He’d Rather Have His Fun in the Sun : For Defending National Champion Brian Hawkes, Outdoor Racquetball Has No Limits

Indoor racquetball has too many obstacles for Brian Hawkes.

He finds four walls, a floor and ceiling just too confining. Hawkes prefers the freedom of the outdoor game where there’s no ceiling, no back wall and only partial side walls with which to contend.

It’s not as if Hawkes can’t play indoors.

He played on the pro national indoor racquetball circuit in 1982 and 1983 and was ranked as high as No. 11, although he never won a tournament.

But when Hawkes moves outside, he dominates.

Five of the last six years he has won the men’s pro division of the Ektelon National Outdoor Championships. Hawkes, who lives in Fountain Valley, lost in the 1985 quarterfinals to Mike Bohne of Fountain Valley.

Hawkes won the first of his men’s pro division national outdoor titles in 1981, only a month after he graduated from Marina High School. In 1979, Hawkes won the junior division of the national outdoor tournament.

Hawkes, 23, wasn’t challenged while he won the national outdoor title last season. He won every game in his five matches, and no one scored more than 14 points against him. The 14 were by Dan Southern in the final match. Southern won national outdoor titles in 1980 and ’85.

“I like playing outdoors, it suits my game more,” Hawkes said. “I like the kind of game where you can go after the ball and not have to wait for it. Indoors, you have to wait for the ball to come off the back wall. Outdoors you can’t wait, there is no back wall. You have to go after the ball.”

Hawkes, who is the head pro at Racquetball World in Fountain Valley and still plays in many area indoor tournaments, starts his latest title defense Friday in the 14th Ektelon National Outdoor Championships at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.

The tournament also features a women’s pro division and men’s pro doubles. The finals are scheduled for Sunday afternoon. Admission is free throughout the tournament.

Hawkes will play in the doubles with Mark Harding of Huntington Beach, whom Hawkes defeated for the singles championship of a national warmup tournament last weekend at OCC.

Hawkes started to play racquetball 10 years ago after briefly trying tennis. He also played basketball as a sophomore at Marina but has since concentrated on racquetball.

“I instantly liked it (outdoor racquetball) because it was so fast,” Hawkes said. “I liked it right off because I could hit the ball as hard as I could and it would still be in.”

After winning the national outdoor title in 1981, Hawkes was sponsored by Ektelon and spent the next two years on the professional indoor circuit. But he felt he wasn’t getting anywhere and decided to leave the circuit in 1983 to attend Cal State Fullerton.

“I wasn’t making any money,” he said. “And I didn’t see any drastic changes in the future. The top four or five guys can make a living playing indoors, but after that it gets pretty bleak.

“If the money were the same both indoors and outdoors, I would prefer to play outdoors. It’s a more relaxed game. People take the indoor game too serious.”

Hawkes plans to graduate next spring from Fullerton and get married soon after. He’s majoring in math and wants to become an insurance actuary.

But with these plans, Hawkes realizes there will be less time to play. But there’s one tournament he won’t stop playing in.

“I’ll always want to play in the nationals,” he said. “I just like getting out, playing and defending my title. I don’t feel like there’s any pressure on me to win. I get nervous but only because of the competition. People just bring their coolers, sit out in the sun and have a good time.”

Tournament Notes Play starts at 10 a.m Friday and will continue until dusk. Play starts at 9 a.m. Saturday and the semifinals will be in the late afternoon. Play starts at 10 a.m. Sunday with the finals scheduled to begin about 2 p.m. . . . This is the first time the tournament will offer cash to the winners. In the men’s and women’s pro singles and men’s pro doubles there is a $300 first prize, $150 for second, $100 for third and $50 for fourth . . . Besides top-seeded Brian Hawkes, No. 2 Dan Southern, No. 3 Mark Harding and indoor professionals Dave and Greg Peck from Texas are among those entered. Defending women’s champion Martha McDonald and her husband, Greg McDonald, are entered in the pro singles and mixed doubles. Also competing are Lynn Adams, the top-ranked women’s indoor player, who McDonald defeated in the women’s pro outdoor final the last two years, and Marci Drexler, the No. 3-ranked indoor player.