2014 Pig Roast

Norm Bruemmer–Honoree, Kirkconnell & Mitea–Champs. Click on picture for a report. This year’s Pig Roast and Human Sacrifice was a very special one with a very special honoree.  Norm Bruemmer has been a paddleball player in Kalamazoo for over 30 years.  Norm is known everywhere he has played for his killer two-handed backhand.  Norm is quite the battler on the court, but now is in a different battle against leukemia.  If he attacks that like he does the ball then the leukemia doesn’t stand a chance. The play, as always, was great. For this tourney we divided the number of teams in half to make two equal sides.  You play everyone on your side one game to 15, which adds up to a lot of play for a four to five hour tourney. When you do a blind draw you never know what you will get, but usually end up with one or two teams that look like they would be a good match.  Well this year there were more than a few good match-ups.  On one side of six we had three teams end up in a three-way tie (which had to be decided with the NPA format of adding up all the points you scored and subtracting all the points you lost).  That left Don Kirkconnell and Bret Mitea the winners of side B.  Side A came down to the very last game looking like there might be a two way tie, but Paul Sylvester and Ed Maher ended up with the win for their side.  For the finals, the guys decided on a one game to 21 format.  It was a great game with some amazing volleys, but in the end Kirkconnell and Mitea took it with a score of 21-12 (the score does not reflect the intensity of the game). Everyone enjoyed the party in the parking lot where we supply sandwiches, beers, pop, and a lot of smack talk.  This was followed by the Pig Roast at the great site provided by a local VFW.  After the food we have two honored traditions:  One is the announcement of this year’s winner of the “Woody”.  Given to the person (does not have to be a player) who supports paddleball and shows a love for the game.  This year’s winner was Don Kirkconnell (yes quite the year for him – a two year in a row champion at the tourney and then the award).  The other tradition is the eating of the eyeball by the honoree.  As this year we didn’t think a pig’s eyeball was on Norm’s list of approved foods, we had a volunteer in Bob Lapekas’ wife, Alice, eat the eyeball.  What a woman – not even a player, but stepping up to support Norm. We have the 40^th Pig Roast coming up in 2016, so start planning to play now.  We are going to go all out to celebrate.