The two local Petanque clubs of Denver Colorado, Mile High Petanque Club and in association with the Bear Creek High School Petanque Club, helped host the FPUSA National Junior Qualifiers on Saturday June 4th thru Sunday June 5th 2023. This was a Doubles tournament and the pairs of Juniors showed up to play their very best. The cooperation between team members was amazing to watch, even with the unpredictable mountain weather!

The weather on June 4th was a struggle as the forecast changed hour by hour with heavy rain, mist, and rough conditions. It was the heaviest and longest rain fall that Denver and the front range cities had seen in at least a decade.

All 6 teams played through the rain and were absolute champs the entire weekend. All 5 qualifying games were in the rain, but the clouds started to part ways a bit and allowed for some better conditions for the semi-final, final, and consolante games.

The grounds became soggy, mud started to form, but this didn’t stop any of the juniors from playing their best games. It was an amazing time out and everyone had an absolute blast playing. Towards the end of the day on Sunday, we started our semi-finals and parents, onlookers, and everyone watched with anticipation on who would make the final match.

Long time players Andrew & Erika secured their place in the final defeating a local team, Leon & Chris, with a win of 13-5. On the other semi-finalist game, local team Caleb & Nicole had won 13-4 against Josh & Braydon.

The final match was between Andrew & Erika versus Caleb & Nicole. This game was close and intense. Point for point through most of the game, it was definitely a nail-biter.

At the end of the match, the final score was 13-12 in favor of Caleb & Nicole thus winning 1st place in the FPUSA Junior Qualifiers. Andrew & Erika placed 2nd and had an absolutely incredible weekend in the qualifiers tallying up a total of +49 points over 5 qualifying games. Definitely superb players all round!

Additionally, we wanted to say a warm thank you to all of the volunteers who came out, to the players, and to the parents of the players this year!

Special Thanks to the FPUSA for helping to provide funding, prizes, swag, boules, and all that you did for the Juniors! Your help, coordination, and contribution helped the Juniors have a great weekend and overall tournament!

Special Thanks to JC for helping out with lunches, set-up, and photography throughout the day!

Special Thanks to Petanque America for the donations of boules and other equipment for the kids and juniors that played!

Special thanks to Raymond, David, Pascale, and Songmi for assisting and helping the kids throughout the weekend, your help was incredible and definitely ensured the kids had a great time on the terrain!

Although the weather was rough and rainy, we had a great time, and congratulations to all of the players and special congrats to Caleb, Nicole, Andrew, & Erika for making the finals and qualifying to represent the US in the Junior Worlds in Thailand in November!

Charity Event!

The MHPC is hosting an Open Singles Tournament entirely for charity to help the 4 juniors fly out to Thailand to represent the US in the Worlds Tournament in November!

Check out our Event Page for the Tournament for more information on how you can register and help.

There will be a GoFundMe as well posted within the next few weeks as well to help the juniors and the cost of travel!

Until next time!

• Dan Fay
  President of the MHPC