‘The battle of the fittest on the table’: Two Spokane women to compete in foosball World Cup next month

Between a foosball table’s thumping pegs and 3-inch-tall goals is where Lotus Leong-Chesbrough is most dangerous.

The 59-year-old foosball fanatic developed her craft as a teenager in the 1980s, mostly on the hallowed tables of the long-gone Bumpers arcade. In the decades since, she’s won hundreds of thousands in prize money for podium finishes at American and international tournaments. Her accomplished career received national recognition in 2018, when Leong-Chesbrough was inducted into the U.S. Table Soccer Hall of Fame.

Fellow Spokane resident Shari Davis, 62, shares Leong-Chesbrough’s passion for the table sport as another former teen at the height of foosball’s popularity in the U.S. But Davis’ professional career only got underway after she caught wind of Leong-Chesbrough’s accomplishments.

Davis doesn’t watch much TV but happened to catch a newscast at a friend’s house shortly after Leong-Chesbrough’s induction.

“I always sit in front of her TV kind of rudely, and I was talking to her when they said, ‘Lotus Chesbrough is going into the Hall of Fame of pro foosball,’ ” Davis recalled, “I’m like, What? What? What? What do you mean, pro foosball?”

Davis said learning there was an opportunity to get back into her childhood pastime was a revelation. She hadn’t played seriously since her youth, when she’d camp out at the Silver Lanes bowling alley on the South Hill, but the dance teacher and owner of the Dance Center of Spokane jumped wholeheartedly into competitive play by 2021.

Now, Davis will be joining Leong-Chesbrough this summer as competitors at the International Table Soccer Federation World Cup and World Championships in Zaragoza, Spain.

“I just can’t believe this happened in my life,” Davis said.

Formed in 2002, the ITSF hosts the premier international tournament for the world’s top foosball talents biannually, with participants competing for the world cup in doubles or individual contests across different age and gender divisions. Around 1,000 players hailing from 45 countries are expected to compete June 23-29 at the Zaragoza games.

It’ll be Leong-Chesbrough’s third appearance in the tournament, after representing the U.S. at the 2006 and 2009 games. She won the world title for women’s doubles in 2006 with her former partner Tiffany Moore, a repeat win for the pair after taking the top spot in 1992 prior to the ITSF’s founding. Leong-Chesbrough’s dominant career also includes a Team USA title in 2009 and spans seven appearances in world championship finals, including the two wins and seven third-place finishes.

“And the competition back then was way tougher,” Leong-Chesbrough said with a smile.

Davis will be making her first appearance and qualified with her partner, Laura Constante-Shaw, of Woodburn, Oregon, in both the senior women’s doubles division and the classic doubles division for women of all ages. They were among the last to make the cut, Davis said, but managed to do so after taking place in tournaments for both divisions at the Louisiana State Championships in December.

As she’s developed her skills over the last few years, Davis said she had the goal of qualifying for the 2028 competition in mind. She and Constante-Shaw weren’t aware qualifying for the 2025 games was still a possibility when they entered the tournament in Louisiana.

“This entire time, and even the day before I qualified, I said, ‘Maybe I’ll qualify in 2028; it’s gonna be in Germany and I can see myself getting there,’” Davis said. “The next day, I qualify, and we were just playing for fun.”

The pair will compete in the senior division to let younger fellow American competitors take their spots in the all-ages division, Davis said.

Leong-Chesbrough, on the other hand, will have four opportunities to add to her laundry list of tournament wins. The perennial contender qualified to play in three divisions: senior women’s doubles, mixed doubles and open women’s doubles, and has been asked by Team USA leadership to fill the wildcard slot in the singles division. She agreed, although it’ll mean a whirlwind few days of competition.

“I’m thinking, ‘Why did I do that to myself?’” Leong-Chesbrough said. “I don’t even like singles. But I am a master in the whole game, I guess.”

Not including the rankings of youth players, professional foosballers work their way from beginner status to the highest rank of master by performing well in tournaments. Players earn points toward their rank by finishing better than they were seeded in a tournament, or finishing near the top of a studded field of competitors.

Leong-Chesbrough achieved the rank of master years ago, something Davis hopes to follow suit with. She’s currently considered an expert among women, after making quick work of beginner, rookie and amateur play at national tournaments. Only the pro ranking stands between her and the rank of master.

Leong-Chesbrough likes to play both the offensive and defensive rows of foosmen, whether it’s on the American gold-standard Tornado tables, or the Italian Garlando, French Bonzini or German Leonhart tables that will also be at the Spain games. Players flip for table choice in international matchups.

For women’s-only competition, Leong-Chesbrough usually operates the offensive rods. Her fast-paced play is consistent across every game she plays, which at the master level is centered around ball control, she said. She doesn’t notice much of a difference between playing mixed and women’s doubles.

“Singles, however, you have to hustle because you’re playing all the rods,” Leong-Chesbrough said. “Otherwise, the competition is tough, regardless.”

Davis is more of a defensive specialist, although she tries to man the forward pegs occasionally to push herself as a player. Tournament matches are always intense, she said, and can stretch on for hours as players try to win the majority of three or five games by a margin of two goals.

“It’s the battle of the fittest on the table, you know?” Davis said. “I mean, I’ve been beat because I couldn’t keep the quality of my playing going for all three games because it was so intense.”

Davis and Leong-Chesbrough said they prepare for a major tournament like the World Cup like any other athlete preparing for a high-profile contest: lots of practice and conditioning. Davis said reentering the foosball realm has made her a better dance teacher, as it’s allowed her to really instill the sheer willpower and hours needed to perfect one’s craft.

“I always told the kids to go practice, but I didn’t personally practice ballet, right?” Davis said. “But when I started doing foosball, my mentor said, ‘Well, if you want to play pro foosball, you’re gonna need to practice two to three hours a day on a Tornado.’ So I did.”

At the heights of competition they’ve reached, you try to practice against competitors of a higher rank to push your skills that much further. While it can be tough to find local competitors up for the task, Davis said Spokane has a richer foosball community than one might expect. She hosts a weekly tournament at the Revolver, a bar on Garland Avenue, and has gotten connected with fellow professionals in the area to set up private games.

Leong-Chesbrough doesn’t have to look far for some practice rounds.

Her husband, Larry Chesbrough, with whom she co-owns the Little Euro location in Spokane Valley, also happens to be a master foosball player. Their relationship began over a foosball table, at a tournament at Bumpers in the mid-’80s, and grew as their careers did.

“We had played together, and we actually won that tournament,” Leong-Chesbrough said. “And then we never played together again because it’s too hard.”

While her husband retired from competitive play, the couple frequently host fellow high-level players for games at their house in Colbert. Leong-Chesbrough said they had a game night a few weeks ago that took her back to the days of Bumpers, when she and her friends would spend hours over a table, or crowd around an arcade game to watch someone strive for a new high score.

“We started at 5, and I went to bed at 9, and I can hear him yelling and screaming, right?” Leong-Chesbrough recalled. “And I’m, like hang on, what am I missing? I need to be down here and kick some of your guys’ butt too.”

The relationships formed over the jostling of little plastic footballers are what keeps her coming back to the sport after all these years. Leong-Chesbrough said she thinks she could crash at a friend’s house while visiting any of the 50 states simply because of the number of tournaments they’ve participated in.

“You become friends with all these people, and if you win a tournament, it’s like you’re bonded together forever,” Leong-Chesbrough said.

Davis shared a similar sentiment, adding that she’s been amazed by the foosball community. There’s always someone willing to lend a helping hand, offer tips or a welcoming embrace while you’re competing miles away from home, she said.

“There’s just a camaraderie that’s amazing,” Davis said. “The fact that I’m going to go and hang out with these people that I look completely up to in Spain is incredible.”

As for those looking to relive their sleepless childhood nights at the local bowling alley, Davis recommended stopping by the games held at Revolver every Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Folks can dip their toes in the water or jump right into competition, she said.

Leong-Chesbrough flipped the tables on Davis, so to speak, in recommending folks take a page out of her book. It’s never too late to get back in the thick of it, she said.

“It’s like riding a bike. You don’t forget; it always comes back,” Leong-Chesbrough said. “You just gotta tune your game up, you know? Get on a table, play a couple hours, and you can feel it all come back.”