Huge Paddleball Turnout for Bay City's 51st Annual Turkey Tournament
51st Annual Turkey Paddleball Tourney (2019) Held at Dow Bay Area Family Y
Bay City's duo of Chad Krager and Dan O'Shea Claim Top Honors
November 26, 2019
Leave a Comment
By: O. J. Cunningham
The Dow Bay Area Family Y hosted the 51st Turkey Doubles Paddleball Tournament last week end.
The day started with 32-men & women in a round robin affair whereby each person would rotate partners for 4 games to accumulate the most points.
The top 16 point achievers advanced to the Turkey Championship Bracket. The remaining 16 players played a consolation brackets. Each bracket held a blind draw for partners. Each year the winning team takes home a turkey, and the consolation winner adds a chicken to their gym bag.
Runners-up in each bracket receive a Cornish hen.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tournament Re-Named
To Honor Nancy Powers
© MyBayCity.com
On a somber note, Nancy Powers passed away on the morning of the turkey tournament at the age of 65 due to complications from diabetes. Nancy was a 47-year fixture at the Dow Bay Area YMCA. Nancy helped organize the paddleball tournaments during her tenure at the YMCA.
Additionally, she donated her time and various yummy dishes as she also arranged a first-class player hospitality room during the tournaments. While Nancy was hospitalized, we had communicated to her that we were planning to re-name the tournament to
THE NANCY POWERS PADDLEBALL TURKEY TOURNAMENT.
Later that morning when we heard of Nancy's passing, we suspended play for a moment of silence and unanimously memorialized this future name of the turkey tournament. Nancy will be dearly missed by the local paddleball community but will never be forgotten.
Rest in Peace Nancy Powers!
LINK TO NANCY POWERS' OBIT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOURNEY CHAMPS (Left) -- Bay City's Chad Krager and Dan O'Shea ... RUNNERS-UP (Right) Standish's Don McIntyre and Saginaw's Kirk Yackle
© MyBayCity.com
No team has ever repeated as winners of the tournament, due in part that most of the formats over the years have incorporated a blind draw such as this year, so there have been limited opportunities.
However, this year Turkey history was made as Bay City's duo of Chad Krager and Dan O'Shea grabbed a little piece of that history by winning back to back titles. The odds were slim as players drew from a deck of cards and it came down to the very last card which saw the duo paired for another year.
In the semi-final match, Krager and O'Shea found themselves in a heated battle against Bay City stalwarts Greg Kennan & Sandy DeGreif. After a tight back-n-forth battle through the first half of the game, they hit stride and pulled away for the victory 21-10. In the finals, Krager/O'Shea had no trouble taking down Standish's Don McIntyre and Saginaw's Kirk Yackle in two games 21-6, 21-4.
In the consolation bracket, it was an all-Bay City shoot-out. (LEFT) Ron Malecki and Eric Boks topped (RIGHT) Randy Wackerle and Jason Beckers in a 3-game tie-breaker.
© MyBayCity.com
In the consolation bracket, it was an all-Bay City shoot-out. Ron Malecki and Eric Boks topped Randy Wackerle and Jason Beckers in a 3-game tie-breaker. Malecki/Boks found themselves in a deep hole early with a 16-21 loss. They gained strength with a few cookies & Gatorade and levelled the match with their own 21-16 victory in game two. That game two comeback would prove to deflate the opponent's tires as they would cruise to a 21-6 tie-breaker win.
51 YEARS -- TURKEY TOURNEY HISTORICAL TRIVIA
© MyBayCity.com
BRACKETOLOGY -- HOW IT ALL WENT DOWN AT THE 2019 TURKEY TOURNEY
© MyBayCity.com
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.
More from O. J. Cunningham
|
Send This Story to a Friend!
Letter to the editor
Link to this Story
Printer-Friendly Story View
--- Advertisments ---