He Might Be Selling Himself Short

Excuse Bill Sell if he doesn’t know how to react. After so many close calls and near misses, success can sometimes leave an athlete emotionless.

Especially when you’re the best in the world, and nobody seems to know it.

Five days after winning his first International Racquetball Federation world title with doubles partner, Adam Karp, Sell limped around his Huntington Beach condominium and tried to understand his dull state of mind.

“I don’t know what it is,” Sell said. “Maybe I anticipated a little more after winning a world title. Maybe my expectations were too high.”

There was no parade down Main Street in Huntington Beach, but there must be a celebration planned among his circle of friends?

“I’m still getting settled in,” Sell said. “I really haven’t told anyone about [the title] yet.”

Sell, 37, may be among the most anonymous world champions in Southern California, but at least he is well known on the racquetball circuit.

Sell, who graduated from Dana Hills High, has competed in the sport for the last 20 years, playing singles professionally early in his career before switching to doubles later. His left-handed style makes him a desirable doubles partner.

“That way you have two forehands on the outside walls,” he said.

He has been on five national teams in the past 10 years, twice in singles and three times in doubles. However, bad timing or just bad luck had kept him from reaching the world championships each time.

The world championships are held every two years, and in order to qualify, team members must win the nationals, which occur in the fall, in the previous year.

Sell won national titles with two other partners in 1988 and ‘92, but since the world championships are not held in odd years, there was nowhere to go in ’89 and ’93.

In 1986, he came within two points of winning the singles title, but had to settle for second.

Sell finally got rid of his knack for bad timing when he and Karp won the national title in October, setting up their world title opportunity in Phoenix last Saturday.

They sailed through their first-round match against Guam, 15-4, 15-8, then beat Puerto Rico, 15-3, 15-3, in the quarterfinals.

The competition stiffened against Mexico as the challengers defeated the Americans, 15-13, in the second game of the semifinals to force a tiebreaker. In racquetball tiebreakers, the first to 11 points wins.

Tied, 10-10, in the tiebreaker, Sell and Karp fought off the Mexican team and scored the deciding point to move into the final against Canada.

The Canadians, who had defeated Sell and Karp in the final of the team competition earlier in the week, won the opening game, 15-13, but lost a chance to lock up the title when the Americans took the second game, 15-6.

With the crowd on its feet for the deciding game, Sell and Karp had enough left to win, 11-8.

The wait was finally over for Sell, but the party has yet to begin.