He’s In The Right Racquet Idaho Teen Enhances Status As National Star In His Sport

Harvey Brannigan visibly bristles when people suggest his son’s success came easily.

“It kills me when people call Erin a natural. If anything, I tell him he’s overtraining,” Brannigan said.

Erin Brannigan, a senior at Sandpoint High School, works hard to be great in a sport most people play for fun.

On any given morning, and sometimes after work, hundreds of people in this region head to an athletic club to round up a game of racquetball. Erin, however, plays at a higher level. In fact, he recently won the U.S. high school racquetball championship in St. Louis.

The amazing thing is that Brannigan is just getting serious about the sport.

“I started playing seriously when I was 12, which is very late for most people who compete,” said Brannigan, 18. “Just recently, I’ve started to play very relaxed, which has helped me improve and not dwell on my mistakes in competition.”

Success has come quickly for Brannigan, who was turned on to the game by his father. Harvey Brannigan is a certified racquetball instructor, a distinction Erin has also achieved. In fact, Erin has reached a higher level of certification and now works as an instructor at Sandpoint West Athletic Club.

“Since practice takes up so much of my time, I’ve been able to make some money as an instructor instead of getting a part-time job,” he said.

Brannigan instructs mostly kids and puts on clinics once a month around Sandpoint. He said promoting the sport is important to him and he wants people to get involved because he feels racquetball is a sport everyone can enjoy.

Although he likes the competitive aspect, he also feels it’s a sport that can be enjoyed for its recreational values.

“One of the most important ways to improve is to get in a lot of practice on your own,” Brannigan said.

Varying his workout schedule has made Brannigan a more complete player.

His father said, on some days, Erin will lift weights at school, play in the afternoon and lift again at night. Brannigan feels his experience playing high school soccer gave him the cardiovascular strength to compete in a tournament like nationals.

“Nationals is like running a marathon racquetball-wise in that I had to play 12 matches in just three days,” he said.

At nationals, Brannigan was the No. 1 seed after placing fourth the year before. He said it was interesting to be favored at a tournament of that magnitude because other competitors looked at him as the player to beat. Their respect may have worked in his favor because in the past, worrying about his opponents sometimes caused him to play poorly.

“My strength lately has been my mental toughness and relaxation,” Brannigan said. “I don’t get stressed out and I’m just letting it flow on the court.”

Brannigan is also a member of the U.S. Junior National Racquetball Team. Selection will allow him to promote the sport throughout North America. One of the team’s goals is to make racquetball an Olympic sport. Brannigan said one of his biggest goals is to play in the Olympics.

“The problem we run into is that the U.S. dominates most world competitions,” he said, “so there needs to be other countries getting into the sport before it makes the Olympics.”

If Brannigan has any regret, it’s that he’s had to give up other sports to become highly accomplished at racquetball.

With Brannigan standing almost 6 feet tall with long hair pulled back in a ponytail, most people might guess his sport is soccer. He played varsity soccer as a sophomore and junior before giving it up, along with baseball. Although the sacrifice has paid off, he said that was the hardest decision he’s had to make in high school.

“The older I got, the more I had to decide what sport to focus on and racquetball won out,” Brannigan said.

Brannigan will attend the University of Southern Colorado at Pueblo next year on a full-ride racquetball scholarship. His father feels the school’s location is ideal because it is close to the Olympic Training Center at Colorado Springs.

“Every time he comes back from training in Colorado Springs, he is a better player, and to be within easy driving distance of the facility will improve his game immensely,” Harvey Brannigan said.

Few competitors probably want to dwell on an improved Erin Brannigan. But if he continues to display the work ethic and mental toughness he has in the past, there’s little doubt an improved Brannigan is just what they’ll see.