Port Townsend Pickleball Players play on four ourside basketball courts and inside on two badminton courts. The Port Townsend High School has four lined courts on the single outdoor tennis court. There is also one blue lined court on the outdoor Court House tennis court.
Traveling pickleball player Bob Hamilton from Rancho Mirage, California discusses his pickleball play experiences with the Port Townsend Pickleball Group.
At the US Open in Naples, 11-year-old Key West Pickleball wiz kid William Sobek pulled off a Bronze medal -- in the 19 and over bracket!
A Key West father-son duo recently competed in the first U.S. Open Pickleball Championship.
Rosti Sobek and his son, William Sobek, took part in the inaugural event at Naples, Florida against some strong competition, according to the father who owns the Sobek Pickleball Academy.
William, 11, competed in the men’s 19-and-over age category because the tournament did not have a youth division. Despite the much older competition, young Sobek earned the bronze medal with a 1-3 record. (Read More)
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Redding Mayor Missy McArthur was on hand to observe as Al Shipman, a Redding contractor and builder and a fan of the sport, with Mike Archibald, a lead organizer for the Redding Pickleball 4 All, cut the ceremonial ribbon to the newly refurbished Sport Court at Enterprise Park.
But anyone who's visited the east side park on mornings knows those six outdoor courts have been getting good use for a while — or that parking lot wouldn't be packed.
Sport Court — formerly the Roller Hockey Rink — became home to pickleball about four years ago. The group spraypainted lines on the cement. But the surface, built in 1994, was in poor condition.
The city, with the pickleball group's help, applied for a grant through the Shasta Regional Community Foundation for the McConnell Fund specifically, said Kim Niemer, the city's community services director.
The $26,000 grant covered resurfacing of all six courts.
Taconic Sports and Racquet club has dedicated multiple indoor courts to the sport and membership is growing! “Once we announced we were putting in Pickleball courts, people started signing up”, said club owner Simon Gale.
“It’s a fun game that is for everyone of any age,” added local pickleball enthusiast Jim Hammond. “It looks like it might be an old person’s game, but high schools are starting to introduce it and make it part of gym classes”.
Jim Ludwig, US Open Event Director and USAPA Ambassador, joined Spirit Promotions founders Chris Evon and Terri Graham, the organizers of the US Open Pickleball Championship, to give a pre-site tour of East Naples Community Park. (see map below)
Transcript:
Jim Ludwig: This is the US Open Pickleball Championship wall that will be the focal point for thousands of visitors coming here for our event to have their opportunity to take photos.
Jack Olmsted, Videoblogging 206: How did you guys meet?
Chris Evon: By accident! Terri (Graham) and I had come down to this area looking at different venues and we were presenting our presentation, our vision, to Collier County and somebody hooked us up with Jim and the three of us got together and realized that our vision for one large pickleball event was very similar and we have not looked back since.
Jim: I became a pickleball player about five years ago. I enjoyed the sport so much that I stopped playing tennis and golf and became an ambassador about three and a half years ago with the USAPA. And eventually became a district ambassador to promote the sport because I found a great love for the sport and also was able to get other people involved that had never been exercising before or out playing a sport or a racket sport in particular.
Chris: We met in January 2015. We came down here to give the presentation and like I said, hooked up with Jim, we talked about our vision together. He was involved in the meetings with the CVB, the Collier County Convention and Visitors Bureau and since then we've just been partners in this whole thing.
Spirit Promotions was designed as a business to kind of house the US Open. So, when we came up with the idea to have a US Open, we started Spirit Promotions which is our company to just promote this event and probably other events throughout the years.
Terri and I both come from a long history of sporting goods events and the sporting goods industry. We were both with Wilson Sports Goods. Terri was there for 21 years. I was there for 17 years. We were in the indoor racket sports division which really ended up being all the racket sports except for tennis.
So, we were involved with racquetball, mainly, that was our main sport but we also did squash, paddle, badminton and pickleball.
Jim: The DecoTurf surface is state-of-the -art. It is the same surface that they use at the US Open Tennis Championships in Flushing Meadows, New York. We are putting it on all of our new courts we are doing. The only courts that will not have it will be the ninth courts existing.
It is a cushioned surface about five millimeters thick. You don't notice a difference with the play. But, you do notice a difference after you are playing - your muscles and bones don't ache.
We are headed over towards the first expo tent. You see that white car pulling out now. In this parking lot, there will be one complete tent. It will be 150 feet long - you can see Terry there - by 60 feet wide. It will fill this complete parking lot. This is where the check in center will be.
We will also have a beer garden, an entertainment lounge, VIP lounge, food will be served in here and also we will have a few other vendors.
Now, we will walk over to tent number two which is the vendors tent. In this area, we will have another tent that is a 150 feet long by 60 feet wide. Where you see that stone there it will be all vendors in there.
Jack: Do you know how many vendors will be in the tent?
Jim: 20 vendors
Jack: Hi Terri. How is your day going?
Terri Graham: Busy. It is going awesome.
Jack: What is on your to-do-list today?
Terri: You don't have enough time.
Jim: The battery is running out.
Terri: Well, we have found some food for Saturday. I met with a vendor. We have just been real busy.
Chris: Seating will happen today.
Terri: Seating yeah. It's crazy busy.
Jack: Terri, How long have you been working on this tournament?
Terri: A little over a year. But the last 6 months its been 24/7.
The CVB, Collier County Visitors Bureau, is a huge supporter of ours. Hence, you look around here and see what's going on with this park. They have been a big supporter. Commissioner Fiala has been very supportive as well.
Really the whole community has been behind this project since day one.
I would say besides the volunteers these two people here are the backbone of this event. You know Jim is a full-time Naples resident and pretty much, as I have always referred to him as, the “Mayor Of Pickleball” in Naples and has done an amazing job in this area building the pickleball community.
And obviously Chris is my right hand person putting this whole thing together. This is more than a three-person event, as we found out.
Jim: I've been working with the children here in Collier County for about a year and a half now through "Pickleball For All." One of our first partners in the pickleball world was Avalon school which is attached to the property that we are standing in. They are going to bring out eighty five of their children, 85 -100 of their children, that we taught pickleball to last year and this year and have them out for "Kids Day".
We're going to have them out on the championship court to see some pro exhibition. When we're done with the pro exhibition, we're going to take them over and have them all on the courts and get them with the pros playing with the pros. From there, we will take them over, feed them lunch, give them a little sugar popcorn to bring back to school to get them wired for the afternoon and we're all looking forward to this and they are very, very excited about it.
Jack: A couple of years ago you had a dream about this. Is this what you expected?
Terri: I will let you know in 3 weeks.
Jack: OK. That's a deal. We will connect with you after the big tournament.
Terri: Alright, that sounds great.
Jack: Thanks so much. I really appreciate your time today Terry, Chris and Jim. Have a great tournament.
Port Angeles Pickleball Mix Doubles Tournament
Port Angeles Pickleball Mix Doubles Tournament Spring FlingMore Information:http://pttennis.blogspot.com/2016/03/port-angeles-pickleball-doubles.html
Posted by Jack Olmsted on Saturday, April 9, 2016
Ben Sanders, Sequim Picklers board member, talks about membership, activities and gives a PickleBall playing tip.
Transcript Excerpt
Hi my name is Ben Sanders. I’m director of court operations for the Sequim Picklers in Sequim, Washington. We are presently at the Boys and Girls Club which we rent on weekends for indoor play. When it it raining, which it is doing now. So we have an indoor venue.
We have a hundred and thirty-four members at present. We would love to have anyone in the Sequim area, even on the peninsula, join us. We have several people from Port Townsend and numerous people from Port Angeles that come to play with us and are members of our club. And we’d love to have you.
We play Pickleball. You see the venue behind me. We end up with between 25 and 35 people on Saturdays and Sundays each day. And then we play seven days a week. That is Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9 o’clock in the morning till noon. Tuesdays and Thursdays from three o’clock until five. And on Tuesdays and Thursdays, at three o’clock, we also has free instruction for anyone, member or non-member, to come and learn how to play the game of Pickleball.
Jack Olmsted, Videoblogging 206: How do you become a member?
Ben: You can come to any of our events seven days a week, Monday though Friday, plus Saturdays and Sundays indoor at the Boys/Girls Club and at any of those events we will have cards ready for you to sign for membership.
Membership is not very expensive, it is a little over buck a month. So, you’re at fifteen dollars a year for membership. We will then explain what we are doing. We are in the process, right now, of building our own courts that will be at Carrie Blake Park near the dog park. We are looking to build 12 courts ourselves. The city has chipped in.
We have raised well over $116,000 ourselves. So that we can end up with a state-of-the- art facility for members to play at and we will also open it up to the public."
