Author: David Cook

Welcome to the New Club Leadership

Larry Martinson was elected President of the Pickleball Club at the General Membership meeting held April 7, 2019 at 4:30pm in the Foothill Center.  The entire slate of officers and committee chairs are listed here.

Larry’s remarks to the Club:

As the new President of the Pickleball club for 2019-20, I thank you for being a member of such a fun club. We truly are more social than any other athletic club in the Villages as far as I am concerned and we want to keep it that way. To play pickleball is to have FUN. 
Thank you also for voting in my new board and appointed positions. With out all of you, our club would not be possible. Let’s have a fantastic year with hopes of having our own courts built by this time next year. See my goals for the club attached.
 
Larry Martinson
 

Pickleball Club Goals

2019-2020

  1. Maintain an active vibrant Club and grow the membership by 35 members. Ginny Spencer membership.  
  2. Achieve a successful community vote on the project to build new courts in 2020. Garry Grey
  3. Continue to raise funds via EVF to build the courts. Garry
  4. Have 2nd annual Pickle UP July 16-Aug. 1, 2019. Joe Spada
  5. Continue to support our Pickleball Web Site. David Cook
  6. Continue to have club fundraising projects. Anahid Gregg
  7. Have Pickleball Club articles in every edition of the Villager. Linda Eige
  8. Hold three fun and successful tournaments. Sheryl Ruth
  9. Have our 2nd annual Holiday Club members party in the Clubhouse. Robyn/Sheryl new Social Co-Chairs
  10. Maintain our borrowed 5 & 6 tennis courts. Frank Houghton

2019 Spring Team Tournament Results

First Place – Yellow Team

Sherry Benz             Fred Mathias            Greg Stewart

Mike Falarski            Richard McKee        Mike Walias*

Judi Falarski              Kelly Murphy

Dave Hathaway        Bob Shuck

Second Place – Blue Team

David Cook              Bob Iacopi                  Alex Shtarker*

Linda Eige                Bob Mandell             Wayne Weiler

Anahid Gregg          Ray Mausling

Anna Hewitt            Lon Olson

Third Place – Green Team

Tom Dyko                Joyce Kludt                 David Roberts

Bonnie Evans          Jim Koski                    Bruce Wallace

Frank Houghton    Norman Krishna*

Gail Keck                   Larry Martinson

Fourth Place – Red Team

Kay Gray                  Donald Kludt                 Kevin Prest

Garry Gray               Dan Murphy                 Robyn Siebenthall

Mark Gregg*           Trish O’Neill

Bill Johnston            John Pabst

* = Captain

 

“Undefeateds” – did not lose a match

Mark Gregg

Fred Mathis

Bob Shuck

Greg Stewart

Finding Pickleball Play Times

There is an additional resource on the website now for finding days and times to play – Joe Spada’s List.  Look under the “Play Times” menu  Play Times/Organized Play Dates/Times/Sponsors

Note that several groups are “Invitation Only” which means don’t show up and expect to get to play – Check with the group organizer in advance to find out if there are open slots – many of these are just small groups of friends and don’t intend to expand.

April will be Busy! Annual Meeting & Tournament

The Pickleball Club will be having a very busy weekend April 6th and 7th. Saturday, April 6th will be a team pickleball tournament. Each team will play men’s, women’s and mixed doubles. Thanks to the tennis club we will be using all tennis courts.

On Sunday, April 7th the club will have it’s annual meeting at the Foothill Center. We will begin with a potluck of heavy appetizers and desserts followed by the election of our new officers and short overview of this past year and the year to come. This event will begin at 4:30pm.

We hope to see all members at both events. More information will follow as we get closer to “Pickleball Weekend”. Don’t know much about pickleball? Interested? Come watch our FUN tournament and meet our friendly members. Check out our website villagespickleball.org   See you on the courts!

Pickleball Ambassadors Visit the Villages, Friday, Feb. 15th!

Michael and Princess Leong, USAPA Pickleball Ambassadors for San Jose and the East Bay, will be visiting the Villages Pickleball Courts at 1pm, on Friday, February 15th.  Everyone is welcome to come and meet them, get the latest local and national news on Pickleball, and perhaps play some games.

Ambassadors are volunteers who have pledged to promote the sport of pickleball and the USAPA in the local area they have applied to represent. They may be individuals or couples, or a group of ambassadors working together as a team. The main prerequisite is a love of the sport and the desire to share our game with others of all ages. Some full-time RV’ers are Ambassadors ‘at large’ who promote our sport during their travels.

For more information about USAPA and the ambassador program:  https://www.usapa.org/usapa-ambassadors/

Hank Haney, Tiger Woods’ coach – Big on Pickleball

“In three to four years, pickleball will be bigger than golf and it won’t even be close,” Haney said. (We didn’t fact check that claim, but the 100-plus pickleball courts at The Villages, America’s largest retirement community, are a sure indicator that the game is enjoying a Golden Age.) “If you have a retirement community in the U.S. and you don’t have a pickleball court, you might as well be out of business.”

Here’s why Hank Haney was at the PGA Show preaching the gospel of… pickleball?

New Pickleball Court Reservation Sign-up Rules – Effective 1Feb 2019

Effective February 1, 2019 Pickleball will be able to sign up at the shack 7 days plus 90 minutes. The TC Board met January 22nd and voted unanimously for the change you see below.

When signing up to play Pickleball on courts 5 and 6, you may sign up 7 days plus 90 minutes in advance. Effectively, if you play at regular times, you can sign up at the end of your session for the following week. 

Example:  If you plan to play pickleball on Friday, February 8th, at 10:30 am the soonest you could sign up is February 1st at 12 pm.   To play on February 15th at 10:30 you would sign up on February 8th at 12 pm. (90 minutes after your scheduled play time).

  It’s always 7 days plus 90 minutes after your scheduled play time. 

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