ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 7, 1997 TAG: 9702070089
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
THE TOP WOMEN'S racquetball players in the world visit the Roanoke Athletic Club.
On those infrequent occasions when Roanoke has been a stop on a professional sports tour, most of the time it has been a futures or satellite circuit.
That will not be the case this weekend when the Women's International Racquetball Tour comes to the Roanoke Athletic Club.
``You'll see the top 10 [women's] players in the world,'' said Laura Fenton, a broadcaster and ex-professor who gave a demonstration and clinic Thursday night.
Fenton, playing her best racquetball in her mid-30s, has moved up to No.4 in the rankings. But it may be awhile before anybody overtakes Michelle Gould.
Gould, the reigning world champion, has not lost a match in three years.
``There are women qualified to beat me,'' said Gould, who recently was taken to five games, the maximum, by Fenton. ``The second you let your guard down, that's when you're going to lose.''
Gould, 26, has been playing racquetball since her father gave her a membership to join the local health club as a 10th-birthday present.
``I was absolutely pathetic,'' she said. ``I was awful. The first time I attempted to hit the ball, I swung the racquet 47 times without making contact. The person giving me the lesson told my father that he was wasting his money.
``I was that bad. I was also that stubborn.''
Gould made the U.S. national team when she was 14 and turned pro following her graduation from high school. She finished second in her first pro tournament, knocking off the No.1 seed in the process.
Roanoke will be the seventh stop this year on a 12-city tour that most recently was in Chalfont, Pa., outside Philadelphia. The total purse this week is $6,000, which means most of the players hold full-time jobs.
Gould runs her own business, a national certification program for racquetball. Fenton was a teacher and coach who has spent the past 11/2 years as a sportscaster for the University of Nebraska.
``From the time I was young, I had played a lot of sports,'' Fenton said, ``but I was raised in a religious environment where I did not play interscholastic sports. I just told myself, `If you don't do this and you're going to be upset for the rest of your life, then do it.'''
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB