Oklahoma State Foosball Tournament 2023
March 24 (Friday) the adventure begins at a 8pm Monster DYP in Sioux Falls. After finishing last in the event at midnight, I decide to head 9-hours south to the Oklahoma State Championship to compete. Part of the reason for the impromptu road trip is to show support for Johnnie Horton who has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. There is a “Badman Singles” event dedicated to his cause.
The drive with stops and a 1-hour parking lot nap takes over 10-hours. I am able to make it on time to sign up for open singles. Driving 9-hours through the night is not exactly the best way to show up for a tournament, but I drink a couple of light beers to wake up and loosen up for the day.
YouTube video of the weekend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBPt64q2kD0&t=7s
The first match is against Joe Rhodes. Again. I got beat up by him in the first round of open singles in Wisconsin last weekend. Regardless of losing to him, he is starting to become one of my favorite pro’s. Before the match begins, he buys a round of beers. I have never had someone unknown buy me a beer before an Open match let alone a pro. Maybe he is also a fan of me?
I give him a 2023 Foosball Tour koozie that he immediately puts on his Budweiser beer bottle.
Today will not be my day to shine again on the table. I lose to him again in the first round. I am able to slow down his snake shooting a little, but he lights me up with multiple slingshots from the back. The best out of 5-game match is quickly over. I am not able to win one game from him.
Somehow I put together a couple of match victories in the open singles loser’s bracket. My defense and hand speed is too much for my opponents. There is also a bit of foosball luck in favor for me.
One of the people I play firmly believes that I am a pro. Even though points-wise I am far from being a pro, I don’t argue with him. After all, I am on business with foosball considering that I am on Foos Tour and that I am promoting this website and latest books.
After losing to an older guy that gets bent out of shape over a few different rule violations (I do not know all of the rules….even the basic ones…I should probably learn them), I decide that I do not want to throw money at any other events for the weekend. This weekend journey is about being a foosball fan.
There are only a couple of faces I recognize from Wisconsin aside from Joe Rhodes. One is the table maintenance crew guy (Kenneth?); he is wearing a Foos Tour shirt he got in Wisconsin. I give him big smile and thumbs up.
The other guy I know at the tournament happens to be the guy most likely to win the weekend again: Tony Spredeman.
Spredeman and I go way back. I remember playing him at Wisconsin State when he was just coming up as a teenager. I got to know him through his dad, Bud Spredeman. In the last decade+, Tony has become the GOAT of the game on the Tornado table.
It has been a few years since I’ve sat down and hung out with Tony, but he is one of those friends where nothing changes over the years and the friendship picks back up where it left off.
Spredeman apologizes for not hanging out and talking with me at last weeks tournament in Wisconsin. I tell it is no big deal and that I don’t like to get in the way of a person and their work. Plus, Wisconsin was Tony’s starting point, so he had a lot of well-wishers/fans around. Oklahoma is a bit different, so we hang out between him dominating his matches. (Spredeman goes on to win all of his matches at OK including the Badman Singles title).
We catch up on our happenings. I give him the Foos Tour Videography and Marketing book and give him the spiel of what I am trying to accomplish in terms of helping players fund their touring. I also give him t-shirt for his Romanian girlfriend.
He gives me some of the details of his plan to move to Romania to take on the European foosball scene. I tell him he shouldn’t be surprised if I show up with a camera in hand to film it.
After bumping into some of the most influential foosball business people at the tournament (Ryan Moore and Rex Bennett), I decide to head to bed. Instead of getting a hotel room, I just sleep in my car in the parking lot. Spring is here and I’m happy to have the freedom to sleep outdoors.
Waking up the next day, I am reminded why sleeping in a car isn’t ideal. I’ve spent on night in a vehicle and I already feel like I”m homeless, disoriented, and outside the norm of a typical American. It doesn’t take long to fall off from feeling and being part of the normal culture of America.
Even though I just got to the tournament less than 20-hours ago, I decide it is time to head back North. The weather is nice and the sun is shining. I hate driving at night.
Drifter of the Week: Nick “Chicago”
Somewhere in Nebraska, a hitch hiker comes up to me while I am pumping gas and asks for a ride. I don’t even hesitate to think about it after how I felt sleeping in the car last night. He looks like he’s been outdoors for a few days. He’s found the right ride.
His story is probably one of the more crazier stories I have heard. He knows it too.
“Nobody believes me or wants to help,” he says.
He tells me he went to get help/treatment for his meth habit, but then was kicked out because his insurance wouldn’t cover it. With no friends or family members to help (since he probably burned bridges with his drug habit), he found himself staying at a homeless shelter run by drug selling gangbangers while trying to get into a rehab program.
That stay was cut short after a week as he believed the gangbangers were going to rape him. This led him to calling the police, having to out run the people he called the police on, and then hopping a train to get out of town. By the time he ran into me, he had walked over 30-miles trying to hitch a ride back to Sioux Center, Iowa where he was from.
“Are you sure you want to go back to Sioux Center?” I ask him. “It sounds like a cess pool for you that will probably get you wrapped back up in drug use. I can take you to Sioux Falls for a new start.”
He thinks about it for a bit and decides to take me up on it.
Sioux Falls is quite a bit colder and with snow versus down south. When we arrive around 9pm, I take him to the Cathedral to see if we can get some assistance with his issues. The people (some high schoolers and their youth-leader) we talk to are of little help and give us no direction for finding help. This man’s problems are way outside their reality.
Not wanting to leave the guy to the freezing night outside, I get him a room for the night at the Super 8. I have cash/credit since I did not enter other foosball events and slept in my car the night before. Chicago bumped into the right person at the right time. Offering him help was no big deal.
I give him a notebook and Tour t-shirt as I’m departing. I tell him he should keep a journal and write a book. He has a long road ahead of him, but he is certain that God is answering his prayers and trying to help him. I wish him the best and give him $40-cash and a pack of smokes. He is on his way to (hopefully) a better life, but the next days may continue to be some of the longest of his life if he survives.
