



Chad Schwall held his own against eventual Open Champion Greg Keenan. In the photo above, Schwall "rolls out" a winner. Keenan won the match in a tie-breaker. Photo by Thomas Bodary - © MyBayCity.com


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O. J. Cunningham

O. J. Cunningham is the Publisher of MyBayCity.com. Cunningham previously published Sports Page & Bay City Enterprise. He is the President/CEO of OJ Advertising, Inc.

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