Racquetball’s Webb ready for the next step
Trevor Webb celebrated his final Canadian Junior Championship the only way he knew how — by winning it all.
In his last year on the junior circuit, the racquetball player from Cambridge took the Canadian title in the boys’ 18-and-under division last month in Leamington.
For Webb, it was a continuation of his dominance of the Canadian junior racquetball ranks, which started way back when he was just five years old. Webb, now 19, has never finished lower than second at a Canadian Junior National Championship, including back-to-back wins in the 18-andunder category the past two years.
“I’ve been pretty successful throughout my junior career,” Webb says with understatement when asked about finishing in the top two for basically his entire life. “Obviously, I’ve worked hard to get where I’ve gotten and I’m super happy to have that little fact, but mainly I’m just trying to get better.”
After a junior career that has delivered more than its share of hardware, Webb’s focus is now on continuing his success — this time on the men’s circuit.
Next week, Webb will compete at the Racquetball Canada Nationals in Brossard, Que., the third men’s event he’ll play in this season. If he does well enough, he could find himself on the men’s national team for the world championship next fall.
“The last two years I’ve gone to all the men’s tournaments and tried to make the team,” says Webb. “I came pretty close last year, so I’m hoping for this year. But I need to have a good finish at nationals.”
With his goal of cracking the men’s ranks, Webb has taken his training to a new level. After graduating from Jacob Hespeler Secondary School last spring, he’s devoted the past year to working on his game.
That commitment has included working with Mike Green, the top player in the Racquetball Canada rankings. Webb trains with Green regularly at his longtime home club, the A.R. Kaufman Family YMCA in Kitchener, on top of a new fitness regimen.
“He’s been the No. 1 player in Canada for 10 years, I think, and he’s offered to take me under his wing,” Webb says of Green. “We do lots of off-court training, and that’s something, moving from junior to the men’s group, as far as fitness and being in the gym, that’s huge now.”
Green also asked Webb to be his doubles partner for this season.
Webb is usually the youngest player in the men’s draw, but that’s nothing new. He’s been taking on players many years his senior since he was four years old.
“I used to be about the same size as the racquet and I’d play guys in their 30s and 40s, and I loved every minute of it,” Webb says with a laugh.
As he tries to get his career on the men’s circuit launched, Webb still has one more bit of unfinished business in the junior ranks — next fall’s World Junior Championship in Minneapolis, Minn. Webb will take on the best juniors in the world one final time, looking to top his career best at Worlds, a bronze medal in 2015.
“With it being my last junior worlds, I’ll definitely be giving it all I’ve got to get another medal,” says Webb, adding that he knows he’ll be in tough against the international competition — particularly the powerhouse Mexicans and Bolivians.
Like many people his age, Webb finds himself at a bit of a crossroads as he ponders his next steps. But for now, he says it’s time to see how far he can go with the sport he’s devoted himself to since he was a toddler.
“I want to see how good I can get, and if it’s not good enough, at least I’ll know,” Webb says.
“I haven’t been playing all my life to call it a hobby anymore.”