The 45th Lewis Drug Pro/Am In Sioux Falls, SD
By Rob Sabo
Mark Gibbs, tournament director for the Lewis Drug Racquetball ProAm, knows how tough of a sell Sioux Falls, South Dakota can be in January.
On the day Gibbs was interviewed for this story, the East Coast and Northern Great Plains regions were suffering under an arctic cold snap that lowered temperatures in Sioux Falls to a frigid “feels like” -17 degrees Fahrenheit, Gibbs said.
When the 45th annual Lewis Drug Racquetball ProAm kicks off on Jan. 30, however, temps in Sioux Falls are expected to be a balmy 30 or so degrees – good news for professionals and amateurs making the trek to South Dakota’s largest city to compete in the nation’s longest-running professional racquetball tournament.
“That’s about as good as it gets,” said Gibbs, a partial owner of the International Racquetball Tour who has run the Lewis Drug ProAm for more than a decade. “January is typically not the best time of year to visit South Dakota.”
It’s not too hard to identify touring professionals from South America, Mexico or California, Gibbs said with a laugh. They are usually bundled underneath every stitch of clothing they were able to pack into their gear bags.
“Locals get a kick out of it,” Gibbs said. “They love seeing the Latin players come here and freeze their butts off. They are going to the stores and buying coats, or they are wearing so many layers that they don’t even need their suitcases; they are wearing every single layer of clothing they have just to keep warm.”
The legendary hospitality of the Lewis Drug Racquetball stems from the fact that the tournament is played in the dead of winter in one of the coldest parts of the country, Gibbs noted. Tournament founder Mark Griffin, chief executive officer and president of the Lewis Drug retail chain, knew that in order to lure top touring professionals to the area he’d have to ensure they got plenty of chef-catered meals, cool door prizes and ample small-town hospitality.
“It’s become tradition,” Gibbs said. “We know it’s hard to get people here in January. We feel privileged that the professionals and amateur players want to visit us. Sioux Falls may be cold outside, but everywhere they go it’s warm and welcoming inside.”
Andree Parrilla, the fifth-ranked player on the IRT, echoed Gibbs’ sentiments about the residents and overall vibe of Sioux Falls.
“Sioux Falls is different,” Parrilla said. “We usually play in bigger cities that have a larger racquetball presence, but being in that small town is pretty cool. The atmosphere that they create and the amount of time they put into organizing the event is amazing. They treat us really well, and I like going to Sioux Falls every year.
“All the restaurants and stores, they are not big businesses; they are all owned by people from Sioux Falls,” Parrilla added. “That is pretty cool, because you get to know the people who live there and you get close to them.”
Parrilla also knows all too well about Sioux Falls’ wicked winter weather. The resident of San Luis Potosi City, Mexico (which has an average January high of around 65 degrees) once walked the four or five blocks from his hotel room to the YMCA, a physics experiment he isn’t eager to repeat anytime soon.
“It’s way different weather than what we are used to,” Parrilla said. “It was minus-25 celsius (-13 Fahrenheit). I did it because I wanted to experience that kind of cold, but it was crazy – never again.”
Parrilla has played in the Lewis Drug ProAm eight times. The event is special, he said, because it’s the first tournament where he recorded a win over a top-8 player (former pro Markie Rojas). Later that day, Parrilla added, he held a commanding 10-2 lead over Alex Landa in the fifth game of their quarterfinal match but lost 12-10 in tiebreaker and narrowly missed out on securing his first berth in a Tier 1 semifinal.
Weather isn’t the only challenge for tournament organizers; the Lewis Drug ProAm presents some unique scheduling issues as well. Although the Sioux Falls Family YMCA is the host club, it only has four courts, and those are primarily reserved for hosting professional matches. Amateurs play the majority of their matches at two other venues on opposite ends of town, Gibbs said.
“The challenging part about this tournament is that we have amateur players running all over town,” Gibbs said. “I have eight courts total, but the pro and open divisions take up a very large portion of available time at the YMCA.”
Placing all amateur divisions in round-robin format alleviates scheduling conflicts, and it also allows all players to be present for the coveted Saturday night catered banquet where tournament founder Griffin passes out thousands of dollars worth of door prizes, Gibbs said.
“We shut down matches at around 5 p.m. so that every racquetball player who comes here is together in one spot for the whole night,” he said. “It’s a great way to bring the amateurs and professionals together.
“Although I can’t have everybody in the same place all the time, we do everything we can to make the best of it, and that’s why the banquet will always be the most important part of this tournament.”
There will be a new champion crowned when the tournament wraps up on Sunday, Feb 2 since defending champion Sam Murray is the only professional player in the IRT top-20 that’s not signed up to play, Gibbs said. Men’s professional singles and doubles finals are held at 11 a.m. and noon in order to give players time to get to the airport for mid-afternoon flights home, Gibbs added.
One other notable thing about the tournament, Gibbs said, is that it’s difficult to predict a winner because of when the tournament occurs. Sometimes it’s not always the most skilled player who ends up holding the first-place trophy.
“We have a big holiday break right before the tournament, and this tournament might be a reward for someone who can continue their training during the holidays,” Gibbs said.
Parrilla said he usually plans his IRT schedule on a month-to-month basis due to commitments to the Mexican National Team, but he’s been training since mid-December for the Lewis Drug ProAm.
“The first tournament of the year is usually hard because of the holidays,” Parrilla said. “It’s hard to focus on training when you have family, Christmas dinner, New Year’s eve and all that. At the end of the day, though, this is our job, and we have to leave all that aside and focus on our training and planning.”
IRT No.4 Conrrado Moscoso marks his return to competition at the Lewis Drug ProAm after undergoing shoulder surgery in early October that sidelined the rest of his 2024 season. IRT No.1 Kane Waselenchuk, meanwhile, seeks to continue his late-career resurgence after recovering from a torn right Achilles.
The 43-year-old Waselenchuk topped Parrilla in three games at the 2024 Inland Empire ProAm in Spokane in October, and beat current No.3 Adam Manilla in two games at the Golden State Open in Pleasanton in November to win the last two events of the 2024 IRT season and claim the year-end No.1 ranking. Waselenchuk has won the Lewis Drug ProAm four times: 2014-2016, and again in 2019.
The upcoming tournament is also the first for the IRT’s new leadership group, which took over management of the tour on January 1. IRT Vice President Manilla said that transitioning into a new era of IRT leadership was made a bit simpler by having a legacy tournament first up on the schedule.
“We are excited to kick off the new season at the 45th Lewis Drug ProAm, our longest-running pro stop,” Manilla said. “This sold-out event is one of the players’ favorite events to attend. The IRT staff has been working hard, and we are ready to move forward with another great year of professional racquetball.”
