August 2026 Recap
Master's Players,
A little rain, a little wind, a little lightning, but we still managed to finish the tournament and crown August 2026 champions! Even with the threatening weather we had 24 guys show up, so it was nice to see a good turnout with those headwinds, not to mention the Fosters KOB that took a handful of Masters players away from the draw or we would have set a modern day record for attendance. I know I'm a broken record on this, but the competition was very strong again yesterday, and the "gentleman factor" remains even more strong. Also a new development, apparently you can pick your own Masters partner by "manifesting it" via text message to your desired Partner the day before the event, and no, Bryan didn't text every player, just one! For you math geeks, that's only a 4.35% chance that his manifestation of drawing Steve Markley comes to fruition! Much better odds than winning the lottery, but still a 95.65% chance he doesn't draw him.
POTY - Chris Prestegaard - Just like 2025 we had a winner take both the June & July events and a chance at the triple crown in August, but it wasn't in the cards, so that's still a goal that no player has accomplished in the series. I'd like to thank Patrick and Jason for their outstanding play and helping me to be honored in taking my 5th POTY prize, I didn't think it would ever happen again, thank you. I would be remiss not to acknowledge Bryan McDermand for also making it to back-to-back finals in July & August, and the semi-finals in June. I'm sure he will start piling up POTY awards in the future!
As always, Thank you to Steve Devlin for supplying the setup equipment, and to Joe Koselleck & Luke Young for supplementing the equipment with their setups as well so we would have 6 courts going to keep us on pace.
Stay Tuned - Bryan and I will be working together very soon to finalize "something to do" to help Masters participants scratch that "Masters itch" they get in the winter time. I'm sure with Bryan's passion, creativity, and facility it will be a lot of fun!
Clearwater trip - Dates are set, we'll be in the beautiful Clearwater Beach sand March 4th-7th of 2027
8/30/26 Full Results:
1 | Devlin, Steve / Drerup, Zach |
2 | McDermand, Bryan / Markley, Steve |
3 | O'Connell, Kevin / Filarski, Ron |
4 | Koselleck, Joe / Young, Luke |
5 | Schmitt, Mike / Einhorn, Keith |
5 | Evans, Rob / Neyland, Lance |
7 | Rappaport, Paul / Behrendt, Scott |
7 | Strietzel, Jason / Gordy, Tyler |
9 | Prestegaard, Chris / Hancock, Chris |
9 | Maxton, Patrick / Zurawski, Rich |
9 | Foor, Ander / Gilmore, Scott |
9 | Germaine, Sean / Oosterbaan, Max |
Roll Shots:
This will be a handful of my observations/memories /appreciation of the day, and my attempt at some humor-
Best Games- Speaking of how close the competition was, I don't remember soo many close games, with several going to the tiebreaker of 23 in pool play, and more games in the bracket that went into overtime, really fun to see those battles!
New players- Thank you to Rob Evans, and Ander Foor for joining the tradition of The Master's, glad to officially have you as part of the history!
Best Sportsmanship- ALL the Masters participants on this one yesterday! Maybe because it wasn't as hot outside, but I didn't witness one verbal disagreement that got heated, only a handful of quickly called "re-plays" instead of disagreement. Fine gentleman you all are!
Best Comments- This award goes to the "Nice job Markley" comments from the crowd when Bryan scored an unassisted point in the finals..... maybe you had to be there, but it was hilarious!
Stay until the end- Great to see Paul Rappaport, Kevin O'Connell, Ron Filarski, Joe Koselleck, Lance Neyland, Rob Evans, and Luke Young stay all the way until the end to cheer on their fellow participants. I would love to see that trend continue and grow.
Best defense - The Markley/McDermand team were both channeling their inner "Dave Pabellon" and extending plays that seemed improbable to extend. Definitely inspiring effort to witness.
Best post tournament spot: Always nice to have a free drink courtesy of the winning team, and I especially enjoyed the group that waited out the long lightning delay and the rain to join for a drink and some food at Fernando's!
Most Traveled - We had two "out-of-state players" this month, thank you to Tyler Gordy and Rob Evans for traveling from their respective states. Sorry Devlin, you basically are "in-state" in two states!
Most Thunder - Obviously Bryan McDermand had many "Let's GOOO!!!" kills, especially in the finals. Also always good to see Keith Einhorn in the draw as he makes it look like it's not a bunch of old guys hitting little roll shots around the court as he created volleyball craters in the sand all day!
Best "cameo"- great to see former players Marek Kiklas, Craig Nietzel and Jamie Ali stop by to cheer on the participants
Best Fan's- It's not intentional, but I apologize anyway that I never mention how much I appreciate the families and significant others of the participants who support the event with their attendance, it definitely makes a big impact on the camaraderie I always speak of
More players needed:
If you know a player that would enjoy playing with, and they comply with my "no assholes allowed" policy, please invite them! They will appreciate being a part of this tradition.
Chris
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