The City of Albany put up our new sign last week.  The Club contributed to the sign.  Continuing to grow pickleball in Albany.  Way to go Club.

The Big Country RV Bend Pickleball Tournament was held Aug 2-3, 2013.  Our Albany Pickleball Club made a great showing and we had a great time socializing during and after the tournament.

3.5 Men’s Singles:
Gold – Brian Morey

3.5 Men’s  Doubles:
Gold – John Morey/Brian Morey
Silver – Lee Nordhagen

4.5 Men’s Doubles:
Silver – Po Leung/Shane Denning

3.5 Women’s Singles:
Silver – Suzanne Colby

3.5 Women’s Doubles:
Gold – Suzanne Colby/Sherri Oslie

3.0 Women’s Doubles:
Silver – Florence Allen/Joyce Torresdal

4.5 Women’s Doubles:
Silver – Connie Anderson

3.0 Mixed Doubles:
Gold – Joyce Torresdal/John Morey

3.5 Mixed Doubles:
Silver – Sherri Oslie/Brian Morey
Bronze – Suzanne Colby/Lee Nordhagen

A few pics:

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Here is a cool rewards program that could benefit both our members individually and the club.
To promote pickleball, www.PickleballCentral.com has a Club Rewards program that has 2 benefits.  By the way, Pickleball Central is sponsoring our tournament by supplying drawstring  paddle bags for all the entrants!!!!

1)  For YOU – ClubRewards members receive 5% off everything they purchase from PickleballCentral.com. When checking out, simply type in our club’s unique
discount code – CRAlbany – (Not case sensitive), in the coupon code box, hit the “apply” button and you’ll see 5% of the bill disappear! This code is active NOW for you to use!

2)  For OUR CLUB – every time a member uses our club’s discount code, 5% of their purchase goes into the club’s “kitty” or Reward Account. In February Pickleball Central will send our club representative a gift card for the value of whatever is in the club’s Reward Account from the preceding year. The gift card can be used toward the purchase of anything they sell.

We will hand out printed membership cards with our club’s discount code printed on them. We can liberally distribute these cards to our local pickleball club members and people interested in pickleball in our local area.  Pls do not post our club’s discount code on coupon websites.

The Spring Fling Pickleball Tournament was held on April 27/28 at the Timberhill Athletic Club.  Players came from all over the northwest and some coming from as far LA, Canada and Arizona.

Shane Denning and Bob & Connie Anderson  put on a great tournament with some great play.  Sharon and Adina put in some long hours at the Tournament Desk.  Many of our club were referees.  Saturday play finished at 10:30 PM, but Sunday was over early at 8:30.  As always if was fun to see friends from the pickleball clubs around OR and WA and make new friends.

Below are the results of our Albany Pickleball Club players and a link to all the results.

John Morey/Brian Morey – Bronze – Men’s 3.5
John Morey (Debra Johnson)  – Silver – Mixed 3.0
Sherri Oslie/Joyce Torresdal – Silver – Women’s 3.0
Sue Leung – Ann Reynolds – Bronze – Women’s 3.5

Here is a link to all the Spring Fling Pickleball Tournament Results.

Looking forward to seeing some of these some folks at our Rally In The Valley Pickleball Tournament Aug 16-18, 2013.

Update on the Boys and Girls Club Gym:

Here are a few pics from Bob LeRoy of the new gym.  (Thanks Bob!)

The gym floor is essentially complete with lines painted, though there may be more work on the walls, etc.  The pickleball lines are green except where they coincide with volleyball (red) and basketball (black).  The clearance at one end (opposite the large glass doors) is only 5-6 feet beyond the end line, similar to the old gym now.

The first 3 pics are the finished lines and the fourth one is a view from the gym through the overhead doors of the soccer field with artificial surface.  The last 3 are pictures of the taping for the lines.

Looks like we might still be on track to play in the new facility beginning about the first of May.

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We had quite a few Willamette Valley folks at the Palm Creek Annual Pickleball Tournament in Casa Grande, AZ.  The tournament had about 414 entries and streteched over 3 very nice, sunny days.  This was the 2nd tournament on Palm Creek’s new 24 court pickleball complex.  On the first evening of the tournament Bob and Sharon hosted a Happy Hour in their “Hood” for the Willamette Valley folks.

Playing from the Valley were:
Suzanne Colby and Lee Nordhagen, Dennis Dahlen, Bob VanderLinden & Brian Platz, Bob & Connie Anderson, Judy and Roger Rosenthal and Caryn McComas.

Also at the tournament or Happy Hour were:
Lee and Dee Rathbun, Neil and Shirley Pedersen, Jerry and Vivian Sullivan, Susan Dahlen, Adina Platz and Sharon VanderLinden

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New Pickleball Courts will be available at the Albany Boys and Girls Club!!!!!  In a joint effort between the City of Albany and the Boys and Girls Club the new gym facility will have 3 permanently lined pickleball courts.   We should be able to start playing there as early as May 1.

The new facility will be really impressive.  In addition to the gym area, there will be an ice rink, 2 soccor field areas, a running track, meeting facilities and some administrative offices.  Look forward to seeing the final product.

Here’s what we have learned so far:

• There will be 3 permanent courts, i.e. painted lines (no more taping!). We will continue to use our portable nets.
• We will have access to these courts in the mornings from 7 or 8am to 1pm and in the evenings from 7pm to 9 or 10pm. (We’re not sure yet what days these hours apply.)
• If building completion goes according to schedule, we should be able to begin play on these new courts on May 1.

These extra time slots will give us the capability to hold not only social play but also some league type play if we want and allows play in evenings for those that can’t make daytime slots.  We will also have some added visibility (not in the back gyms) and this could allow us to promote and grow pickleball in Albany in some new ways.  We should be thinking about ways to get kids and also younger adults involved as this is the key to the future of pickleball.

Some details we’ll have to work on include:

• Whether or not–and how–to set up some league play or different levels of play
• How to coordinate indoor play with outdoor play once we’re able to move outside to the courts at Hackleman Park

We look forward to your comments on times of play so we can lock in suitable hours in the new facility.  Of course you can still drop into the Hackleman courts at any time.

WE are famous!   Well, sort of.  Kudos to Florence for noticing this.   On Google Street View when you do a search for the courts you can see us out there playing pickleball!

Some of you may remember when the Google Street View Car came around and we were trying to get shots of some of us waving.  Well, they snuck in a picture of us actually playing pickleball.

To see this yourself, go to www.maps.google.com do a search for “SE 7th Ave and SE Sherman St. Albany, OR”.  This will put you at the corner by the sand volleyball court.

After you click on the Street View picture you will see an interactive view.  There will be some white arrows that you can click on to move you up the street (you will need to click several times) until you are about even with the courts.  Then if you click and hold in the upper middle of the View and drag your cursor to the right it will move the view to the left towards the courts.

And Here You Are!!!  What a good looking crew.  You can directly to Albany Pickleball Club at Hackleman Park on Google:

Here is a view from the other side. You can see who the glory hounds are.

This is probably a once in a lifetime opportunity.  Google probably won’t be back around to our town anytime soon.

We have enabled subscriptions to the blog.  You can subscribe at the bottom of the right hand column under “Subscribe to Blog via Email” and you will be notified by email anytime there is a blog post or an update to the blog.  This can be an important way of staying up-to-date with “pickleball happenings” in Albany, the NW, and around the country.

A llittle history of the Albany Pickleball Club and its formation.

We have been playing pickleball since 2008 in the Albany/Salem area.  We started by striping courts at Burkhart Park and the North Albany Middle School and had probably about 6-8 people playing, total.  In a partnership with the City and our group of players we began playing at Hackleman Park.  We striped lines, and used temporary nets.  With seed funding from the City and a huge time investment and some donations from the players we have now established 4 permanent courts at Hackleman Park for summer play.  We have also been playing indoors in the winter at the Boys and Girls Club of Albany for several years.

In 2012 we held the First Annual Rally In The Valley Pickleball Tournament.  The goal was to promote pickleball in the Mid-Willamette Valley and raise funds for court improvements.

The number of players has consistently grown and on September 16, we had an organizing meeting potluck at the Hackleman Courts to decide if we wanted to form a club.  We had a draft of bylaws and came up with a plan on how we wanted to move forward.

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On October 10, we had our first formal meeting and elected officers.  Here is a pic of the 2012 officers.  Left to right:  President – Dennis Dahlen; Vice President – John Morey; Secretary – Bob LeRoy; Treasurer – Linda Pierson; “Past President” – Bob VanderLinden

2012 Elected officers of the Albany Pickleball Club

Here are some pics of our meeting:

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