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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 15, 2002)
TliL LESBIAN BALL OF THE YEAR! f o r ( L o s e w i(li e x q u i s i t e t a s t e S aturday , A pril 61" 9:00 pm — 2:00 am A lcoLol A v a ila L L du ffel t o min taLle rliat in a com fortaLle, intimate su rro u n d in g witli tlie w om an of your rLoice Diving for gold National racquetball champion Julie Bulrice has a couple of partners to thank by $50 $35 A d vance t ulrice initially competed in singles tourna ments but jokingly notes she convinced herself she was “too old and too fat” to play the more intense opponents. “Honestly, 1 enjoy the camaraderie of playing doubles,” she adds. "In singles...people tend to he much more competitive and focused. There’s much less fun and teasing and banter— the stuff that for me is fun on a racquetball court.” Bulrice teamed with Shipm an in June 2000 after recovering from foot surgery that took her out of the sport for a year. They had met at previous tournaments in Oregon and always had thought it would be fun to play together. She maintains she wasn’t sure what she was getting into when signing up for nationals. She and Shipman kept winning at other competi tions, st) she simply thought it would be fun. Bulrice credits her racquet partner as the motivation behind their trip to the top tourna ment in the country. “Cheryl has been playing much longer than me,” Bulrice admits, “and knows all of the ins and outs. I just feel like a country bumpkin when it comes to racquetball. I don’t feel like I really know the rules, and I’m just a geek.” Ignorance might have been bliss in this case, though. “Cheryl said, ‘Let’s go to nation als,’ and 1 was like, ‘Oh yeah, sure, OK,’ ” the champion laughs. Bulrice also gives Shipman credit for refining her natural talent. “When we first started...she definitely challenged me to become a much better player— to play much more aggressively and much more strategically, and 1 started diving more,” she says. “There’s...maybe two other women who play in the level I play who dive. The guys dive, hut most women don’t.” She says support from her domestic partner, Jan, also has contributed to her success. “I am so lucky. I would never in my life have the patience. I mean, she comes to all my tourna ments and watches me play and hangs out all day long. She’s an angel." B ulrice admits to having a sense of numb ness and uncertainty about her future in racquetball now that she and Shipman have reached the peak of competition. “Really, the next step for me at the level Cheryl and I play at is to go professional. But again, back to the age thing. At 40 years old there aren’t a lot of professionals who are start ing their careers," Bulrice remarks. S o for now she is concentrating on her work overseeing and planning the new soft ware training for Nike employees worldwide and is talking with other women in the rac- quetball community about putting together a tournament in support of breast cancer research. “We’d try to bring in a couple of women pros and just make it a women’s event— try to do some skill building and lessons and sessions," Bulrice exclaims. “You can do scrambles and all kinds of stuff to just make it fun and introduce the sport to more women to play." JH1 M elissa S ayler is the Production Assistant and resident left-handed sports lezzic at Just Out. I ) f London A t (f le D o o r LesLian 4876 NW R ar detliany dlvd. P ortland, O R R S V P R eq u ested F or W f orm al D a n ce rs (casli only) M elissa S ayler hen Portlander Julie Bulrice began playing racquetball 15 years ago, she had no idea she would end up the 2001 national women s doubles cham pion or a national mixed doubles champ. “It all just sort of happened, and 1 don’t really knew how. I’ve never had a goal for myself to get really good at racquetball— thinking, i ’m gonna win state, I’m gonna win regionals, and I’m gonna win nationals,’ ” she says. Bulrice entered the sport by random chance in the mid-’80s. She was living in Seattle at the time, and her ex happened to manage a health club that was sponsoring a racquetball tournament. “They didn’t have enough women to play in the beginning bracket,” she explains. The ex encouraged her to play, “and I did, and I won.... I said to myself, ‘Well, I guess I can do this.’ ” That willingness to try something new ulti mately landed Bulrice and her racquet partners, Cheryl Shipman and Brad Hardy, gold medals at the Ektelon/U.S. Racquetball Association’s 34th National Doubles Championships last October in Las Vegas. Men’s and women’s teams in the tourna ment can chw se to play by skill or age levels. Shipman and Bulrice won in the Women’s Skill Division A, and Hardy and Bulrice won in the Mixed Skill Division B. Not only did the women, both in their 40s, play and dominate over competitors in their 20s and 30s, but Bulrice also played with a bro ken thumb inflicted while diving for a shot. B Tickets 97229 503*709*5913 o m en w h o L ove W omen ~ Holy Week at MCC ~ O peratic an d Piano C oncert w ith IMs. G a la P a lm e r a n d D r. C h ris S c h in d le r fo llo w e d by S ile n t A u c tio n March 2 2 , 7:30p m • MCC A uditorium • Tickets: $ 1 0 For tickets fir more info, please call (503) 281-8868 or visit our website at www.mccportland.com Maundy Thursday MCC p ro u d ly p re m ie rs th e o rig in a l m u s ic a l w o rk T h e L iv in g L a s t S u p p e r w ritte n fir directed by Maurice Evans and Mark C. Brown March 2 8 , 7pm G ood Friday G u e s t S p e a k e r Mr. M a rv in G ra y A long w ith music from th e MCC-Portland O rchestra, Sanctuary Choir and Bella Voce March 2 9 , 7pm E a ste r S e rv ice s G u e s t S p e a k e r th e R ev. M ic h ae l N ic k o la u s o f M C C -Los A n g e le s Special music: MCC-Portland Orchestra, C elebration Singers, Sanctuary Choir, Ms. Cheri From m and Mr. Rick Edm undson March 3 1 , 9am fir I I am , < Metropolitan Community Church of Portland 2400 ME Broadway Portland, OR 9 7 2 32 5 0 3/281 -8868 www.mccportland.com
