Category: News

Do you want to play Pickleball?

  • Do you want to play Pickleball? Here’s how to request an account and gain access to reserve courts!
  • New to Pickleball? Check out our free demonstrations (equipment provided!) to learn how to play safely and gain basic skills!
  • Court Reservation Rules  – All the information you need to know about paddle & ball requirements, reserving courts, adding guests, play times, and play limits.

Updates to Parking and Designated Participant Information

Hello Pickleballers!

You may have noticed that No Parking signs have been removed from the street along the Pickleball courts. While parking, please use caution when entering and exiting your vehicles.

While we have moved to the Orange Tier, we still must fill in Designated Participant forms, and no one can enter the court until checked in by the DP. Every 90 minute session must fill in a DP form. It would be helpful to have people sign up for the role when they reserve courts. The responsibilities are listed in this document. A sample form is provided for your review. Please make sure to follow these steps as a DP. Questions? Respond to this email.

Notably:
The first DP of the day picks up the clipboard from the Tennis Shack. They check in the players, ensure they are wearing masks entering & exiting the courts, use hand sanitizer and stay six feet apart.
At the end of each session, the DP fills in the form attached to their registration page, hangs the clipboard on the fence outside Court 1, and places the form in the box outside Building B.
If you are the last session of the day, take the clipboard back to the Tennis Shack (the building across from the tennis courts with the air hose on it) and leave it on the counter. Please do not put the clipboard in the box outside Building B – only the sheets go in there.

Thank you for your assistance in making sure we can continue to play Pickleball!

Bill Pomeranz, Pickleball Club President

Another Email from the Pickleball Club!

Well this is confusing. The rules are changing everyday. Hold your hats.
The current advice relative to face coverings while on the court are as follows:

“Face coverings during play are strongly encouraged”

Each foursome on the court is going to have to figure out how they want to handle this.

Remember, you still need to wear a mask and use hand sanitizer entering and exiting the courts, and you must maintain 6 ft spacing at all times.

This will probably change again so please continue to watch your email.

Thank you,
Bill Pomeranz, President

New Courts are open and they’re beautiful!

The new Pickleball Courts opened today. A remarkable and beautiful addition to the Villages! Thanks to all the groups, donors, Villagers, Villages Club Board, and Staff that worked so hard to make this a reality!

 

Today the Pickleball Courts open for same household singles play. We all hope we can expand play early next year.

PLEASE – be very careful when leaving the new Pickleball golf cart parking lot and use extreme caution when crossing the streets to and from the new courts.

Residents will not be used to the increased traffic in that area and we want all to be safe. Public Safety will increase its presence in the area to bolster safety efforts as well.
 
Happy Pickleball day for singles play from the same household!
Bill Pomeranz, President

Please send David Cook (dc@argus.mx) your best pictures for inclusion here on the website.

Player Limits back in force!

The latest State/County Health Orders put us back into limiting the players for Pickleball, Tennis, and Bocce.

Under these orders only members of two households can play at any time, and must stay on one side of the net. This puts us back into playing singles, doubles limited to two households, or Australian rules. Please see the statement from Club Board President, Mike Falarski below.

Many thanks to Mary Tatum who has spent two weeks attempting to get a variance from State and County officials . Regretfully we were just notified by the County our request for a variance was denied based on the County’s legal team’s recommendations. Effective Monday, The Villages is requiring us to regress to these rules. All reservations for Monday or later with more than two households will be cancelled.

As you can see the contractor is making terrific progress on our new courts. Depending on the availability of city inspections, we may get use of the courts around Thanksgiving time. I can’t wait.

Stay safe,
Bill Pomeranz, President

Message from Club Board President Mike Falarski:  

The Villages was made aware of a discrepancy in the number of households that can play together for tennis, pickleball and bocce.  Previously up to four different households were playing on a court at one time.  It was discovered that the State indicated only singles could play on a court while the County said two households could play on a court.   The Community Activities office has spent the past two weeks requesting clarification from the State and County public health officials as they pertain to tennis, pickleball and bocce.  A variance was requested last week to allow up to four households to play together providing all other public health order requirements were met.  Unfortunately, on Tuesday November 10, The Villages received word that the variance was denied.

Effective Monday, November 16, tennis, pickleball and bocce may only have two households playing per court.
Example – Tom and Mary Smith can play Joe and Sally Jones, or Mary Smith can play Sally Jones, or Tom and Mary Smith can play Joe Jones.

It is a regression back to when the courts were first able to open.  The Villages is aware other businesses offering these amenities may be operating outside of public health order compliance.  The Villages is obligated to follow the State and County health public health orders and follow the more restrictive of the two.  If these orders are willfully not followed by The Villages, there are legal and liability coverage consequences.

The public health orders can and do change.  We diligently keep abreast of current information.  Meanwhile, we encourage you to still get outside and find a friend or neighbor to play bocce, tennis or pickleball with.

New PIckleball Court Scheduler

The Villages Pickleball Club will be using an online reservation system from YourCourts.com that is going live on Thursday, August 13th. Your account has been created, using your email address as your login and “Villager” as your password. You will be required to change your password the first time you log into the system. 

NOTE: All signups done in the current system this week will be transferred to YourCourts.com.  Do not sign up using YourCourts prior to Thursday! 

All signup restrictions previously announced are in place effective for any reservations made for Monday, August 17th and later.

  • Players can only play once per day.
  • Players can only play 5 times per week.
  • Players can only have 3 active reservations (regardless of whether you make the reservation or someone lists you as a player).

Example: If you are playing Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, you will not be able to play (or be listed on a reservation) until after you play on Monday. After playing, you will only have two active sessions left. This helps to ensure all members have access to play time. 

  • Reservations must contain at least two and no more than four players. Do not enter anyone as a partner without confirming with them!

We are very excited about this system as there are many benefits to our community. This is the same system used successfully by the Villages Bocce Club. We have attached a user’s guide that will help you to learn how to use the system. However, it’s very straightforward and easy to use. This should help to alleviate reservation issues our members have had.

Contact vgcc_pb_yourcourts@googlegroups.com,  with any immediate questions.

Please be understanding during the initial implementation while we work out any growing pains!

If you already have a YourCourts account set up for Bocce or a different club with the same email, you have two options:

  1. If you use the same password, you will be prompted with a list of clubs that that your account has access. You can choose which club you want to access for that session.
  2. If you prefer to use two different passwords, your access is controlled by the password you enter.

Thank you,
The Villages Pickleball Board