April 2023 Member Update

Save the Date: Round Robin and Potluck

Reminder that the first Friday of the month (April 7) is round robin and potluck day. Registration for the RR’s open one week in advance. The schedule will be:

  • 10:00-12:15: 3.0-3.5 Round Robin; 15 minute warm-up followed by play

  • 12:15-1:30: Potluck; everyone welcome, even if you don’t play in the RR’s

  • 1:30-3:45: 3.5-4.0 Round Robin; 15 minute warm-up followed by play

For the potluck, bring a dish to share. LPRD has a fridge if you need to refrigerate something while you play. There are also electrical outlets for slow cookers. Plates, utensils, bowls, and napkins will be provided. Bring what you want to drink, but no alcohol is allowed in the LPRD building.

LPRD Spring Event

LPRD is having their annual spring fundraising event on Thursday, May 4 this year. Many of our members attended last year and had a wonderful time while supporting a great organization of which our club is a part. Here's how you can participate this year:

  • Buy a ticket and attend the event. Tickets can be purchased at LPRD front desk.

  • Volunteer to support the event. Help will be needed before, during, and afterwards to make this a success. Helpers are needed with decorations, setup, transporting food, and cleanup. Please contact Karen Miller (karen.miller@lapineparks.org) if you are interested in volunteering.

Frontier Days Tournament

Our club tournament is going to be here before we know it! While the events are pretty full at this point (though some players are still looking for partners), there will be lots of opportunities around the tournament for everyone to participate. It’s always fun to come out and cheer on your friends, or come watch some of the 5.0 and Open players and marvel at their skill. For those interested in helping, we’ll be putting opportunities to volunteer ahead of and during the tournament on Court Reserve when it gets closer, so stay tuned for that. Also, there are some pros talking to us about offering clinics before or after the tournament, so whether you are playing in the tournament or not, you can take advantage of having some amazing players in the area to learn from them.

One need we have that we’d like to organize ahead of time is housing for tournament refs. Having a ref for a match makes a huge difference (who else is going to call those foot faults???), so we are planning to have refs for every single game during the tournament. For any refs coming from outside the area, we want to offer them places to stay to keep their costs down. If you have a guest room in your house or a spot in your driveway for a trailer/RV that you would be willing to offer from June 20 (the day before the tournament starts) through June 25, please let us know by email. Include information such as what you have to offer (spare room, 30’ trailer spot with electrical, etc.) and an estimate of drive time from your home to the outdoor courts. Thank you in advance for your help!

Advanced Open Play Added to Indoor Schedule

Note that on most Fridays from 12-2 pm we have allocated 2 courts for 4.0+ rated players to participate in Open Play.

Pickleball Rules and Etiquette

This month we’re highlighting a code of ethics for line calls put together from Section 6.D of the Pickleball Rule book:

Recent Tournament Results

At the Willamette Valley Open in March, LPPC club member Lark Lieb and her partner Kenny Boussard won gold in the 3.5 mixed 65+ event. Congratulations!

(Apologies if I missed any other club member who medalled in the tournament, the full results weren’t posted.)

And, at the 2023 March NW PIG Chase tournament, Jen Toso and partner Stephanie Lynn took silver in the Women’s 4.5 Doubles. Way to go!

DUPR Ratings

It’s been a while since we’ve talked about DUPR here, but in case you haven’t heard of it before, I’ll point you to a previous post about it for some background. As announced late last year, many of the online tournament rating systems are supposed to be moving to using DUPR this year, though there hasn’t been any information provided recently on this merger. If you haven’t already, I would recommend creating a profile on DUPR (or claiming yours if one already exists for you based on recent past tournament play). It does seem to be the direction tournament ratings are headed, even if the transition is slow.

While browsing the DUPR website, I found a section that shows top players by region. And found that the top DUPR rating for a singles female player in the Pacific NW region belongs to none other than LPPC member Jen Toso! Congratulations Jen! Maybe you should see if your counterpart on the men’s side — some guy named Tyson McGuffin — is interested in a mixed doubles partnership??? :-)

Outdoor Play Coming Soon

With some warmer weather on the horizon, people are likely to start playing on the outdoor courts at Finley Butte during the month of April. Watch and use the outdoor court signups on Court Reserve (in yellow) to indicate if/when you plan to play so others know what time play is going to start. Reminder that all club members can have the code to unlock the courts (if you don’t know it, please ask another member or captain or email us). However, you are also responsible to make sure the gates at both ends of the courts are locked any time you are the last one to leave.

New Members

Welcome to our new members!

Linda Barrow
Michael Crocker
Teryce Kilby
Brandon Frost
Nevaeh Frost
Rick Hising
William Weaver
Vaughn Weaver
Jules Weaver
Christy Johnson
John Cameron
Judy Cameron

Wider World of Pickleball

USA Pickleball and the PPA Tour have announced a partnership that moves the location of the National Championships from Indian Wells, CA to Dallas, TX, along with other changes. Read more about it here.