It is hard to believe that this year is my actually fourth year as the President of NRAD. I am already looking forward to attending our luxurious 2010 NRAD Tournament and the 1^st NRAD Hall of Fame at Hyatt Hotel in Chicago for our 25^th Anniversary. Jim Fleming and Steve Horwich, Co-Chairs and their 22-committee members have developed posters and DVD shows for promoting more players to join the 2010 tournament. Good news, this committee have set a goal to raise $25,000 for their tournament expenses and huge cash prizes for their winners. The date of this tournament will be May 14 – 16, 2010. Please mark your calendar, as I do strongly believe that this tournament will be a very special and exciting one for all of us!

More good news for NRAD.  Raul Brown from Colorado Springs, Colorado came to our NRAD Board meeting and made a bid for our 2011 tournament. He has already made reservations for at the YMCA which has 7 courts, with 4 of them being glass courts!  It means that he and his committee has a better chance to raise funds and prepare for a successful tournament in two years. Raul himself has been playing racquetball for many years, with fire spirit! There will be more information will be given at later time.  

As for our recent NRAD Tournament at Severna Park Racquetball & Fitness Club at Millersville, MD, I am pleased to see all the players having a great time playing their challenging games at this great “Deaf Friendly” club. This club was the perfect choice! In the near future, players and I hope that the Maryland committee will host again using this club, which has a glass court with stadium seats for players and fans to watch the exciting games. I must applaud and give my hat off to Jay Scotton, Chairman and his committee. They prepared this successful tournament in less than a year. In order to have a successful tournament, the host needs to raise at least $8,000 for expenses and cash prizes and/or plaques. This committee was able to provide real nice tournament shirts for its players as well as big water bottles with NRAD logo, as well as providing plaques and small cash prizes for our winners!  I also want to give special thanks to Ken Clark, NRAD Treasurer, Scott Kramer, Board member and Ian Goldstein ,avid NRAD player for raising $500.00 by hosting ASL Comedy Show at California State University, Fullerton  The fund earned was to  given to the 2009 committee for a great dinner meal on Saturday evening. Without this committee, we would not have had a tournament. Once again, give big “HAND WAVES” to Jay Scotton and his wonderful committee! 

At last, it is my honor and pleasure to welcome Daryl Frelich as our new Vice President, Monika Senzer, our new Secretary, Jay Scotton, and Carlos Andrade both as new Board Members. I am looking forward working with them during as this is my last term.

The former officers whose term just ended- Stewie Gerlis, Chris Mc Quaid , Bill Milbach, and Jon Hodson - we must give special thanks to them for giving their time and service to NRAD. Below are the former officers, I'd like to take an opportunity to thank them for the opportunity to be part of the NRAD officers and explain why they are special to NRAD.

Bill Milbach, he will remain as our Web Site master for NRAD and will continue work closely with me. He was the one who helped find this great club, Severna Park Racquetball & Fitness Club and was able to get a sponsored from Ektelon to provide Ektelon balls for our recent tournament and for the next two future tournaments. Thanks to him! Bill has a strong connection with hearing local and national racquetball organizations, as he has been very involved and active in working with management level. NRAD is very lucky to have him. 

Stewie Gerlis, it was very hard for him to step down after serving NRAD as an officer over 20 years! He had to give up and hand in his old, worn-out briefcase over to Daryl to take over his recent position as Vice President. However, he is very happy to see our new, strong NRAD leaders continue to carry on our precious organization and he will always be there for us, as an experienced and fine leader. He will remain with us as NRAD Historian and plans to work closely with Scott Kramer, Chair for NRAD Hall of Fame in Chicago. 

Chris Mc Quaid, I must admit that NRAD was very lucky to have him as our secretary during my term. In past years, NRAD could not find a qualified person or a person with passion to fill this position. I must thank to him for taking this position and doing the secretarial work like the minutes report. He also helped to provide short-term training for Monika Senzer, our new Secretary. I will miss his great sense of humor and having him around. 

Jon Hodson, he has been involved playing in NRAD tournaments for years and been a great additional Board member. He has a great “heart” for NRAD and was always there to help out when we needed him.  He once stepped in and was willing to host NRAD tournament in Salt Lake City, UT for the first time in history. He did a great job finding an exclusive club and nice headquarter hotel but was not able to draw enough local players. Unfortunately, this led NRAD Officers and Board members to make the decision of cancelling the 2008 NRAD tournament.  We still want to thank him for trying his best to host this tournament. 

I also wanted to remind you all that next year, we still need to fill three positions, which are President, Treasurer, and a Board Member. 

As you know, NRAD is the ONLY racquetball organization for the Deaf and many players love socializing with new and old friends and playing challenged games with other Deaf players. This is where we all have full-communication access. Scott Kramer, my racquetball partner and I have played in many hearing tournaments, but still, we miss the communication that is only offered in deaf tournaments. That is why we love attending being at the NRAD tournament, which is offered only once a year. 

I am sure all of you players would want to see NRAD keep going for our new future players and for us to continue playing, as well. Be involved in our precious organization and long-live NRAD! 

Jeff Lubman
NRAD President