ASR AMBASSADOR'S MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
September 15, 2010
The Atlantic South Region (ASR) E-Newsletter is distributed on the 15th of each month to all ASR Ambassadors. This newsletter is intended to keep all of you apprised of what is happening in your region and to consolidate our news into a once/monthly communication. Please forward this information to all USAPA members, all pickleball players/clubs in your regions and post to your local pickleball Blogs or Websites
...ATLANTIC SOUTH WELCOMES NEW AMBASSADORS..
Mike and Nancy Falkenstein, Please join me in welcoming our newest Ambassadors in Franklin, NC - After retiring in 2008 Mike and Nancy moved to Franklin, NC from Sarasota, Fl. Nancy is also a tennis player but both she and her husband were immediately hooked on the game with the funny name one day when Jan Sharp was introducing pickleball to the community through the NC Senior Games. Mike and Nancy join Jan Sharp as Joint Ambassadors in the Franklin, NC area. "We have held in-house tournaments.............We have discovered that this game is one that men and women can enjoy equally and can compete with each other. We have held exhibitions in conjunction with our Senior Games and plan to get into our local schools to introduce the sport. " Welcome to our Ambassador Family - Mike and Nancy! READ MORE
Thank you ten thousand times over for being a visionary and putting together an 'Action Network' to implement 'The Plan' in the Great Lakes Region and 'Mini-Plans'cross the USA. You have successfully engaged 128 How-to Group Ambassadors in meaningful discussions about Pickleball best practices -- a lasting addition to the landscape of Players, USAPA Membership, and Places to Play.
It is a privilege and a blessing to experience your leadership. I have deepest respect for the extraordinary goodness you extend to each player, promoter, and programmer. Most picklers will never know the exorbitant amount of time and energy you devoted to growing the quality and quantity of pickleball offerings, but I know. You have built a lasting legacy, promoting social and physical well being, with recreational and competitive pickleball events for all ages and all skill levels.
Michigan, the Great Lakes Region and beyond are going to enjoy the fruit of your labor, long into a future that is healthier and happier because of your keen intellect, brilliant spirit, and generous leadership.
With deepest respect, Janet Razz
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...........UPCOMING PICKLEBALL TOURNAMENTS/EVENTS..
Watch for more information on these events on our website. Click on Tournament/Event for more information (where available).
Open Pickleball Tournament, The Villages, Fl. Open to all levels. September 16-24, 2010
Counselor/Camper Pickleball Tourney, Boys and Girls Club, Winston,Salem, NC, Date TBA
Pensacola Senior Games, Pensacola, Fl. Sept 24, 2010
2010 National Senior Games Championships,
Sept. 29 - Oct. 3, 2010. USAPA Sanctioned ( Tier 1 )
Tampa Bay Senior Games, Sun City Center, Fl., Oct. 6, 2010
Forever Fit, Jacksonville Senior Games, Jacksonville, Fl., Oct. 8, 2010
Huntsman World Senior Games, St. George, UT, Oct. 11-13, 2010 (USAPA Sanctioned Tier 2)
Plantation Olympics, Leesburg, Fl, October 15th -28th, 2010
Beaufort Jasper Active Adult Pickleball Challenge, Bluffton, SC November 1-3, 2010
2010 USAPA National Tournament,
Sun City Festival, Buckeye, AZ, USAPA Sanctioned - (Tier 1)
November 1st -7th, 2010
LATE REGISTRATION Deadline - October 1, 2010
Rally Tally Jamboree, Kings Point, Sun City Center, FL, November 13, 2010
Pickled Pilgrim Playoff, Canton, GA, November 20-21, 2010
Florida Senior Games State Championships, Lee County, Fl, December 4th -12, 2010 Pickleball Dates TBA
Geezer Meister Tournament- Summerfield, Fl - January 12-15,2011 USAPA Sanction Pending
Benefit Senior Pickleball Tournament, Jacksonville, NC February 4-5, 2011
Lee County Senior Games, Ft. Myers, Fl, February 26-27, 2011. Watch for more information! New Management - New Format!
Do you have a tournament/round robin or social event that should be listed here?
………More Pickle Ball News from across the Region…..
Georgia
Tom and Ann Earley - North GA Pickleball Club
David Jordan USAPA Marketing/Sales and his wife Nancy, USAPA Membership Chair spent the weekend in nearby Hiram, GA, and played with the North Georgia PB Club on Sunday and Monday before moving on to Branson, Missouri. Also visiting the club this month was Paul Barksdale, Regional Ambassador for the Mid Atlantic area. We heard that Paul also met up with Florida Ambassadors Bruce and Gena Whitehead over in Tennessee!!
North Georgia PB Club members Bill and Carole Hess along with Don and Merre Wehe, have introduced pickleball at nearby Lake Arrowhead. They have met about three times now and had 25+ people at the last gathering! Tom and Ann Earley along with a few of the other players will be holding a "mini-clinic"and will encourage the new group to become a "satellite" of the North Georgia PB Club. The group is working hard to get permanent pickleball lines on their tennis courts.
The North GA Pickleball Club has also scheduled their next tournament which, again this year, will benefit the Cherokee County Humane Society and everyone is waiting to see this year's shirts promoting the Pickled Pilgrim Playoff!!!!! READ MORE
North Carolina
Ambassador, Rick Laskey, Jacksonville, NC
Rick recently returned from a family visit to central Michigan. "I got to play several times in Saginaw with an excellent group of players led by Mike Enright and Ron Larson. I also met Mike Wressell from Bay City MI who winters near Ft. Myers FL." Rick loves tournament play so he'll be off to the USAPA National Games in November partnering with South Dakota's Elliott Nelson and Carolyn Law from Virginia in doubles and mixed doubles competition. Rick is looking for a partner for the Florida Senior Games State Championship -so if there are any Florida players looking for a partner - LET RICK KNOW!!!
If you are still in need of a partner for any of the upcoming tournaments - remember USAPA's Partner Search
Rick also wants to report that Jacksonville NC will be hosting a Senior (50+) indoor Benefit Tournament on February 4-5, 2011. More information and entry forms are available on both the USAPA (Tournament Schedule) and the Atlantic South Website (Upcoming Events)
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Don "Smoke" Hickman - Rumbling Bald, Lake Lure, NC
This year Pickleball was added as an Olympiad Event for the very first time at the annual Hickory Nut Gorge Olympiad on Friday August 27th. The pickleball tournament was run by Smoke Hickman with the help of the local Pickleball Club. The competition included both doubles and mixed doubles competition. The event attracted players from nearby Hendersonville, NC as well as the Upstate Pickleball Group in Greenville, SC. Reports are that this was a HUGE success and Smoke will be heading up the team again next year. READ MORE
A very special thanks to Ambassador Jerry Eamer for all the support given to Mike and Loretta, especially helping them out with the portable net! And we all with Jerry good luck as he and his partner head for the USAPA Nationals in Arizona.
Richard Webster, Dick Stone - Keowee Key, SC
Richard and his wife learned to play pickleball last January in The Villages, Fl. When they returned home to SC, they checked out Places to Play on the USAPA website and found the Upstate Pickleball group in Greenville, drove there, continued to play and then invited their friend and ex tennis player Dick Stone to join them. "We decided to promote Pickleball in Keowee Key. We have written articles for the community paper, set up a Demo Court using a portable net and completed many other promotions. Dedicated Pickleball courts would be the ultimate solution, but our interim plan was to get lines painted on two of the existing tennis courts, (like Greenville) The painting of the lines on the courts has not been received well with many in our local tennis community. Regardless, we are very close to getting those lines done..."
I got e-mails from several individuals after the Keowee Key promotional video was posted on our website wanting to know "who did that video?" For those of you who have not seen that video, they do an excellent job of promoting the game to a community that has never heard of the game. CLICK HERE to watch that promotional video. We are also pleased to announce that the lines are finally down!!! And there is another video to prove it. CLICK HERE to watch the lines go down. We hope to see Keowee Key listed soon as another new Place to Play in South Carolina.
Ambassador, Jo Huber, Bluffton, SC
Ambassador, Rena Grant, Myrtle Beach, SC
My goals for this year and next will be to get the 3rd Recreation Center in Myrtle Beach, to put in Pickleball courts. I plan to contact and visit as many schools as possible to introduce Pickleball for their curriculum. I will revisit the Recreation Centers in the surrounding areas that did not choose to do Pickleball.. and try again.
We received an invite from Page W. Sutton to play in a tournament on Oct. 16th and 17th. We also received an invite from Rick Laskey, from Jacksonville, NC to play in a tournament on Feb. 4 and 5th. Both are women and men's doubles and mixed doubles.
The board of the Waccamaw Sports Classic have just informed me that since the Pickleball exhibition that we did last year was such a success, it will now be an official sport in April, 2011, at the Coastal Carolina. I've been asked to run it and our first meeting will be on September 8th.
Florida
Ambassadors Rich and Donna Donald, New Tampa, Fl
This month we are scheduled to provide referee training to the players at Spruce Creek and on September 15th will be providing a Skills/Techniques Clinic to the players at the Hawthorn community in Leesburg.
While visiting at The Villages, we joined many of the local pickleball players for breakfast on Saturday mornings at the Son Rise Restaurant. We were introduced one morning to a family visiting from Singapore who were introduced to pickleball for the first time and loved it. To make sure they could play when they got back home, Coach Mo made sure they had his 21 Skills Clinics video and we provided them with contact information for pickleball in Singapore! They were so surprised! Here's part of a message that we got back from them........."Holy cow - you folks are formidable. Thank you so much for this info. I am very keyed up about pickleball, and enjoyed my visit............more than I can describe. I will for sure let you know the result of this contact, and will stay in touch. Goodness, what great folks I met in Florida. Thank you so much for taking an interest, Mr. and Madam Ambassador."
Ron and Connie Monson, ASR Roaming Ambassadors. Ron and Connie are still in Topping, VA - and are currently working with the local YMCA to hold a Pickleball Tournament on October 7th. Ron says that the YMCA has been very supportive of the event and is providing not only the facility but medals and shirts for all participants. This is there first tournament and they are anticipating between 20 and 30 players to join in the fun.
