Jim and Marjorie Peixoto

Watsonville YMCA/Emmett Courts
Inducted as Contributors in 2025
 
For the past 30 years, Jim and Marjorie have been major contributors to Northern California handball. Among all their other accomplishments, they ran the Watsonville 3-Wall Doubles Tournament for 15 years from 1998 to 2013.  However, first they had to convince the City of Watsonville to allow them to build the courts and then afterwards they donated them to the City.  The courts are located at Emmett Courts Park and were known for attracting pros such as David Chapman, John Bike, Tati Silveira, Vince Munoz, Nati Alvarado, Sean Lenning and Emmett & Courtney Peixoto  along with others to compete in the tournament. 
 
Supporting junior’s handball was a major focus of Jim and Marjorie.  Jim was the Junior Commissioner for Northern California from 1996 to 2002.  They ran numerous junior clinics at the 3-wall courts in Watsonville and organized Junior Play Days in Northern California. They also helped organize and run the Junior Nationals in Burlingame.  Not only did they help organize and run junior handball clinics, play days, and tournaments, they also raised funds to send juniors to competitions and opened up their home to house juniors so they could afford to compete.

Moving on to older youth, Marjorie started the Cabrillo College Handball Team in 2002 and took the team to the Collegiate Nationals. Jim and Marjorie also helped run the Collegiate Nationals in Burlingame with Majorie preparing the food. 
 
In 2003, they formed the Professional Handball Association (PHA) and hosted the Ultimate Handball Showdown in February 2004.  This event was broadcast on ESPN 3 and boasted prize money of $50,000 for first prize.  The PHA was eventually taken over by Dave Vincent and is now known as the World Players of Handball (WPA).  
Jim & Marjorie Peixoto, welcome to the NorCal/NCHA Hall-of-Fame!

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Submitted by Courtney Peixoto & Tom Fitzwater

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