Willis captures 1st World Championship
Posted: 02-25-2007 (modified: 03-01-2007)

Résumé complete.

Roofball inventor Adam Willis’s 10th-inning inside-out around was the decisive moment in his 33-24 Championship game defeat of newcomer Reuben Schug at the 2007 Roofball World Championships The win gave Adam Willis his first career World Championship. Robert Saliski finished in 3rd place, and Casey Campbell won the Time Trial Championship.

With the victory, Willis joins Daniel “Danno” O'Reilly and Casey Campbell as the only players with victories in both the Worlds and the U.S. Open. The win is Willis’s 3rd title overall.

Willis also now joins Campbell as the only players to win the time trial title and overall championship in both events.

Rookie Reuben Schug, who set a Roofball record with 10 straight pings during the Trophy Round and Championship, pinged in the bottom of the 9th of the title game to take a one-point lead over Willis going into the 10th.

Needing a ping or an around to take the lead, Willis stepped up to throw in the 10th inning. His ball started slightly to the right of its target and hit below the pole, but bounced up the roof, passed the pole on its right, then kicked back to the left, passing the pole before bouncing back down the roof.

Willis placed both hands on his head in disbelief as the ball rolled toward him and the crowd cheered the unlikely turn of events. Suddenly down ten and needing an around to win, Schug could only muster one point in his half of the inning, sealing the victory for Willis.

A couple of Roofball greats ran into some unfamiliar trouble Sunday, starting with five-time champion Dan O’Reilly’s elimination after the first round. Despite posting a respectable 30, O’Reilly watched as six players bested his mark and knocked him out following the first round for the first time since the 1999 U.S. Open – O’Reilly’s 1st career tournament.

Casey Campbell’s day was decidedly mixed. His first-round performance was just short of perfect, tying a Roofball record with four arounds en route to tying the single-game scoring record of 70. Campbell’s 50-point performance in the time trial was the third best mark in Roofball history and won Campbell his fourth career award clock.

But the wheels fell off for Campbell in the Semifinals, posting just two pings and suffering two overs while scoring just six points; a career-worst.

Willis became the first player to score 2,000 career points with a catch in the 7th inning of the Trophy Round, but was nearly knocked out of the tournament shortly thereafter. After pings and catches in the 8th and 9th innings pulled Willis even with Saliski for 2nd place at 33 points, Willis scored a zero in the 10th, leaving Saliski needing only a catch to advance to the Championship. But Saliski’s ball bounced well left, over the car and uncatchable.

Still tied at 33, the two battled in a sudden-death throw off. Both scored pings and catches in their first throws, but Saliski followed Willis’s ping-car with just a catch in the second throw, putting Willis through to the final.

Notes: Schug made the athletic play of the day in the 5th inning of the Championship. After a ping his ball bounced right and toward the muddy lawn. Schug ran, made a one-handed catch while diving, then completed a full somersault on the lawn while maintaining control of the ball. Perhaps most impressively, Schug managed the move while getting almost no mud on his shirt. Elizabeth Willis won the Women's Championship, outpointing Angie O'Reilly 16 to -8 in the 1st round.