The controversy surrounding closed regions has, understandably, been a concern for many people who are moving to new cities or have qualifying date conflicts. The board dealt with the results of the Eastside Qualifier last night and here they are: “Thinly Sliced Cabbage” will be eligible for the North American Championship on a 4-3 vote.
Below is a link to the recommendations made by various members of NAH prior to the vote.
We could only get partial results off the internet, but the tournament was won by The Control! Congratulations. Here are the 6 teams that qualified for North Americans from the Southwest Region:
1) The Control (Forest ?, Andrew CRZ, Ace SF)
2) The Young & The Restless (Alex, Pistolero LA, Joey SF)
3) Grass Assault (AJ, Jacob, Mini PHX)
4) The Goons (Brandon CRZ, Brian LA, josh SDM)
5) Tri-City Pedal Junkies (?, ?, ?)
6) Creamy Beavers (Jody, Chris, Ben SF).
This past weekend, Boston hosted the NAH Eastside Qualifier, the first on our 2013 NAH Qualifier Series. Sunday night’s final match found The Means (Nick Vaughn, Alexis Mills, Chris Roberts) pitted against DGT (Rob Biddle, Jake Mazonson, Jon Lomax) in the final game. The Means emerged victorious with a decisive 5-1 win over DGT. Rounding out the podium was White Fang, an all-Boston team comprised of Javier Garcia-Albea, Addison Minott, James Lavenson.
Big thanks to the Boston crew who hosted and to all of the sponsors who helped make the event possible, especially DZR shoes, Naragansett, St. Cago Polo Works! Thanks also go out to our 2013 NAH Qualifier Series partners Fixcraft, Podium, and Urban Velo.
Up next: The NAH Southwest Qualifier in Fresno, CA the weekend of April 20-21. Follow the tournament at hardcourtpodium.com
NAH Eastside Qualifier – Final Results
Regional qualifiersEastside Qualifer
April 13th – 14th
Boston, MA
LOBP | Podium | Registration
Southwest Qualifier
April 20th – 21st
Fresno, CA
LOBP | Podium | Registration
Midwest Qualifier
May 25th – 26th
Columbus, OH
LOBP | Podium | Registration
South East Qualifier
June 15th – 16th
Athens, GA
LOBP | Podium | Registration
Northside Qualifier
June 15th – 16th
Grand Rapids, MI
LOBP | Podium | Registration
South Central Qualifier
June 22nd – 23rd
Denver, CO
LOBP | Podium | Registration
Cascadia Qualifier
June 29th – 30th
Seattle, WA
LOBP | Podium | Registration
August 16th, 17th, 18th
Minneapolis, MN
LOBP | Podium | Registration
October 16, 17, 18, 19
Fort Lauderdale, FL
LOBP | Podium | Registration.
After great amounts of discussion (online as well as off, you can see the LoBP discussion here) and thorough consideration from North American Hardcourt’s 7 appointed regional board members, the tournament and sponsorship committees, AND the international community of bike polo, the debate has been settled! After a 5-2 vote, we are excited and proud to announce Florida will be hosting the World Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships 2013! The Fort Lauderdale, West Broward, Miami, Orlando, and the rest of the Florida clubs stepped up, congratulations on your winning bid!
Great bids were presented by both the Florida and Milwaukee groups, and a huge thanks and appreciation is extended to both for their efforts in creating a very difficult decision between the two. Ultimately, the voting went as follows:
The date will be officially set coming immediately, but there is a secure time from October 10-28 that can be used.
The location is the pristine and multi-million dollar park facility, Regional Park at Weston. See the link here., and the google map is here.
The court surfaces are smooth, professional grade hockey courts with 4′ walls, rounded corners, and an additional 4′ fencing around all courts. There is an option to utilize all 7 courts side-by-side to create identical courts, maintaining consistency throughout the tournament. The facility itself is virtually unmatched in it’s world class standards. Full access to running water, electricity, FREE WIFI, restrooms, an on-site YMCA with it’s own benefits, including an Olympic size swimming pool, and many other bonus’ to hosting here.
The proximity to two international airports, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, within an hour’s drive make this great for all travelers coming to North America – be they fom Central/South America, Europe, the UK, Australia, or Asia. It would be great to see some of the less noted clubs represent at Worlds due to it’s closeness to the Caribbean, Central/South America, and Mexico. With plans to shuttle/bus/drive the distance from the airports to the hotels/beach condos/camping available for the participants, the travelers can worry about their playing rather than their driving.
The area around Florida, including the closeness to the Keys, Caribbean, etc makes this a unique and popular travel destination for many people, so if you’ve ever wanted to create a trip around polo this is a great state to start in! I’m sure that in the next couple of weeks we’ll see other opportunities around the event that will allow for travelers from farther away to really take advantage of their time in the South East of the United States.
There will be many updates and details to come, but we are very excited to see Florida coming together to show North America and the World what they have to offer! We support them 110% and are confident that this will be a tournament that raises the standards yet again!
Thanks to everyone who weighed in on the discussion, and both Milwaukee and Florida for your bids.
North American Hardcourt
