Incline Village Tennis Center embraces pickleball

Some pickleball people seem to think there is an "us vs. them" situation when it come to "tennis vs. pickleball".  That might be the case in some areas but the trend appears to be a blending of the two sports.

Case in point: the trendy Lake Tahoe area Incline Village Tennis Center has fully welcomed and integrated pickleball into the its facility.  Not only does the Tennis Center offer 8 courts co-striped onto tennis courts, but there are lessons, clinics and social as well.

See: https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/parks-recreation/tennis-center/pickleball-programs

In addition, the Tennis Center Staff even writes up occasional pickleball advice for the local newspaper!

See: http://www.sierrasun.com/news/local/ivgid-tip-of-the-week-talk-more-to-improve-your-pickleball-score/

Club's nets & gear total loss in arson fire

A Florida Coast pickleball club was sent reeling when all their equipment was destroyed in an arson fire. The fast growing pickleball success story known as "Pickleball By The Sea" in Neptune Beach near Jacksonville lost 10 nets and all their loaner paddles, balls and related equipment when their storage structure burned after a park gazebo and two toilets were set on fire by three teenage arsonists.

The large five-year-old club's many members and supporters immediately rose to the challenge.  "The distributor that the club bought its nets and some of the paddles and pickleballs is lending the club new nets. Two people have donated matching funds of $500 each towards the club’s new equipment," according to the news article linked here:

http://jacksonville.com/shorelines/2017-05-19/local-pickleball-club-suffers-complete-loss-jarboe-park-fire

Pickleball By The Sea is yet another one of the many nationwide success stories sparked by the pickleball passion of just one dedicated, relentless individual: Verna Griffin.  The Pickleball Central blogs tells the story of the club's first year growing from that  one player to 200 players in 12 months. The news article states the club now has 800 people on its email list.

https://blog.pickleballcentral.com/2013/12/13/how-one-pickleball-club-grew-from-1-200-in-twelve-months-the-power-of-one-person-sharing-what-they-love/

Here's is the club's website: http://www.pickleballbythesea.com/

And here is the club's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pickleballbythesea/

How & Why Pickleball grows

We're hoping to get a better photo of  Lyle and Bonnie Kruegel to go with this post.

Here is a classic article about "how & why" pickleball's popularity proceeds to grow throughout America.  It boils down to passionate people.  People who care enough to step forward and get in the swing of bringing new players onto the courts.  People who care enough to help raw beginners become active addicts.  People who care enough to bring energy, education, enjoyment and excitement to their local neighborhoods and communities.

This is a story about a Snow Bird couple who winter in The Grand Canyon State's Pickleball Capitol, Surprise, Arizona.  They are very active members of their summer home, Spring Valley, a small community of less than 3,000 people located in historic Bluff Country in far southeast Minnesota.

Here's the link to the full article:
http://www.hometown-pages.com/Content/Spring-Valley-Tribune/SVT-area-news/Article/Couple-getting-regular-pickleball-sessions-going-in-Spring-Valley/11/94/68135

Blog author mentioned in news article

Yours truly, John Parsons (shown with his wife Susun McCulla)  was actually mentioned in a pickleball news article found by Google this morning.  That may be the one and only time such a coincidence will ever happen here on the Pickleball News Digest.

https://www.cvbugle.com/news/2017/may/18/what-pickleball/

For more information about Arizona's Camp Verde Pickleball see:

http://campverdepickleball.blogspot.com/

How we find pickleball news

Ever wonder how we find the stories we post here?  Well, it's EZPZ and you can do it, too.  First we go to Google News.  Then we simply type in the word "pickleball" in the News Search field.  (Omit the quote marks, of course.) Voila, Good Ol' Google will roam the whole wide world looking for the latest pickleball news.

Google won't, however, do what we do and that's to add the commentary,narrative, related links and other content to give more relevance to each story featured here.

This May 19th morning we are working with the four top stories as shown in the graphic below.  We don't cover every single news story found by Google. We're primarily looking for something "new" in each news story..or something with personal relevance.