Blog is dormant as of 8/31/17

We no longer have time to give this blog the "right & proper" updates it deserves.  Therefore, it is going into archive status.  There are a lot of good articles linked here and most of them will remain timely and useful for various purposes.

Thank You for visiting.

Story of Pickleball Rocks

Did you ever maybe kind of wonder about how the company Pickleball Rocks got up and running?  Well, wonder no more.  Here's the story..as well as a look at the current pickleball situation in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

http://www.news-sentinel.com/sports/pickleball_rapidly_gaining_players_locally_and_nationally_20170717&profile=1143

http://pickleballrocks.com/

The Meteoric Flock

Well, here's two works you don't often see in the same sentence.  Only Pickleball could possibly juxtapose such words.  And we all know it to be true.

Here's where we found this gem excerpted above:

http://siouxcityjournal.com/coffee_break/fast-facts-about-pickleball/article_a9372979-2f12-5821-b1ce-31963e093af6.html

And here's the story that spawned the followup that used "meteoric" and "flock" in the same sentence:

http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/sergeant-bluff-pops-as-a-pickleball-hub/article_fa4365c3-105e-5e13-8945-3f4c3ae4dc14.html

Libraries & Pickleball

A Kindred Pickleball Spirit Lost to Pettiness!

We've lived for decades with a cliche that "Libraries are the eyes to a community's soul."  When we would go to a downtrodden, woebegone, backwater community and see an neglected, tired, old, forgotten library, we would pay our respects and nod and move on.

When we'd go to a bright, up-and-coming, optimistic community with a fabulous library, we'd give each other High Fives and settle in.  One of the top 3 reasons we settled in Idaho Falls is the Library.

And so it goes with Pickleball.  When a community bares their soul and does a smack down on pickleball, it  says everything you would every want or need to know about the Soul of that soul-less place.  How a community treats it's pickleball courts is The New Arbiter of Soul for any place you may care to visit.

If They Love Pickleball, You Will Love Them!  If they hate or cheap-out pickleball or whine about the so-called "noise" issue, you will simply get back in your RV and move on down the Pickleball Road.

It amazes me that people can be so short sighted as to create a situation such as this that is so thoroughly described in this poignant article.  As this story makes the rounds in the national pickleball news circuit, you can bet people will be quite literally steering clear of this sorry spot.

Here's the sad story and you can  read it for yourself:

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/7199674-181/oakmont-manager-cassie-turner-resigns?artslide=0

The Perennial Pickle in Pickleball

If we've read this news story once, we've probably read it dozens of  times.  This seems to be the signature issue swirling across America's sports scene these day.  Tennis in most areas is on a fading downtrend and some say "so yesterday".  Meanwhile pickleball is on a surging uptrend and "so tomorrow".

Here's how the situation is evolving in a hip Montana city.  Bozeman is so hip it long ago earned the nickname, "Bozeangeles." Or as a Bozeman Native we know likes to say, "Bozeman is the only California town where you can be in Montana 20 minutes from downtown!"

Ironically, The Bozeman Pickleball People actually got a tournament together this year called "Pickle Mania" and it looks to be very well supported by the local movers and shakers.   Let's hope Pickle Mania goes really, really well and helps city Mothers and Fathers see The Pickleball Light.

Here's the link to the article that prompted this post:

http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/city/pickleball-players-ask-city-to-swing-dedicated-court-space/article_aab4bb57-3228-5f64-a4d5-ad7b9715a576.html

Above is the spiff logo for Bozeman's USAPA Sanctioned Tournament.

The vicinity map above shows the reported location where most people play.

Here's a closer look at the Bozeman courts.  Supposedly, two pickleball courts are striped for each tennis court.  That's a common arrangement because it uses the tennis net as a backstop for each of those two courts.

You can see by the Pickle Mania ad on Pickleball Tournaments that it's got some decent local support.
Here's the link for the tournament:  http://www.pickleballtournaments.com/welcome.pl?tid=1203

A Pickleball Goddess?

There it is, right in the headline, "Pickleball Goddess".  Well, it might be a wee bit of California hyperbole but that's the way at least one local person feels about their Passionate Pickleball Person.  By now, regular readers of the Pickleball News Digest know we most love stories that highlight and showcase "The Power Of One" in bringing pickleball possibilities to new places and faces.

This is a fun story with lots of fun quotes.  It even has a brand new use of the techie word "bandwidth".  So, here ya go: http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/07/06/pickleball-goddess-on-a-mission-to-get-more-courts/

Growing Backwards...

"Unlike other sports, Pickleball has grown backward. Instead of starting at the youth level, like lacrosse, and growing older, pickleball started older. The sport originated in Washington state, but its popularity took off in the retirement communities of Florida and Arizona. Now, it is growing younger."

Interesting story from Edna Prairie, Minnesota

http://www.swnewsmedia.com/eden_prairie_news/news/sports/pickleball-pickle-will-sport-s-growth-ever-sour/article_ecb6e069-2625-5c55-8021-b460af2cf700.html