The Heartland Senior Games are sponsored by the Florida Sports Foundation and coordinated by the Community Education department of the South Florida Community College in Avon Park, Florida.
"The purpose of the Heartland Senior Games is to promote physical fitness, good health, and a competitive spirit among those seniors who live active lifestyles and to inspire those who may not"
The pickleball competition was managed and coordinated by Mark Telfer and the Tanglewood Pickleball Club and the games played on the beautiful pickleball courts at the Tanglewood Community in Sebring Florida. The tournament was played as a Single Elimination with Consolation with a slight modification which guaranteed that each team would play a minimum of two matches or four games. Gold, Silver and Bronze medals were awared to tournament winners in the Men's, Ladies and Mixed doubles competition which took place on Friday and Saturday, March 5th and 6th.
Approximately 80 participants arrived early Friday and Saturday mornings despite the nearly freezing morning temperatures. But the Registration Table was set up inside along with hot coffee, donuts and danish for all participants.
Click on the pictures below to enlarge - use the back arrow to return to this page:
Above are the Heartland Senior Games Gold Medal Winners in the Men's and Ladies's Double Competition on Friday, March 3rd.
Silver and Bronze Medal Winners in the Men's and Ladies Doubles Competition.
The Heartland Senior Games
Gold Medal Winners in the Mixed Doubles competition on Saturday Marh 5th.
And............the
Silver and Bronze Medal Mixed Doubles Winners !
The Tanglewood Senior games is one of the favorite events for area tournament players. They have a reputation of putting on top notch events and this year was no exception. Participants arrived from surrounding counties, coummunities and RV Parks. Several USAPA Ambassadors were in attendance including Waterford, Michigan Ambassador, Gary Bejin and Spenserport, NY Ambassador, Patrick Hotchkiss (pictured above). Others included Johnnie and Barbara McKinney (Brownstown, Michigan) and Florida Ambassadors Rich and Donna Donald, Nancy Meyer and Cindy Eddleman.
If you were not in the competition or watching the competition you could buy your raffle tickets and cross your fingers that you'd win a new paddle or a box of Mt. Olive pickles, sit in the screened porch and enjoy the lunch prepared by Tanglewood residents or shop at the tables set up by Florida Pickleball Dealers,
Pickleball Specialties and
The Pickleball Bug.
Congratulations to all the Winners.
A complete list of medal winners is posted on the
RESULTS page on the USAPA Website. Here is a link to a similar article on the Tanglewood Website - which recognizes individual contributions, sponsors and medal winners.
The Spruce Creek Games were exciting and very competitive, as usual. One of the mixed doubles matches contained two of our top rated duos, Rich and Karen Skaare and Chris and Christa Curtiss, battling it out in the cold and extreme windy conditions. In the first match, the Curtiss duo won in three sets (11-
9, 9-11, and 11-8). The Skaare duo found themselves in the unusual position of being in the loser's bracket. They managed to eke out a win (15-10) against a very good team of Gil and Eric Hough. As a result, it was back to the winner's bracket and another round with the Curtisses. This time the Skaares won in three games,(11-6, 8-11, and 13-11).
Now they would have a play a 15 point tie breaker, but since both duos had both been playing for five hours, they agreed to a tie and shared the gold medal, to the applause of everyone watching. It was pickleball at its best.
