1998 US National Team Trials

Held March 6-8 in Flint Michigan, the USATT selected it's 4 person men's and women's teams. For the last couple of years, this tournament has been held at the University of Michigan, Flint. This year the USATT Training Center hosted the event.

USATT has started implementing the most stringent residency requirements for athletes wanting to make the US team. A simple 'green card' will not suffice. You must now either be a full citizen or be in line to have your citizenship prior to the next World Championships. With around $3000 at stake for those landing the choice positions, competition was intense.

The men consisted of Cheng Yinghua, David Zhuang, Jimmy Butler, Todd Sweeris, Eric Owens, Abass Ekun, Barney Reed Jr., Razvan Cretu, Sean Lonergen, Brian Pace, Sonny Li, and Shashin Shodhan

The women competing were Gao Jun, Virginia Sung, Lily Yip, Tawny Banh, Nan Li, Jessica Shen, Jackie Lee, Michelle Do, and Vivian Lee. You can read bios on each of the players that made the US Team on the National Team Page.

Tournament officials were (from right to left) YC Lee, Referee and Tom Miller, Azmy Ibrahim, Theresa Teranova, Terry Canup, Dr. Michael Scott, and Terry Timmins, as umpires.

Flint has a very modern airport that services this small city in central Michigan. Most of the planes that fly here are very small. Only Northwest flies jets in an out. Terry flew in on Continental from Cleveland and here you can see what he had to fly in.

The competition was first rate and was worthy of a National Team selection. The men's format was three single elimination tournaments with the two finalists making the team the first day, the winner making the team the following two days with previous team selected players no longer competing. The women's format was more conventional and consisted of a huge 9 person round robin. All matches were 3 out of 5 games.

There were fierce matches that got more intense as the process proceeded. Sean Lonergen and Eric Owens both went 5 with Todd Sweeris the first day. Todd held firm and made it to the semis where David Zhuang put an end to his run. On the other side, Jimmy Butler and Cheng Yinghua had a much easier time reaching each other in the semis after Cheng got past Barney Reed. Here Cheng again downed Jimmy to grab a spot on the team. He then defaulted to David, giving David the number one position on the team.

Meanwhile, on the women's side, defensive specialist Virginia Sung was upsetting Tawny Banh in straight games by attacking. This put Tawny is the precarious position of having to beat both Nan Li and US Olympian Lily Yip to make the team. All of the rest of the women's matches not involving Tawny went as the computer ratings predicted they would. World #24 Gao undefeated, Lilly losing only to Gao, and Virginia only to Gao and a heartbreaking 5 game match with Lily. Tawny played tough and knocked off Nan and then upset Lily to secure the fourth and final spot on the team. Nan Li is our first alternate.

The next day saw Todd again struggling through tough competition as Abass Ekun appeared to be ready to knock him out. Todd played mentally tough and pulled through against the powerful looper by blocking back every one of Abass'es attacks and then banging in the loose ball when given the chance. Brian Pace went out with a shattering 28 - 26 in the fifth loss to Sonny Li. Eric Owens fought through Sonny to face training partner Jimmy Butler. Jimmy proved stronger and earned a spot in the finals against Todd. In a very competitive four game match, Jimmy seized his place on the team.

This left one spot and one day left to go. It came down to Eric Owens vs. Todd Sweeris in the finals with the winner making the team and the loser becoming the first alternate. With his parents and former US team members Connie and Dell Sweeris watching along with his grandparents, Todd must have felt an extra home court power as he leaped all over Eric in the first game to go up 10 to 1. Eric fought back to 18 but this set the tone of the match, Todd claimed his spot in four games.

A good time was had with plenty of competition, relaxation, good food, and good company.