Becca English
Becca English first saw footbag performed in the late 1970s at a school assembly by Jim “Toes” Fitzgerald, Reed Gray, and Jack Schoolcraft, all O.G. Hall of Fame members. They later became great friends and part of her footbag family.
She started kicking in the summer of 1987 when she was home in Eugene, Oregon, from college. She met Brent Welch, Jody Badger, before they married, and other footbag players in Berkeley, California, and went to her first tournament at Sonoma State University, directed by Chris Ott. There she met many lifelong friends and present Hall of Fame members.
She helped start the UC Berkeley Footbag Club with Brent Welch in 1988, and in 1989 she helped as staff and competed in her first tournament in Berkeley.
From 1990 to 2002, and again from 2007 to the present, she served as Co-Director of the Free F.L.O.E. (Footbag Lovers of Eugene) Footbag Club. In that role, she organized hundreds of clinics, events, demonstrations, instruction sessions, and equipment support efforts. She helped establish the University of Oregon Footbag Club and coached and supported it with equipment, staff, two practices a week, and annual tournaments. Between 1991 and 2002, she organized and co-directed two to four footbag events each year, including the US Open, the State Games of Oregon, Eugene Celebration, University of Oregon footbag tournaments, Art in the Vineyard, the Willamette Music Festival, and Guinness World Record attempts. She solicited sponsors, acquired sites and permits, coordinated with event staff and Free F.L.O.E. club members, prepared press releases and public service announcements, created programs and posters, and worked with the media.
She performed more than 200 footbag demonstrations and taught workshops to thousands of youth and adults at school assemblies and festivals all over Oregon, at events in several states, and in Canada and the Philippines, including four trips there.
From 2009 to 2014, through We Are Bethel, she worked with Shasta Middle School, Malabon Elementary, Moffit Elementary, Westmoreland Elementary, and many other schools, as well as Special Olympics, the Oregon State Fair, the University of Oregon sports camp, several treatment programs, the Oregon Country Fair, and the World Frisbee Championships. She also helped with promotions for the US Open, the State Games of Oregon, and the World Footbag Championships.
In 2011, she developed and taught a six-week footbag class for youth in the juvenile system and taught teachers to play; Footbag 4 Square became part of the school until 2018.
From 2011 to 2014, she taught a four-week summer program for Rites of Passage students in grades 7 through 12 through Lane Community College. She taught footbag, sipa, takraw, and their connections to Asian and Pacific Islander cultures.
She competed in the World Footbag Championships in 1990 through 1997, 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2017. Her results included the 1996 Overall Championship, 1997 Footbag Golf, 1997 Women’s Team Freestyle, 2001 Footbag Golf, 2002 Footbag Golf, and 2017 Footbag Golf. At the 2010 World Championships, she took second place in Masters Net, third in Mixed Doubles, and third in Doubles. She also earned several third-place finishes in Doubles Net and Women’s Freestyle Singles and Doubles, and a second-place finish in Footbag Dash, which was held once at Worlds.
She also won US Open titles in Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles, along with many second- and third-place finishes.
She has been part of the Beaver Open from 1990 to the present, except for 1999, and has served on staff for the Beaver Open since 2004. Her Beaver Open achievements include winning Pro-Am as an amateur with Scott Milne and winning Ladies Champagne Golf many times.
At the 2017 World Championships, she served on the Super Beaver staff, helped create the program, worked product tent sales and information, assisted with the World Record Attempt, and served as a net and line judge.
