I want to thank everyone who came out to the AZPL State Championships this past weekend!  This was by far the biggest event we’ve ever had!  It all started Thursday with a 50-player singles tournament, which was won by Mike Sandoval, who received $150!  2^nd Place ($110) went to Steve Whitten with 3^rd place ($75) going to Eric Nordstrom!  We held our 1^st 8-Ball Break Derby with a field of 20 players as well!  Robert Berry won the competition beating out Steve Whitten to win himself a free season!

Friday night’s main event was the Wild Card Tournament, which featured 24 teams!  Twelve teams advanced out of the Wild Card to compete in the Championships!  Out of the 12, 2 of them won 10 matches!  Dan Smith, Travis Smith & Jeff Stevenson of Fritz’s Dog House lasted the longest on the winning side going 10 rounds eventually losing to Team Schwinn in the 11^th!  That’s an unprecedented run through the bracket!  Three- Legged Goat – Robert Berry, Michael Santopadre & Steve Whitten – won 5 on each side for the tie.  They’ll both won a free season in the league!

The Scotch Doubles tournament featured 18 teams with the team of Ira Lim & JB Hart taking 1^st!  Steve Whitten & Marko Robles finished 2^nd with Robert Berry & Dean Miller taking 3^rd! 

Special thanks goes out to Steve Whitten who spent countless hours preparing the great food that was provided to everyone on Friday night! 

The twelve wild card teams began play at 9am Saturday.  Over the weekend there were 4 teams tied for 2^nd with 5 wins to Fritz’s 10 on the winner’s side.  Trick Shot, Long Shot, Three-Legged Goat & Almost Famous all won 5.  On the loser’s side Balls in Hand led all teams with 8 wins.  2^nd went to Three Legged Goat with 5. 

Congratulations to Eric Nordstrom, Bobby Emmons and Mike Sandoval of Team Schwinn on winning the Spring 2008 AZPL State Championship!  Number 1 ranked Team Schwinn defeated Fritz’s Dog House, the Fish, Trick Shot & Lefty’s V to win the Spring 2008 State Championships winning a total of $2000!  2^nd place went to Lefty’s XXX followed by Lefty’s V in 3^rd, the Gamecocks in 4^th, Trick Shot in 5^th and Balls in Hand in 6^th. 

On the weekend of the AZPL’s 5^th Anniversary we had a total of 84 teams that played in the State Championships.  That’s the most we’ve ever had!  I’d like to thank all of you who play in the league and make this all possible.  As many of you know there’s nothing I look forward to more than the Championships.   It’s always a pleasure seeing so many of you there having a great time!  Special thanks go to all the people who helped out in various ways – Jennifer, Ken, Mandy, Kim, Roger, Todd, Leigh, Doc Rogers, Nathan, Steve and our newest tournament director Bubba!   I couldn’t do it by myself!  Thank you all so much for making this the funnest pool league in Arizona! 

Michael