Cory's Blog

With all due respect to my racquetball opponents, I have a tendency to, as they say, “put on a clinic” by showing my “excessive good ability” usually ending in a “victory.” Now, I only used that extremely self centered (and only sometimes true) way of beginning this blog to say that the shoe was on the other foot Monday night, but luckily my schooling didn’t take place at the hands of a skilled opponent.

It was a typical racquetball Monday as I met my normal playing partner, Nima, at 5 down at Strom for some good exercise playing the game we enjoy. However, about 10 minutes into our first game, we noticed a couple of guys decked out head to toe in E-Force racquetball gear. They were looking for a court and setting up a table. Needless to say a little of my attention was paid to them instead of to my opponent. This lack of focus was reflected in me being on the losing end of the final score.

When the game was over, we got out of the court and struck up a conversation with the two strangers. It turns out they were members of the South Carolina Racquetball Association and they were here at USC to put on a clinic! Neither Nima nor I had heard anything about it. It was just luck that had brought us there at the same time.

We played one more game before the clinic got going. There were about 8 guys there to learn the fundamentals of the game. I thought that I was a pretty seasoned player, but even these guys had a few pointers to fix in my swing to improve my game. Along with the swing fixes, they showed a couple of drills to help me practice my new swing fundamentals. Not too shabby for a clinic I had no idea was even going on!

While learning the game was great, the biggest surprise came at the end when the guy in charge of the clinic, who is himself a USC grad began talking about how racquetball was “back in the day.” He mentioned that he played on the racquetball team, which surprised most of us who had no idea that one had even existed. He then said that he wanted to try and get one going here at USC, and then pointed at ME as the go between for him to help try and get it going!

This night ahd just gotten a whole lot better! From a chance encounter leading to some instruction to possibly getting a USC racquetball team going! My dreams of collegiate athletics could still come true. Hopefully, he will follow through on his suggestion and next semester we will have our own Gamecock Racquetball Club team! Stay tuned and take care!