That is true in the pickleball world too.  If you build the courts, people will inevitably show up to play.  But with the financial outlay needed, it is not always easy to get the courts built.

So this winter here in the tiny tourist town of Brookville, Indiana, we took a different approach.

In Brookville we have two outdoor pickleball courts that were built about five years ago.  Since then we have had a nice small number of regular players playing year round on those two courts and on 2-3 temporary courts inside a local gymnasium during the cold weather.

The last couple of years we have talked about trying to have a small tournament here in town, but knew that we couldn’t possibly pull it off with only two permanent courts to play on.

So this winter we decided the best way to get some more permanent courts would be to create a need for more courts. In other words, we had to grow.

It began soon after the Christmas and New Year’s holiday.  We started inviting new people to come try and play our wonderful sport inside one of the local elementary gyms.  Our very first night, we had enough players to fill three courts.  Then came the challenge.  The new people loved it.  Not only did they love it, but they went home and told others they loved it.

Within a couple of weeks we had to move to the larger high school gym where we could set up four courts.  Still trouble, as we had people waiting in line with no larger building in the county available.

Conveniently and strategically we snapped a few pictures of all these people playing pickleball and started making some phone calls and visits to our local community organizations, telling them of our plight.   “We have many community members now playing, but sadly no place for them to play when the weather warms up and we have to move outdoors”, we told them.

We had our court building estimates in hand.  We needed $15,000 to build us two new courts to accompany our two existing courts.  This would give us enough courts for our community members to play on, but also allow us to begin promoting small pickleball tournaments that would bring people in to see our great town.

Soon organizations and individuals were pledging money and within 3 weeks we were just $3000 short of our fifteen thousand dollar goal and ready to break ground on our two new pickleball courts.

So life is good here in Brookville.  Excavation is starting next week and I can’t wait to play on them.

Our strategy worked. If enough of you “Come, Then They Will Build It”.   Pickleball Rocks!

Can’t think of a more appropriate way to describe the experience at my first National Pickleball Tournament.

What a great week of fun, friendship and pickleball competition. 

From the moment we pulled into the parking lot, I knew this was going to be fun.  Big white tents full of vendors selling anything you can put the word pickleball on.  Pickleball paddles everywhere and the main corporate sponsor, My Retirement Direct, giving out goody bags stuffed with tshirts, water bottles and yes, retirement info.

First stop, the registration tent, where they were actually expecting me.   Apparently my entry form did get to the right people. Next, I filled out my free USAPA raffle tickets and dropped them off with one of the great ambassadors of our sport, Nancy Jordan, who was excitedly manning he USAPA membership tent.  Hope we added some members this week.  I’m sure we did.
Next I got the lay of the land with a quick walk around the beautiful Pickleball complex at Sun City Festival.  18 courts had been carefully cleaned and lined for this great event.

It was fun to see the arrival of old midwest friends like Don and Haroline Walker, Lynn Carlson, Al Hager and Jim and Yvonne Hackenburg.  It was a great showing for the midwest as all of them took home national hardware.  Congratulations guys!

It was equally fun to meet up again with some of my newer friends whom I’d recently met at the San Diego tournament at Oceanside.  Ken Follis, Kevin Martzolf, Sue and Dominic Ambrosino, Randy and Jennifer Zbinden, and Bev and Bob Youngren.  What great ambassadors they are for California pickleball.

As for the competition???  There was plenty.

My partner and I got our eyes opened immediately by dropping our first match.  Apparently starting slow, and continuing slow, doesn’t get you far in a tournament like this. 

We did manage to come back and win our second match before bowing out much earlier than planned.

In singles, I managed a bit better.  I won a couple close contests and lost a very tough battle with the eventual Gold Medalist.  Congratulations Dan Wheeler on your Singles Gold Medal.  Well deserved.

It was all fun, but I believe the highlight of the week was just the incredible bunch of new friends that we made along the way.

Once again, and I know I’m preaching to the choir here, pickleball wins because of the people who play it and support it.

Thank you everyone for a tremendous first National tournament.

I promise I will be back.

Because PICKLEBALL ROCKS !!!

Read the full story here:

by Sarah White

Let’s start on the night of May 7, 2011.  Remembering the date is easy because I was the Maid of Honor in my friend’s wedding.   All was going well.  There was dancing, toasts, and good company.  The time came, though, for the party to end.  So, Jenn left first to go get the car.  I said my good-byes, gave out hugs, and left with a smile on my face.

read the full report here

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