Martensville’s Graham Frattinger has long wanted to be at the big(gest) kids’ event of junior racquetball. He’s there now and big surprise – he digs it.
At the Canadian Junior Racquetball Championships in Kelowna, BC last week, he got his first taste of the highest age class – the 18 and under event.
“It feels good to be at the top of the class finally,” Graham said. “You look up to the players in that group as you come up through juniors.”
Graham, 17, finished second overall in his first season of U18 action mirroring his finish last year in the U16 competition.
In the 18 and under doubles event, Graham and his younger brother Ian, 14, went undefeated and took home the gold. The regular doubles partners have a relationship that could be called dysfunctional were they not brothers.
“I didn’t really want to, we always argue,” Graham said of playing on a team with his younger sibling, before admitting: “But I know he’s always going to hit the right shot back there.”
Graham also confesses his brother – who won the 14 and under event of the second straight year – is “a lot better than he was at that age.”
Saskatchewan’s lone female representative was Cassie Prentice of Macrorie. Like Ian, Prentice cleaned up her 14 and under girl’s event for the second consecutive year. She also finished second in the 16 and under girl’s doubles.
Junior nationals also helps determine the members of Canada’s team for the 2016 World Junior Racquetball Championships in November in Mexico. The team will be announced in the next few days.
