SPORTS
It is incredibly intense. It is a fight on the table, it is a fight.” BRAD CHAMBERLAIN
Foos Fighters Meadows man is at the apex of Arizona foosball BY BRIAN PETERSHEIM JR.
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game had led him to make new friends at his age: “Without foosball, I wouldn’t have the same friends and leisure like I do now,” he said. “It’s just a thing that brings a lot of stability.” Ahwatukee resident Townsend Saunders, 57, is an Olympic silver medalist in freestyle wrestling and an avid foosballer. He said he often finds himself at the tournaments for the rush of the competition. “I’ve competed at high levels in other sports,” Saunders said. “I just think about trying to do the best that I possibly can controlling what I can control, knowing that my opponent on the other side is also trying to win. “It’s a lot like a poker game or a chess match. It’s my form of golf, and it’s a lot cheaper,” Saunders said with a chuckle, adding that he is addicted to the clink of hitting the ball in its “sweet spot.” A long-time love Table soccer has been a part of Chamberlain’s life since he was a child. He recalled first playing the tabletop sport at the taverns his family owned in Wisconsin. “I’ve been playing one way or another for a long time, got a little serious after college, and obviously moved away and did not play for a number of years,” he said. “Then, when I moved to Yuma, I really started to miss the game again.” Chamberlain brought his love of the game to students at Southwest Junior High in San Luis in the form of a school club, where he would occasionally bet $100 that kids couldn’t beat him. “I lost my money every year,” Chamberlain said. “It was all Hispanic kids, they were all soccer players, so they loved foosball and I actually started teaching them the game and they made me work.” Not only were the kids learning to play from him, but Chamberlain was also improving his skills by teaching them. His love for foosball
other competitors take the game more seriously than the normie barflies. “I want to keep them from possessing the ball, I want to defend my goal, I want to execute my passes, I got to read the defense,” he said. “There’s a lot that goes on when you’re playing foosball, but the biggest thing is you got to be intense.” Chamberlain, despite being the only Maricopan who regularly attends such tournaments, is known by name to all. Players flock from all over the Valley to challenge him on one of his own tables. San Tan Valley resident Jason Thibodeaux, 39, moved to the Valley in 2023 from Louisiana and attends the Friday night tournaments twice a month. He said he spends $90 just to get an Uber ride to the competition. “Everybody plays pool. It’s hard to find people that play foosball,” Thibodeaux said. “So, when you find them, it’s more of an acceptance; it’s more of a community.” Mesa resident Miles Johnson, 71, said the
RAD CHAMBERLAIN IS AN information technology teacher by day and a competitive foosball player by night.
After a long week teaching Maricopa High School students about computer bits, networking and servers, the Maricopa Meadows resident takes a trip to Tempe to host table soccer tournaments upstairs at the SaltFire Brewery Co. Taphouse. The scent of beer mixes with the competitors’ grunts and groans as foosmen — yes, those little rod-affixed quazi-athletes have a name — pitter and patter, tapping the ball across the floor of a wooden box. Suddenly comes the hard, unmissable thunk of the ball hitting the back of the goal. The four foosball tables upstairs, owned by Chamberlain and another man, are occupied by challengers of different skill levels. Regular bargoers pay to use the tables on any other night. But on Fridays, Chamberlain uses the tables himself to host tournaments. He and
Miles Johnson, 71, loves the social aspect of foosball.
InMaricopa.com | April 2025
April 2025 | InMaricopa.com
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