RESULTS 2015 Big Island Open

Sponsored by LSW Consulting, Inc, Table Tennis & More, Hawaii County Parks & Recreation, & The Waimea TTC

First and foremost, I want to give a HUGE Mahalo to John Romoa for orchestrating the moving of the 7 tables from the Community Center to Thelma Parker Gym. John got a great crew of players/volunteers together for the moving which is not an easy task. Special thank you to Jin of L&L Waimea for allowing the use of his truck, his help in the move, and assisting in providing a delicious lunch on Sunday. Thank you also to Lesi, Yen, Charlie, David, Frank, & Avery for lifting the tables onto the truck and off. Thank you to Frank, David, Stewart, Lory, Norman, Jamie, & Stephen for helping me with the barriers. Thank you to Debbie for picking up the pizza on Saturday, delivering to the tournament, and setting it up. Thank you John for making the coffee and everything else you do. I know I must have left out helpers so I apologize for that, in advance. I cannot stress enough how the tournament is a success ONLY because of the cooperation and assistance from all.

I want to give a special "shout out" to Shigemi Degawa, an octogenarian and extremely generous man, that is moving back to Japan for health reasons. Shigemi has been a major supporter of table tennis in his years living on the Big Island and also during his time on Oahu. I have had the pleasure of coaching him for a number of years and, even at his age; he continues to learn and improve and has loads of fun playing. Shigemi credits table tennis for keeping him healthier than he would be without it and loves to play whenever he can. He recently donated a robot to the Captain Cook Club and some pro level rackets and a robot to the Waimea Club. I personally will miss Shigemi and his enthusiasm, good sportsmanship, and support as will the entire table tennis community. We all wish him good health and hope to see him back soon in Hawaii.

I was humbled by all the players when they stopped play and presented to me a very generous gift and thank you card signed by so many players. Mahalo to all.

For almost every event, we used the no seam Yinhe new generation plastic 40+ ball. Seriously, not one of those balls were broken during the tournament. We also used the seamed Nittaku Premium 40+ plastic ball for those that wanted to, for the Open Elite & Super RR events. It is my personal opinion that both balls are very useable with some slight variations in play; however, each is easy to adjust to within a couple minutes.

It was nice having a few new players enter this tournament, all of them contributing to the Aloha Spirit and joy of the sport. It was great watching some players improve their play and win some matches, thus moving up a level or two. Bryce Kanemaru showed improvement in his play paving the way for other juniors like Ethan Lee to also start playing tournaments. Look for Bryce & Ethan to continue to improve. Other players I watched that look to be improving and will be a force in the near future are David Ebrahimi, Phillip Beregovoy, Avery Kramer, Andrew Wessels, Charlie Kow, David Schmitt, Lory Hunter, Jamie Stokes, and Angie Miyashiro. Yen Wen Fang, Stephen Freedman, Jeffrey Cumes, and Stewart Hunter are at the top of the game, but John Romoa and others are in the hunt; and never ever count out Ruth Dittmar who is always a threat as well as Stewart Miyashiro and Lesi Sekona that can always surprise. The tournament featured matches between Stewart Hunter & Stephen Freedman that almost always go to duece in the final game; 5th game best of 5 or 7th game, best of 7. Congratulations to Yen for winning the Open Elite and to all the other winners. We gave away trophies to all 1st & 2nd place winners and money to the Open winners and Super RR winners in all 4 divisions.

Thanks to BITTA, Waimea TTC, Kohala TTC, Kona TTC, and Captain Cook TTC for having your club players participate. All clubs on the Island were well represented!

Name	Pre-Tournament Rating	Post-Tournament Rating	Rating Change	Tournament Record
Beregovoy, Phillip (Kona, HI)	0	718	718	7 - 6
Cumes, Jeffrey (Kealakekua, HI)	1506	1486	-20	12 - 5
Degawa, Shigemi (Honolulu, HI)	607	611	4	1 - 1
Diaz, Tom (Kapaau, HI)	0	610	610	2 - 8
Dittmar, Ruth (Hilo, HI)	1277	1287	10	9 - 4
Ebrahimi, David (Kapaau, HI)	1256	1240	-16	7 - 9
Fang, Yen Wen (Kurtistown, HI)	1892	1893	1	4 - 0
Freedman, Stephen (Kurtistown, HI)	1666	1640	-26	9 - 3
Hunter, Lory (Hilo, HI)	693	717	24	8 - 9
Hunter, Stewart (Hilo, HI)	1680	1679	-1	9 - 1
Kanemaru, Calvin (Kona, HI)	0	613	613	1 - 9
Kanemaru, Bryce (Kailua-Kona, HI)	549	550	1	1 - 10
Kow, Charlie (Hilo, HI)	1322	1357	35	11 - 5
Kramer, Avery (Kona, HI)	665	747	82	9 - 3
Lee, Ethan (Kamuela, HI)	0	635	635	2 - 4
Miller, Frank (Captain Cook, HI)	778	759	-19	4 - 10
Miyashiro, Angie (Pahoa, HI)	760	723	-37	1 - 7
Miyashiro, Stewart (Pahoa, HI)	1296	1369	73	11 - 9
Romoa, John (Kamuela, HI)	1329	1381	52	12 - 6
Sekona, Lesi (Honokaa, HI)	1320	1270	-50	9 - 10
Stokes, Jamie (Kurtistown, HI)	724	724	0	4 - 8
Wessels, Andrew (Hilo, HI)	849	834	-15	4 - 7
Winkler, Debbie (Hawi, HI)	519	517	-2	0 - 2
Young, Daniel (Keaau, HI)	1321	1350	29	3 - 4

EVENT	1st Place	2nd Place	Pictures
Women's Open	RUTH DITTMAR	LORY HUNTER
Seniors U-1000	NORMAN CLEMENTI	FRANK MILLER
Seniors Open	JOHN ROMOA	STEWART MIYASHIRO
Super Round Robin A	STEWART HUNTER	JEFFREY CUMES
Super Round Robin B	CHARLIE KOW	LESI SEKONA
Super Round Robin C	PHILLIP BEREGOVOY	DAVID SCHMITT
Super Round Robin D	CALVIN KAMEMARU	BRYCE KANEMARU
U-1450	JOHN ROMOA	STEWART MIYASHIRO
U-3400 Doubles	STEWART HUNTER/STEPHEN FREEDMAN	YEN WEN FANG/JEFFREY CUMES
Unrated	PHILLIP BEREGOVOY	TOM DIAZ
Open Elite	YEN WEN FANG	STEPHEN FREEDMAN
U-1000	AVERY KRAMER	FRANK MILLER
U-1600	JEFFREY CUMES	CHARLIE KOW

2015 BIG ISLAND OPEN

Friday, Saturday & Sunday, April 10-12, 2015