Langley Pickleball Dinkers - take a bow!!

submitted by

Joanne Edey-Nicoll

My sincere thanks to all of you who stepped up with your donations to recognize the tough job our health care providers are doing at this time.

We had hoped that we could raise perhaps $200 since we were not together and were raising funds electronically. You far exceeded our expectations.......We raised $500!

We purchased 100 -  $5 gift cards from coffee shops near Langley Hospital. Individual thank you messages were printed on each card.  We made replica Pickleball paddles and attached the gift cards to the paddles with a note of thanks from our group to the Langley Healthcare Heroes. The Healthcare workers can pull off a gift card and go to the coffee shop of their choice on us. We got the gift cards from a local coffee shop (to support local businesses) and from Tim Hortons and Starbuck (because they are open late into the night for shift workers).

I’m proud to be part of this group that clearly cares about our community.   Thank you to everyone who supported this initiative. 

Pickleball Saint John- Team Pickleball Competitive League

submitted by

Lisa Weir
 

This past fall, Pickleball Saint John held the  first "team pickleball" competitive league.  It was the first the club had heard of this type of format for a pickleball league being set up anywhere in our Atlantic region.  Four team captains were chosen, who in turn chose five other team players.  The only stipulations were that they had to be club members and each team had to have a minimum of one female.  The teams played from October - December within the safety guidelines of the Covid-19 operational plans developed by the club and with the venues where the league was held. The format involved coin tosses at the beginning of each night: the loser of which had to place their players on the court first; the winner of the coin toss could then choose the players to match up against the players from the other team.  Points were calculated throughout league play and used to determine the playoff set up.  It was great, competitive fun and the club will definitely be starting a new Team Pickleball in the spring, hopefully when the Covid-19 situation eases up.

Here are a few photos from the finals:

Bronze medalists were Port City Picklers captained by Mark LeBlanc, team players include: Mike Jacquard, Katie Holmes, Steve Haines, Mike Demmer, and Robert 'Bubsie' McIntyre (subbing for John Turner)

Silver medalists were Freight Train captained by Allen Olsen, team players include: Betty Pugh, Duncan Kelbaugh, Bruce Bell, Jamie Dobbelsteyn, Andrew Hamburg (subbing for Brenda Doucet)

Gold medalists were Pickleball Ninjas captained by Lisa Weir, team players include: Kumar Raghav, Chintan Desai, Mark Butler, Vineet Thomas and Arman Karsaliya (subbing for Ricky Schwarz)

Vernon Pickleball Club - Raising the Roof!

Submitted by

Barry Montgomery
 

​Vernon BC is the site of the largest dedicated indoor Pickleball Court complex currently in North America and that may, in fact, cover the World. The structure is 55 feet high at the centre and has a footprint of 3/4 of an acre. It covers the 12 dedicated courts along with 2 additional courts that are used for practice or other activities such as tournament staging. The steel structure with reinforced concrete pillars is covered with a fabric of superior strength. The building is now completely enclosed and work is in progress laying out some 3000 ft of electrical conduit, 8 huge ceiling fans, some with 24ft diameter blades and 3 large heating units that can output 1.4 million BTU’s. Lighting will consist of 56 LED units that each output 40,000 lumens using only 240 Watts. The effect is to have lighting that equals stadium standards.

The complex can be 100% sealed but with the capability of achieving constant fresh air flow equivalent to an outside open area. Project Manager and VPA member Don Friesen quipped that “We have the potential fan capacity, if we reverse the blades, to keep a pickleball 4 feet off of the ground so you never have to bend down to pick it up”. In reality it will be a very welcoming environment without wind, rain, snow or excessive Okanagan mid-day summer heat. It will offer a year around experience and long days of operation. 

Similar projects are being planned for Kelowna and Penticton. The Okanagan Valley will be a serious Pickleball Mecca going forward. The Vernon complex has been funded mostly by the 500 members of the Vernon Pickleball Association from start to finish and will be managed by the club. The various stages have brought the overall cost to approximately 2 million dollars. Completion day is projected before the end of February.