Chance meeting leads Rancho Bernardo High grad to paddleball stardom

Emmett Coe is a professional paddleball player. The 2009 Rancho Bernardo High graduate is ranked No. 1 in doubles and No. 2 in singles in the nation.

Coe was never a young prodigy in the sport. In fact, the now 24-year-old’s journey to the top of the paddleball world did not begin until he was 17. The year was 2008 and an ordinary day turned very unordinary after a trip to the racquetball court at the L.A. Fitness in 4S Ranch.

That’s where Coe caught the eye of a legend in the racquetball world. Coe had no way of knowing it at the time, but whatever path he was walking in life was going to drastically change.

There was no college after high school. Just a racket, a bunch of tough-love lessons with a legend and now a professional career that not even Coe could have dreamed he would be doing.

Charlie Who?

That would be Charlie Brumfield — a legend in the racquetball and paddleball worlds. Paddleball is played with paddles and a ball that can reach a top speed of 100 mph. In contrast, racquetball is played with a racket and a ball that can reach speeds up to 180 mph.

“Think of racquetball as checkers and paddleball as chess,” Coe said. “In paddleball, there is a lot more of a chance for a rally because of the slower ball. That means there is a lot more strategy and more time to move your opponent around and make a variety of shots.”

Brumfield, 67, won the first professional racquetball championship in 1972 and would go on to win three more titles in the 1970s. He later would switch to paddleball, where he has won several age-group titles in both singles and doubles. His latest title came in 2009, when he won the national doubles title with Jamie Lawson at the age of 60.

Brumfield, now an attorney who does litigation work for PURE Bioscience in El Cajon, was inducted into the Racquetball Hall of Fame in 1988. He has been playing paddleball and racquetball since 1964 and is a familiar face to anyone that has followed the game.

To say Brumfield had a killer instinct — and he has not lost it — when it comes to any competition would be an understatement. He still owns the record for most donuts (when an opponent scores zero points).

“I love beating the living (crap) out of my opponents,” Brumfield said last week in an interview.

He also is known for his banter during matches. He said he once put a sign outside of a court, where he challenged 20 opponents in a row, and it read: “The names change, but the score remains the same.”

A Chance Meeting

Coe was not alive when Brumfield was dominating the racquetball scene and he certainly did not follow paddleball as a youngster. So, when Brumfield was watching Coe and his friend play racquetball one day in 2008 in 4S Ranch, Coe had no idea Brumfield was one of the all-time greats.

“It was just a normal day,” Coe said. “My friend and I were just playing racquetball and really just messing around. I saw some old guy watching and I come out of the court and he introduces himself to me and invites me to play with him and his friend. I had no idea who he was.”

Coe and his friend accepted the challenge and they would play doubles.

“I am always looking out for people that have a lot of athletic ability, grace and agility to become part of our paddleball groups,” Brumfield said. “I noticed him and saw he was unbelievably quick and agile.”

Afterward, Brumfield invited Coe to play paddleball with him at his home court, the Sorrento Valley Racquetball and Fitness Center. Coe accepted.

“I love playing any sport or game and I was young and curious,” Coe said. “I went and played with him about a week later. I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal because he was some senior citizen guy and I am a young athletic kid.”

Then came lesson No. 1 ... over and over again.

Brumfield showed no mercy. He made Coe chase balls all over the court and kept beating him 21-0, 21-0, 21-0. It was surprising and frustrating for Coe, but it was that challenge that got him hooked.

“My competitive side did not like that at all,” Coe said of the beating he took from Brumfield. “He just had a better mentality and knew what shots to hit and where to hit them. I was running all over trying to do whatever I could and nothing was working.”

When asked why he didn’t let Coe have a few points, a bit of Brumsfield’s philosophy came pouring out of his mouth: “One of the hardest things to teach somebody is when you arrive at a court, be ready to compete. It is not a social event. It is a competitive event.

“You have to learn to play every single point hard to win every match. You want to beat an opponent as badly as you can within the rules. That is what I did with him and that is what I do with everyone I play.”

Installing the software

That’s what Brumfield calls it: installing software. He saw Coe as a piece of clay he could mold into a champion. But first Brumfield needed to install a certain mentality inside of Coe.

“He was a gum-chewer type of player,” Brumfield said. “He would stand in the backcourt and only when he needed to would he run. And that is not proper, regardless of if you win or lose, because it is not the best you can do.

“That is the hardest thing to teach. Not the forehand or the backhand or any technical aspect. Understanding the true dignity of the game is to come with your best every second of every rally, looking for a legal advantage to victimize the opponent.”

Coe is 70 percent of the way to that mentality, says Brumfield. Coe moves all over the court now, using his speed and agility to attack ruthlessly. He became good enough to beat Brumfield about four years ago in a 21-20 thriller. Coe says Brumfield never played him in singles again after that.

“He shaped me into a champion,” Coe said of Brumfield. “He taught me everything I know.”

Rising to the top

Coe went from recreational paddleball player to pro in about three years. He recently won a doubles tournament in Las Vegas, good for $1,000.

He is sponsored by Gearbox and Brumfield, who pays for Coe’s living expenses in hopes he can help grow the game of paddleball. Coe lives with his girlfriend in downtown San Diego and has had a few other part-time jobs, but paddleball is his main focus.

He earned the No. 1 doubles ranking in the nation by winning the national paddleball tournament last year. He is hoping to change his No. 2 ranking in singles to No. 1 in March, when the national singles championships are held in Sorrento Valley.

Brumfield watched Coe rise to the top and expected nothing less.

“I expected him to be a championship player,” he said. “He has that knack that Joe Montana had as a quarterback when the rush was coming. All that volatile movement behind him, but it was like slow motion to him. He just leaned to the right and flipped the ball to the open receiver. That is what Emmett could do. He is never rushing or off balance. He looks like a fencer combined with a ballet dancer. It’s just wonderful to watch him play.”

And it all started with a challenge and a whooping at the hands of a legend.

“It was like anything else in life,” Coe said. “I was presented a challenge and I have that competitive mentality to want to be the best at it and not get beat down. I had to overcome that obstacle.”