2016 HOLIDAY FUN BOWL and AZ HS BOYS STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS

Top 2016 Arizona HS Boys (left to right):

JR Holloway (Campo Verde), Alex Decker (Campo Verde), Cameron Ohoro (Mt View), Ray Del Gallo (Basis-Chandler), Gabe Wilson (Perry), Brian Lin (Higley), Brendon Van (Desert Vista), Leo Hsu (Desert Vista) [photo by Isabella Holloway]

2016 HOLIDAY FUN! BOWL + AZ HS BOYS STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS

December 5, 2016, Mesa... The 2016 HOLIDAY FUN! BOWL and AZ HS BOYS STATE BADMINTON CHAMPIONSHIPS brought out the best in both! Along with great competition in the Women and Men Doubles events, and the largest BOYS STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS in Arizona history, some seriously CRAZY MIXED-UP DOUBLES was the hit of the day in the afternoon. Two versions of CRAZY were played where partners were picked out of a hat: 1) Half-Court Chaos-- 1/2 Court Singles with 2 players alternating shots and sharing a racket! 2) Full-court doubles with various handicaps, such as some of the stronger players using a tennis or squash racket and/or hitting with their opposite hand. There were a lot of hilarious rallies, and it was lots of fun for the spectators, too.

On a more serious front, the 2016 HS BOYS STATE BADMINTON CHAMPIONSHIPS was the best ever with 8 schools represented, 18 singles players and 9 doubles teams. JR Holloway of Campo Verde led the way as the new HS Boys Singles Champion and finished third with partner Alex Decker in the Doubles. JR and Alex, along with teammates Kyle Decker and Eric Yan, earned Campo Verde the 2016 Arizona Boys Team Badminton title with the most overall points (47). Ray Del Gallo of Basis-Chandler was a one-man wrecking crew just losing out to JR in the Boys Singles Championship match 20-22, and teamed with pick-up partner, Cameron Ohoro of Mountain View to capture the Boys Doubles Championship in a finals over another pick-up team of Brian Lin of Higley HS and Gabe Wilson of Perry. Desert Vistas team of Leo Hsu and Brendon Van finished 4th in the Boys Doubles, and 4th and 3rd respectively in the Boys Singles, and overall finished 2nd in the Team points with 32. Perry's Griffen Haugen, Cooper Richter and Gabe Wilson finished overall 3rd in the Team points (28). To round out the Team finishes, Basis-Chandler finished 4th with 26 pts, Agua Fria - 5th with 20, Mountain View 6th with 16, and Higley and Shadow Mountain tied for 7th place each with 10 points.

The Open Women Doubles saw Wey Lyn and Sherry Yu beat Megan Crow and Lana Le in the finals, 21-16. The "B" Women Doubles was won by Prati Lodha and Jordan Ludwig in the finals over Nicole Burton and Jessica Jung, 21-11. The Open Men Doubles title was won by Seigo Hashimoto and Charles Wang in the finals over Sean Carman and Dean Glazeski, 21-18, 21-16. The Senior Men Doubles was captured by Chacko Kuruvilla and Ben Lewis against Roger Goettl and Warren Mee, 21-14, 21-15.