Pickleball at Christmas Mountain
Courts will be open
for play Tuesday, May 30. Open House
Sun, June 11.
There will be an open house
celebration on Sunday, June 11. Clare Grabher will offer a FREE clinic for new
players. Please invite guests. More information on the event will follow.
Christmas Mountain is operating
on its off-season schedule until June 15th. On Tuesday May 30 and
June 4th the Club will open at noon. It is closed Wednesdays. Otherwise,
the Club opens at 9:00. From June 15th the Club opens daily at 9:00,
except for Sundays, when it opens at noon.
On Tuesday, May 30th, weather
permitting, there will be Open Play at 1:00. Members can make their own groups
and play at any time that is not designated “Open Play.” Balls have been back-ordered, so be sure to
bring your own if you have any.
Blog Site: http://mwvpickleball.blogspot.com/
A blog site has been created for
posting information regarding pickleball at Christmas Mountain. This will be
used for posting information re social events, clinics, schedules, etc. If you
want new posts to be sent to your email, log onto the blog, go to the bottom of
the right hand column (under the paddle) and add your address to “Follow by
Email”. The blog is not for setting up personal games. If you have something
that you think should be posted to the blog, send it to mwvpickle@middlemtn.com. The North
Conway Pickleball group on Facebook can still be used for general comments.
Clinics
We are delighted that Clare
Grabher has offered to give clinics to both beginners and others. Clare is a
certified teaching pro with the International Pickleball Teaching Professionals
Association. Clare played pro tennis in the late 70s and early 80s, was a
British Junior champion, and played at Wimbledon. She won the US Pickleball
National 55 and Over Singles in 2016 in Arizona and was the Silver Medalist in
the Senior Pro Singles at the US Pickleball Open in Naples in April 2017.
Clare will offer FREE Pickleball 101 on Sunday, June 4th
at 3:00. This is for people who have NEVER played. Please spread the word
and invite anyone you can think of to this clinic. It is not necessary for
“newbies” to be a member of Christmas Mountain. We hope that seeing the venue
and trying the game will encourage them to join.
Clare will also give private
lessons for $40/hour. For groups, the rate for 2 people is $20 per person, or
$15 per person for a group of 3 or more. To schedule your own time for a
clinic, contact Clare at nehh@aol.com .
Anyone interested in helping with
beginner clinics or offering their own beginner clinic, contact Clare or John
Smallcomb.
Organization
To date,
decisions have been made by a few people who were involved in bringing
pickleball to the Jackson Tennis Club, then looked for an alternative site when
that didn’t work out. We don’t need to be too structured, but It is time for
others to get involved to keep our group aware of what is happening, planning
play and social events. If you want to become more involved, contact John
Smallcomb at smallcomb67@gmail.com
Below is a list of who has already offered to help and positions that need to
be filled. If you have other ideas, let John know:
Spokesperson in
Chief: John
Smallcomb, smallcomb67@gmail.com
Christmas Mountain
Liaison: Bob
Ference, wesail1@earthlink.net
Communication &
Membership: Leslie
Schomaker, leslie@middlemtn.com
Clinics: Clare
Grabher, nehh@aol.com
Social: Sally
Holmes, murphydorf@aol.com
Open Play
Coordinator: ?
Coordinator for
Casual Players: ?
Coordinator for
Intermediate Players: ?
Coordinator for
Advanced Players: ?
Leagues &
Tournaments: ?
? Any other
suggestions
Schedule for Open
Play
Following is a
tentative schedule. We will begin with this, and change it as needed. When Open
Play is not scheduled, feel free to show up with your own group. If our numbers
increase to fill the 4 courts with several people waiting, we can schedule Open
Play for different skill levels. This is still a work in progress. We want
everyone of all skill levels to feel welcome, and those who want competitive
play to have challenging games. It has been suggested that someone be the
coordinator for Open Play. The coordinator would change each day and can be of
any skill level. He/she would be responsible for deciding how the players
rotate between games. Please be willing to take on this duty occasionally.
SUNDAY: 1:00 – 2:00 Beginners’ Clinic
2:00 – 4:00
Open Play
4:00 – 6:00
Social Hour
MONDAY 5:00 – 7:00 Open Play
TUESDAY 9:00 – 11:00 Open Play
WEDNESDAY 5:00 – 7:00 Open Play
THURSDAY 9:00 – 11:00 Open Play
FRIDAY 1:00 – 3:00 Ladies’ Open Play
SATURDAY 9:00 – 11:00 Open Play
Membership and Communications
We are
responsible for organizing ourselves, not Christmas Mountain. Leslie Schomaker
will maintain the blog site and create a membership list with names, email
addresses and phone numbers so you can find people to call for a game. If you
do not want to be on the list, contact her at leslie@middlemtn.com . She has also
created a e-mailing list on MailChimp. If you do not want to receive these
emails, select “unsubscribe” at the bottom.
It is up to us to make this the best venue
in the Valley for pickleball, both for playing and socializing. We are not a
formal club or organization and have no funds, but we plan on having a good
time. The more our numbers grow, the more incentive the owner of Christmas
Mountain has to improve the courts, and the more people we have to play with.
Please spread the word to other picklers and to those who have never heard of
the game as well.
