March Madness Finals

By Ty Hughes

And then there were four.

Wayne’s World hosted this year’s March Madness Final Four on Saturday, April 19 to determine which of the 64 original teams would ultimately stand high atop the winners’ podium.

Three weekends after it all began, and one by one teams defeated, the field was reduced to just four remaining teams of – you guessed it – four players each. Ironically (or maybe not), the Final Four represented just two locations; Goldie’s Airport Way and Homeplate Pub Marysville.

So, on this snowy and blustery day in late April, eight players from Marysville braved the elements, going from snow to sun to rain to sleet and back again, to meet up with eight players from Seattle and battle it out once and for all.

These were the teams du jour:

Goldie’s Airport Way Rainbows; Ryan Taoipu (9), Moku Kahala (6), Harry Iwata (4), Christy Worley (2).

Goldies Airport Way Hurricanes; Darren Houweling (10), Niko Fidow (7), Maria Weinberger (5), Jenny Simmons (1).

Homeplate Pub Razorbacks; Jim Earl (12), JR Evans (7), Phil Olsen (3), Karen Earl (1).

Homeplate Pub Bulldogs; Norm Wold (9), Dave Jacentho (7), Dave Balser (6), Michelle Pettibone (1).

These four teams went at each other with reckless abandon. Starting the day at 1:00pm, the first two teams were eliminated by 3:00pm. Even though the matches were tough and each player came to compete and win, it was both Goldie’s Airport teams going out in the first round. Knocked out by two very talented Homeplate teams, each Goldie’s team was awarded cash and trophies and 3rd Place bragging rights.

The final 2 ½ hours were dedicated to watching two teams from the Homeplate Pub in Marysville, who were obviously very familiar with each other, going at it for the top spot.

Jim Earl was absolutely on fire and a force to be reckoned with. His team emerged from the doubles games (worth a half a point each) with a two game lead, 4-2. Norm Wold’s Bulldogs team took one back when the games were stacked and worth a full point each. They got one more after two more wins by Jim’s gang, but that would be all they’d get and Jim’s Razorbacks soared to an 8 to 4 victory!

So, the Homeplate Bulldogs came away with 2nd Place, trophies and $1,000 cash. The Homeplate Razorbacks took the honors of March Madness 2008 Champions, 1st Place trophies and $1,600 cash!

Congratulations to Jim, JR, Phil and Karen for a great performance earning them Top Dawg title for 2008.