Las Positas College 1999 Handball Team
 
Leaving for Chicago In Chicago (Sears Tower)
Ali, Coach Aguiar, Aguiar, James, King, Delucchi, Guzman Guzman, Aguiar, M. Aguiar, James, King, Coach Aguiar, Delucchi, Ranganian
 
Team photo at San Jose airport just before take-off.                  Team photo while visiting Sears Tower in Chicago
 

Randy James & Mike Guzman Lawrence K. Aguiar & Mark Black

The stories below are a brief description of the students performance during their individual matches.  More photos of all players follow end of match descriptions.

The Las Posits Handball team produced two individual national champions in two different divisions.  Lawrence K. Aguiar won the Challengers Division while Randy James won the Novice Division.  Mike Guzman took second place to Randy in the Novice Division.
 
 
Aguiar with San Jose State Black
As described in the United States Handball Magazine, April 1999, Surgical Aguiar, LK from Las Positas Handball team turns back Black.  From the round of 16 on, players from California composed just about half of the contestants in a strong 37-man Challengers division, with San Jose State players forming by far the largest group.  In a semifinals match, Lawrence Aguiar of Las Positas defeated Nicholas Vilelle of Southwest Missouri State in a tiebreaker.  With both players lob-serving completely in the first game, Vilelle broke away at 13-13 to win the last eight points.  Aguiar came back to take the second game 21-18 and then won the tiebreaker in his unhurried, relaxed, no-kills style.  In the other semi, Marc Black of San Jose State lost the first game to West Point's Mark McNamara 12-21.  In the second game Black jumped to an early lead, which he kept throughout, then went on to take the tiebreaker.  Black said McNamara was in good condition and rallied a lot, and what gave him the most trouble was that his opponent never gave up.  In the all-California final, Black's power in the first game was too much for the softer-hitting Aguiar.  Black again surged to an early 12-5 leas in Game 2, but Aguiar caught up in long rallies with very few kills or hand errors and went on to win 21-17.  The tiebreaker stood at 6-6 when Aguiar's careful, relentless game, helped by hand errors from a tiring Black, won him the next five points and the Challengers title.  Many comments in the observation alley stated that Aguiar had a master's style game for such a novice player.  Must be the coaching he is getting at the college.
 
 
James with San Jose's State 
Rayray

The 1999 National Handball Championships were held at Chicago’s Lake Forest College. 190 student/athletes competed for 7 National Singles division championship titles. The Novice Division was a match between two students from Las Posits College. Randy James defeated Mike Guzman with scores of 21-5 and 21-13, to claim 1st place. Randy, a Business major, is also an ODP (Olympic Development Program) soccer coach. Accustomed to dealing with premier soccer athletes, it made sense that Randy was comfortable competing and training for competition. His performance proved him a champion even though he has only been playing since mid November. Randy has trained religiously for the February handball contest and came well prepared to compete for a national title.

Randy demonstrated discipline, concentration, consistency, and an overall desire to win every point possible. He allowed his opponents to make the mistakes. Analyzing one of his games I came up with one miss in every 18 shots, while his opponents had 1 to 1 missed shots and 2 to 1 while a few had 3 to 1. Certainly none could compare to this excellent demonstration of having perfected the basic skills of handball. It appeared the only shot selection Randy needs to develop is the kill shot and power serve.

Randy’s route to the novice finals came after a first round drop down in the main C Division bracket to Ryan Miller of TAMU, with scores of 14 and 10. Randy James found himself competing against Mark Black of San Jose State in the Challengers division. After dropping down to the novice division, Randy demonstrated confidence as well as determination. His win in the novice division was at the expense of Jason Stuwe, from Pacific University, with a score of 12, 19. The second win came from beating Gabriel Rayray from San Jose State University with a scores of 12, 10. The semi-final round pitted Randy against Manuel Moreno, from San Jose State University, with scores of 4 and 3. With one hour between semis and finals Randy found himself competing for the National Handball title against teammate Mike Guzman. Randy showed respect and total concentration in the final match against his teammate by taking the first game with a score of 5, a sure sign of preparation and determination from Randy. "It was difficult playing against Mike because we train and play against each other on a regular basis," stated Randy after the match. Mike got the message that Randy meant business and didn't want to spend anymore time in the court than necessary. Guzman clearly demonstrated that he, too, belonged in the finals upping the second game score to 13 points. Mike could only produce a 6 to 1 miss percentage; too much of a consistent percentage difference against Randy's 18 to 1 ratio.

Mike’s route to the finals came from a first round drop down to Keil Peck, from University of Pacific, Oregon with scores of (18), 12, and 7. Mike found himself against Paul Lewenenz from University of Pacific, Oregon with scores of 9 and 10. Mike's next match was against Hoa Doan winning with scores of 17, (18), 9. In the quarterfinals Mike was matched up with Tahir Upshir from San Jose State University of California. Winning with scores of 13 and 18 moved Mike into the semi-finals against another San Jose State opponent of Anthony Gonzalez. Mike's next tiebreaker produced scores of 19, (16), 9. Going to a tiebreaker, Mike found some extra quickness to return passed shots back to his opponents off hand.

Playing all of his games from behind with determination as well as quickness Mike produced and found wins until he ran into Randy James. Mike met his match with Randy James, who to demonstrated quickness and determinate. Mike showed great determination of never quitting with long rallies and excellent returns to force Randy to miss, but Randy was too consistent. Watching these two athletes compete was exciting. Both showed great sportsmanship with a strange atmosphere of determination. Following the match, the congratulations to each other were sincere and genuine

Congratulations to both Randy and Mike for a great National Championship performance. Good Luck in your future endeavors.

Interviewing both finalists after the match produced some good information and many quotes worth repeating. Here a just a few. Q. What would you say was the most enjoyable moment while competing at the National Championships in Chicago? Randy's immediate response, "The camaraderie between other players from other schools was unlike anything I’ve experienced before." The second question to the Randy was, "What would you say was your strongest asset to winning the Championships in the Novice Division". Randy answered with, "Even though this was my first handball tournament, I felt comfortable on the court. The training regime of drilling (continuous volley, lobs, misdirection serves, return of serve and the alley drill) for 45 to 60 minutes each time I stepped onto the court was the biggest difference for me." The final question of "What are your future plans in handball?" Produced this thought, "First, a very long soak in the whirlpool followed by a massage. I would then I’d like to continue with local tournaments and hopefully return to the collegiates to compete in the Contender or Challenger divisions. Mike Guzman stated that he "…can hardly wait for next years Collegiate Handball Tournament in Southwest Missouri State University.
 
Delucchi vs. San Jose Player King vs. SMSU Player Guzman vs. Berkeley Player Virgili guides LKAguiar
Players visit soldier Field King kicks soccer ball in snow Guzman first snow experience Aguiar controls front court
Guzman hits ball from deep court James and Guzman with Coach Burnett Aguiar congratulates Black Black and Aguiar with Coach Burnett
View over Chicago from Tower Sears Tower view over Chicago Banquet Dinner line worth wait Dinner at awards banquet
James warming up for Final James shaking hands after match James dominating front court Delucchi at his best!?

Return to Main Handball Menu