News from Winston/Salem Ambassador, Laura Patterson

PB at Piedmont Senior Games Kick Off

Well.......it’s time for Senior Games again and along with this time of year comes the Kick Off session, or shall I say Kick Off sessions this year. On January 19th and January 27th we had separate Senior Game Kick Offs (one in Kernersville, NC and the other in Winston-Salem, NC). We had the pleasure of showing off the sport of pickleball at both sessions. Last year we had pickleball as a demonstration sport and this year it will be one of the events (even though we will not have pickleball at the State Games as an event). We had quite a few people to try the game and many of them are now asking where they can find the “good” racquets.

PB Demonstration at Alamance County Community Center

Back in November 2011, I was contacted by one of the Directors at the Alamance County Community Center in Burlington, NC requesting that I come and do a pickleball demonstration for some seniors. We set the date for January 30, 2012, made contact with each other on January 28th to make sure our sessions was still on. Burlington is about an hour from me so I left that morning around 8 a.m. because I figured I needed to get there about an half hour early to set up the nets since they already had badminton courts lined on the floor. When I walked into the gym, they already had 3 USAPA nets set up in the gym and a box full of balls and racquets. As the seniors started coming in I realized that I knew quite a few of the ladies from the senior softball tournaments that I had played in and I knew pickleball would be a big hit with them because most of them were great athletics! About 20 people showed up for the session and we had a great time. I saw the Director this past Thursday at a rules conference for State Games and she said the game has really picked up and they have selected a standard play date on Wednesdays. The Director of the Burlington YMCA also attended the demo and she asked me to come and do a demonstration at the Y on February 23rd.

High Point Group Plays in First Pickleball Tournament

In November 2010, I introduced a small group of people to pickleball at the Cutler Senior Center in High Point, NC. They started out on a modified court in a multi-purpose room on Wednesdays. They now play on Tuesday nights, Thursday afternoons and Friday mornings. They started playing on a couple of regulation size courts on Thursday afternoons at the Moorehead Community Center in January 2012. New players attend each week and the numbers have grown tremendously. Some of the regular players found out about the tournament that took place in Jacksonville, NC and wanted to go and just watch. I talked them into playing in the tournament and some of us started setting up practice sessions that really paid off. We had three teams to enter in the tournament (Calvin and Bill (Men’s 50+); Connie and Vickie (Women’s 70+); and Tina and Laura (Women’s 50+)) and each team brought home a bronze medal! I also completed in the 50+ mixed division and I was paired up with a player from Wilmington and we brought home the silver medal. It was a great tournament and we all had a great time and the group from High Point is searching for another tournament.

Pickleball in Corporate America - UPDATE

Last month we featured a story that took Ft.Myers Ambassadors Cindy Eddleman and Nancy Myer to Flint, Michigan where they were invited to introduce pickleball to the IT Department of Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy as part of an Employee Team Building program.

Here is an update on the success of that program from the Becky Foerster, the company's Wellness Coordinator.

"Good afternoon Nancy and Cindy!


I hope all is well in your “sunny” part of the world. I wanted to give you an update…


Since your arrival to Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy in December, 2011 for the IT Team Building event Diplomat employees have found a new craze! I can hear the volleying from the atrium off and on all day! Employees bring in a change of shoes, gather some co-workers and rejuvenate during a quick game of Pickleball on their lunches and breaks.

Employee Quick Clinics are still taking place two evenings a week, with league play right around the corner. Your two day clinic was so well received. You brought your passion for life, health, fitness, and team spirit. Everyone left knowing one another a bit more than when they started. The round robin tournament was the perfect way for co-workers to interact and compete. Some employees who would have otherwise kept to themselves, got on the court, and showed their competitive edge. Others who lead, found themselves on the same playing field learning something new. Either way, individuals found ways to work together.

 Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy is embracing a culture of wellness and life balance. Pickleball brings a little balance to the workday. Thank you!"

Becky Foerster
Wellness Coordinator
Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy
Keeping Patients Healthier…Longer. ®

CLICK HERE for original story

A Plan to Introduce Pickleball to Your Community

Bill and Kim live at the Herons Glen community in Ft. Myers, Florida. Pickleball is played all around the area, and they are well on there way to getting their community on board and included in all the fun. 

They began in January of this year running "clinics" at 4:30 on Tuesday afternoons. They put a broadcast on the community television.

"In the last 5 weeks, we have had 85 people join."

Ft. Myers Ambassadors Nancy Meyer and Cindy Eddleman " have run three beginner sessions already and are in the process of scheduling an intermediate and two more beginner sessions. They are both fabulous and most helpful.

With the help of Nancy and Cindy we have graduated to running three courts of round robins on Tuesdays and then having three "clinic" type courts as well, using all six of our tennis courts. New people continue to come each week.

Our community hosts a cancer fund raiser every January and our pickleball demonstration had 408 people in attendance so we believe there is a great interest in our community.

I will present to the Recreation Board this Monday to be named a "group" within Herons Glen. It is the first step in developing our program. We currently tape off tennis courts. Our recreation committee has put dots on the tennis courts so we don't have to re-measure each time we want to use them...which is a start."

The two  pictures were send to us by Bill and Kim, and  are of the clinic and the round robin play.  It certainly sounds like they are well on there way to having a great group of players, and we'll keep our fingers crossed that they get support for the courts from their community Recreation Board.    They are "most open to any help/suggestions to help them get pickleball off the ground in our community!

Franklin Players bring Pickleball to Naples, Fl

Submitted by
Nancy Falkenstein - Ambassador
Franklin, NC

Judy and Don(Wirth) have been trying to get PB started in Naples and it looks like they are having success. Two of the new players are Racquetball Players and have picked up PB very quickly.

It is so great to see how folks from our group are bringing others to the Game; we have John Fitzgerald working in the Florida Panhandle too!

Keep up the good work!

 Don and Judy started playing pickleball in Franklin, NC , during the summer and fall, but decided to get something going in Naples, where they spend their winters. They are currently playing on basketball courts lined for pickleball by the Community Center att Fleischman Park.

Judy says: "We have been working 3 years and are finally getting enough people to have one court on Tues, and Thurs and sometimes Sat. We have 2 courts available. The community center furnishes the equipment, although some of us  have our own paddles.

 For more information contact Jill Orstad, Fleischman Community Center Director at 239-213-3020. Her email address is jorstad@naplesgov.com
It is open to anyone who wants to come and play--free!

Below is a recent group photo.  We understand that the night before this picture they were enjoying the sunset on the beach!  Pickleball players do have fun!!

Don and Judy have taken the next step -  they will be competing in the Collier County (Naples) Tournament on February 11th and 12th.  We wish them luck!!

GO FRANKLIN!   GO NAPLES!

Mid-South Regional - Mandeville, LA

 
 

Daytona Beach resident aims to get the word out about pickleball

Daytona Beach News Journal;

www.news-journalonline.com

February 7,2012 

On Jan. 19, {Cathy} Stansbury coached a team of doubles as they batted the Wiffle ball back and forth at Pelican Bay Tennis Club. "This is a very social, active and addictive game," she said.

Bay resident Lydia Banks was hooked after trying the game a week earlier. She is a regular tennis player, but liked that pickleball is less competitive.

"It's a lot of laughs and a good workout," she said.

Barb Harbison, who recently moved to Daytona Beach from Arkansas, reaches for a return shot during a pickleball game at Pelican Bay Tennis Club. (N-J | David Tucker)

READ MORE 

Ground Hog Day Pickleball Tournament

If Punxsutawney Phil had peeked from his hole here on Thursday - he definitely would have made the same predictions.  The pickleball players at the Peace River RV Preserve in Wauchula, FL welcomed the sunshine as they held their Ground Hog Day Pickleball Tournament.  Winter in Florida?  It reached 85 degrees before the day was over! Six more weeks of winter like this?  No problem!

 Tournament organizers, Nate Showalter and Karen Wolf  scheduled a fun day of pickleball for a very good cause.  Player registration fees are to be used to help to resurface the two pickleball courts at the park.  

The format for the day included both doubles and mixed doubles competition. The  ladies took to court one, and the guys to court two in a random draw round robin.  Each player played five games to 11 points/win by 2.  The competition saw some very exciting/competitive games.

There was a bit of a twist to the mixed doubles.   The guy with the highest point total in the doubles competition was paired with the lady with the lowest point total and the lady with the highest point total with the guy who had the lowest point total in the doubles competition.  We laughed a lot; we played with partners we never played with before and we had some awesome games!  At the end of the competition two teams were tied for first place so a 15 point championship match was played.  Everyone else had finished  so it was "prime time" play!  Everyone moved their chairs to the shade and cheered at almost every point.  It was a very close game to the end with some great volleys and some really great points!

Below are the tournament winners:

Men's doubles

1st place - Richard (from nearby Torrey Oaks RV Resort) , who went undefeated in five games,

2nd place - Rene ( Peace River)

3rd place Nate (Peace River

In the ladies doubles ( pictures left to right)

3rd place - Barbara (Peace River)

1st place - Donna (Peace River) who also went undefeated in five games

2nd place - Karen (Peace River)

Karen and Barbara  were neck and neck - But Karen pulled off two games and 11-0 to take second place.

In the mixed doubles (pictured left to right)

3rd place winners, Richard (Torrey Oaks) and Vickie (Peace River),

1st place, Mike (Torrey Oaks) and Barbara (Peace River)

2nd place winners, Nate and Rosemary - both from Peace River.

Thanks to Nate and Karen for a great day - for the cases and cases of water to keep us hydrated and the Pizza for lunch!  We'll be out there helping you to resurface the courts!!   Before everyone left for the day , we took to the courts  for a picture of the Ground Hog Day Players.

 

North Carolina Ambassadors Collaborate to Bring Pickleball to Senior Games

We are sharing this information with our North Carolina pickleball players.  Your local ambassadors are working hard to make sure that pickleball is recognized by  your North Carolina Senior Games officials.

Check out this information, and check out where pickleball will be played in 2012.  Spread the word to your fellow pickleball players and come out and support the games and join in the pickleball competition!

(Pictures on this page are from the 2011 NC Senior Games)

Jacksonville, NC Ambassador - Rick Laskey
Information for all Ambassadors:

When I called the state office today, and asked how I could find out which local games offer pickleball, they said they were working on such a listing and would let me know when it is available.


A random check through this list shows that badminton is offered at a majority of the local games. Once we find out which local games do not offer pickleball, if they offer badminton, I would propose that we suggest they could offer pickleball in the same venue as badminton with the same lines, and with the badminton net lowered to pickleball height.

One of the concerns I heard from someone who works with the NC State Senior Games is a concern about the availability of venues for any new event. In the past when the state office offered a new event such as bocce it was so popular they had difficulty finding places to hold it. I would again bring up the fact that the state games already includes badminton and the badminton venue(s) could be used for indoor pickleball events. 

Here is the recently updated  detailed listing of local senior games in the state to include "Other Events". This is where pickleball will be listed if offered. This listing can be found as a 53-page PDF file on page:

http://www.ncseniorgames.org/localgamesdetailed.pdf

I counted only 11 (out of 53) local games that included pickleball under Other Events:

1. Cabarrus County

2. Charlotte-Mecklenburg

3. Gaston County

4. Greater High Point

5. Greenville-Pitt County

6. Haywood County

7. Macon County

8. Onslow County

9. Outer Banks

10. Lee County

11. New Hanover/Brunswick Counties

I believe there are 36 or 37 (out of 53) local games that included badminton singles or badminton doubles or both.

Let us each take either our own county (if pickleball is not offered) or the nearby ones and contact the Local Coordinator of those local senior games to see if we can introduce pickleball.

Laura Patterson, Ambassador Winston/Salem, NC
Information for all ambassadors: 

This year I volunteered to become an Ambassador for the North Carolina Senior Games (NCSG), which is at the State level and found out how to get pickleball into the State games.  They added corn hole toss to the senior games this year but not pickleball even though it was on the list for the coordinators to vote on. 


Although pickleball is not a "sanctioned" (sanctioned by NCSG not USAPA) event at our local games this year, there is a possibility for us to get it added at the state level next year.  There is a process that they go through to add a new sport to the games.  They will take a look at the number of counties that offer pickleball at the local level and also look at the number of people playing and then decided whether to add it to the State games. 

That's why it is important for us to have pickleball included at the local level in as many places as we can so that we can get pickleball in the senior games at the State level. .  Hope this helps everyone understand the process for getting pickleball at the State level. If you have any questions, please let me know.


What do we know right now?

 Mike and Nancy Falkenstein - Macon County Games   We are having a planning meeting Monday for our Macon County Sr. Games...  We will have PB 1st 3 days of "fun events" like we did last year , before the actual competition begins....We are playing at the National Guard Armory in Franklin, NC , April 23 - M & W Singles 1 pm; April 24 - M & W Doubles 9 am - April 25 - Mixed Doubles at 9 am.   

Mike Walsh
I met with the co-ordinator of the Raleigh-Wake (Senior) games this week and he agreed to Pickleball as a demo event for 2012

Laura Patterson, Winston/Salem
We will have pickleball in our local games this year but it will be a closed event (they want to take baby steps) and only people that live in the 5 counties that we support will be able to participate in pickleball.

Rick Laskey
We have had pickleball here in the Onslow County Senior Games for many years. I will check to see if any of the surrounding counties such as Duplin, Pender, Carteret, and Jones have it, and if not, I will do my best to promote it with the help of some of the pickleball players I know that live in those counties.   Pickleball in the Onslow Senior Games will be held Tuesday, April 10 at 9am in the Jacksonville Commons Recreation Center Gym.  There will be men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles in 5-year age groups starting at age 55. This has been listed under "upcoming tournaments". 



Earl Cunningham
The Gaston/Lincoln County Games will be played on April 5th in Gastonia, NC.  It is already listed on the website under "upcoming tournaments"  where you will find a link to the schedule and registration information.