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Sunday, April 29, 2012

Timberhill Spring Fling Tournament

Lee Moore and Ed Obermeyer
4.5 Bronze Medal Winners
Ed Obermeyer
4.5 Bronze Medal Mixed Doubles




Brian Platz and Bob Vanderlinden
3.5 Silver Medal Winner


Thursday, April 26, 2012

First Clinic

2005 First Clinic
Click on Photo to Enlarge
Spike Chistensen and Wayne Mugglie - came to Palm Creek and taught club members how to "Dink".
Wayne Kennedy at the time was club Vice President and one of the coordinators in organizing this clinic.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Tom Earley

  Attached, please find article and photo from the Cherokee County Senior Olympics Pickleball tournament. Congratulations to Tom for winning in "Advanced Play"


Thursday, April 19, 2012

New Court Update

We met with Wendell today to look at the finished plans for the courts. The plans look great! They are building all 24 courts. 4 of the courts will sunken 3 feet below ground level. The sunken courts will give outstanding viewing and be used for medal matches. This is a first in the pickleball world. As we requested, all courts will be individually fenced with 4 ' fencing. The courts will all have 7' from sideline to fence and 10' from baseline to fence. This is a big improvement from our current courts. The west side of our courts are close to the softball field. This fence will be a 10' chain link fence. If foul balls from softball become an issue Palm Creek will look at installing a net to prevent balls from leaving the softball field. There are plenty of water outlets for drinking faucets, misting systems and court cleaning. There are also plenty of electrical outlets for running tournaments, ball machines and other power equipment. Internet access is available at the courts. We will be able to do real time tournament result updates at the court. I also want to install web cameras at the courts. I'd love to be able to go to the web cam page and be able to see who is playing at the courts. It would also be nice to be able to see if weather is impacting play. Is it too windy or too wet. We are also getting 3 areas to for storage. We can use these for bag holders or storage sheds. There is a separate pavilion area just for pickleball. We get our very own spot with tables, chairs and shade. There are bathrooms and a snack shack at the north end of the courts. Plans are being made for shade along the main corridors where we sit between matches.

We discussed court colors and court speed. Many of you that have played on the new courts at Robson have commented how much you like the court surface there. You like the way it plays and you like the way it looks. We asked that our court surface be identical to the Robson courts. Their courts have blue playing field with green kitchens and out-of-bounds. Their court speed is medium. The speed refers to how fast a ball comes off the surface and is controlled by the amount of silica sand that is mixed in with the acrylic surface coating. The same contractor that did Robson is doing our courts. He will be able to duplicate the surface very easily.
There is so much to like about our new courts but there were a couple of things that didn't get in the plan. Only 8 of the courts will have lighting to start. The budget on this project started at $250,000 and is currently at $500,000. There was no more room in the budget for more lighting. The infrastructure for lighting the other 16 courts will be installed when the cement is poured. Wire chases and poles will be in place when we are able to afford to light more courts. We discussed the possibility of doing some club fund raisers to help with the lighting costs. Wendell is very open to that. Some of our gates also became a victim of the budget. The number of entrance gates was reduced so there is some walking thru courts to access back courts. We made suggestions on how to increase the number of gates. I believe we will get more gates than are currently in the plan.
I am very excited about this plan. We will have a one of a kind facility in the pickleball world. Palm Creek is to be commended for the effort and money they are putting into pickleball. They believe that pickleball is a key part of attracting new residents and backed that belief with a great facility. The plan for construction is to pour concrete at the end of May or early June. The concrete will need to cure before the surface coat is applied. The surface will be applied in October and be ready to play November 1st.
I'll furnish more updates whenever we have new information.

Mark Nelson
President Palm Creek Pickleball Club





Round Robins and a liite Round Robin History

Our Round Robin Coordinator, Sandi Feller has advised that it is becoming too warm at 10AM for Round Robin Play.  Blank sheets are posted on the board for you to create your own Round Robins at a time that is convenient for you.

Round Robin history - those were the days my friend
The first club Round Robins were played on Saturdays only
Fee: 10 cents - where did the money go - "Winners take all"

You have heard the expression he who laughs first - does not laugh last
When the club was organized, Round Robin fees increased to 25 cents
The policy at the the time was for collected funds to be turned into the Activities Office
The First Club Treasurer, Fred Moor, took the collected funds to the Activities Office - $3.75.  The Activities Director at the the time laughed and told Fred to "keep it".  The Club has kept it ever since !    

Monday, April 16, 2012

Summer Tournaments


Are you organizing or participating in a Summer Tournament that you would like Palm Creek Pickleball Players to participate?

Send me the information an I will Blog it for you

Bob VanderLinden  would like you to put the following tournament on your travel calendar, be sure to register early


Rally In The Valley
Pickleball Tournament
Aug 24-26, 2012
Albany, OR

August is the perfect time of year to plan your travels through the beautiful Willamette Valley.

Skill Level, All ages, 2.5 - 5 + Open
Double Elimination, Men's, Women's, Mixed, Singles
USAPA Sanctioned Tier 4

Held in conjunction with the Northwest Art and Air Festival
Hot Air Balloons, Concerts, Art in the Park and More.

Registration Deadline: Aug 14, 2012
Entry Fee: $25 + $5 each Add'l Event
Free T-Shirt

Hotels and RV Park Info:  Register Early!!!!!

Contact for Registration Packet or Questions:
Bob VanderLinden
Phone: 541-791-3784
Email: Bob@BoatEscape.com

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Reminders and Inter - Community Play

As of 4/15 Pickleballs are not provided by the club until next season

Friday 4/20 will be the last day for ice water in the coolers. You will need to bring your own water of use the drinking fountain at the tennis shed

Summer Inter - Community Play

Starting Wednesday, May 2 at 7:00 A.M. at Mission Royal

The regular summer schedule will be :
Mondays at Robson 
Wednesdays at Mission  
Fridays at Palm Creek 
Saturdays at 7:00 A.M.
May at Robson
June at Mission
July at Palm Creek

Everyone is invited to play - do join the fun

As the weather gets warmer starting time will be adjusted, all schedule changes will be posted

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Fun and Profitable End of Season Party


Thanks to all of you for cooking burgers at the End of Season Party
Roger Fellows, Karen Fellows, Mike Harris, Michael Hill,
Barry Halloway, Steve Kiesler, Pat + John Lively,
Lee + Verna Moore, Ed Obermeyer, Marg Ouimet,
Marilyn Skees and Neal Renga

Palm Creek just gave a check to the Pickleball Club for the profits from the burger sales. The check is for $700. They also gave us a check for $195 for participating in the Dunk Tank. That's a total of $895 raised for the club at the party.

Thank you again to all that cooked burgers, threw balls at the Dunk Tank, or ate hamburgers. You were a huge help to the club. A special thanks to Al  Hager for going under for the club.

Mark Nelson
Club President

Editorial Comment:  A club Thank You to Mark Nelson for also going under for the club in the Dunk Tank

Friday, April 13, 2012

First Club Secretary

Nancy Brentano
First Club Secretary
2002-2003
First Palm Creek
USAPA Ambassador

 Nancy has made a significant contribution over the years to both the sport and our club. The number of players who took their first lessons from Nancy are countless. In addition to the mechanics of the game, as a great ambassador, Nancy makes "every" new player know that they are welcome on the courts and the real reason to play is to have "fun".
 In 2004, Nancy was one of the first women players from our club to compete at The Huntsman World Senior Games. Throughout the years Nancy has taken home many medals, competing in tournaments from Tucson to Utah!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Paddles

Disappearing Paddles

I've personally taken great pride in the honesty of the pickleball players at Palm Creek. I've seen paddles left at the courts undisturbed for days until their owner remembered where they left it and came back for it. I've seen a few situations where paddles have come up missing only to have an embarrassed player bring the lost paddle back after mistakenly putting it in their bag. I could not imagine that anyone would purposely take a paddle that wasn't theirs. I don't want to change my belief in the honesty of our players but we've had two paddles reported missing that have not turned up in the usual manner of someone having mistakenly taken it. I'm asking everyone to look in their bag and see if there is a paddle that they might've picked up by accident. Please let me know and we can get the paddles back to their rightful owner.


Mark Nelson
Club President





Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Update on New Courts

On Thursday April 6th the City of Casa Grande approved the zoning change necessary to make the proposed changes at Palm Creek. One of those changes is our new pickleball facility of 24 courts. Work can now start on the new addition to Palm Creek. The road work on Cottonwood Rd will start first. The work on the new courts is currently scheduled to start in late May. Palm Creek wants the cement poured no later than early June before it gets too hot. The cement will then be allowed to cure until September when the surfaces will be applied. If everything stay on schedule we will have use of the new courts in October.

Mark Nelson
Club President

Friday, April 6, 2012

First Women Medal Winners

Jeanne Gearhart and Mary Duncan
Won a Silver Medal at Venture Out
This made them the FIRST women to bring home a medal at Palm Creek

 

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

April Round Robin Schedule

Our New Round Robin Coordinator,  Sandi Feller has already started:
All Sign Up Sheets are now on the boards
This is a very social time of year
Players who sign up will run their own Round Robins, Captains are now on vacation
There is no fee to play in these Round Robins.
 
 
Sunday:  -  Very Social Play
11am-1pm Mixed Couples, ALL SKILL LEVELS

Monday:
10am-12 Noon Mixed 3.5

Tuesday:
10am-12 Noon Mixed 3.0 + 2.5
6:30pm-8:30pm Mixed 3.5

Wednesday:
10am-12 Noon Mixed 4.0+

Thursday: 
10am-12Noon Mixed 3.5
6:30pm-8:30pm Mixed 3.0 + 2.5
This Thursday only, we will still have separate 3.5 Round Robins as a good number of you have signed up. 

Friday:
10am-12Noon Mixed 3.0 + 2.5

Saturday: Very Social Play
8am Mixed ALL SKILL LEVELS

Would you like to organize your own Round Robin?
Blank Round Robins Sheets will be  on the sign up board for you to fill in a date and time, you will need 7 players, of course most of you would like 8 players and no Bye's!

Sunday, April 1, 2012

How Old Am I and When?

Imagine my surprise, reading the April USAPA newsletter, and finding the following article.  It is your support that gives our club a voice, I am happy that this is the second item this year, that I raised and had a positive resolution!

 No Dumb Questions: How Old Am I and When?

Question

Rosemary Reese of Casa Grande, Ariz., writes, “The membership would love to hear from the board regarding age standardization for sanctioned tournaments. From what I hear they don't care which way it is done, either age the day of your birthday or age as of 12/31 of the year of the tournament.” Rosemary just asks that it be the same for all sanctioned tournaments.

Answer

USAPA president Bill Booth provides a detailed explanation. The practice of using the player’s age as of the end of the year has been in the tournament points document for several years. This is so players can accumulate tournament points in their age group for the entire year. If age was determined as of the date of the tournament, a player’s point totals could be split into two different age groups on an unequal basis. In that case tournament points based on age groups would be meaningless.

The date for age determination should have also been in the sanctioning requirements, but was not. That oversight has been corrected. The following statement has been added to the sanctioning requirements document: “A player's age in a sanctioned tournament will be determined by the player's age on December 31. An exception will be made if a state senior games organization mandates a different date in their tournament.” Our policy is in agreement with the rules of the Huntsman World Senior Games and the rules of the national games of the National Senior Games Association (NSGA). Even though the NSGA policy is to determine age as of December 31, individual states that sponsor senior games or senior Olympics under the umbrella of NSGA have inconsistent policies. We have no control over the policies of the state games because there are many sports involved. We make an exception for those states because we believe that it is important to sanction those tournaments. If you are participating in the state games of any state that is an exception, please urge them to standardize on the policy of the parent NSGA organization