Frontier Days Tournament Schedule

Follow this link and click on “Schedule” near the top of the page to see the daily schedule for the tournament, starting this coming Wednesday, June 22 and going through Sunday, June 26. Come out, cheer on your friends, and watch some of the Open players show us what we can aspire to.

Merci, gracias, danke

A big thank you shout out goes to the intrepid team who braved surprisingly cold, wet June weather to get our courts cleaned ahead of the tournament. Mark O’Brian (organizer), Kevin Gorman, Theresa O’Brian, Dick Mountjoy, Mark Hower, Sandy Gephardt, Mike Williams, Lark Lieb, Chuck Towner, Gene Shands, and Jay Steiner all pitched in (apologies if I missed anyone). The courts look great!

Court Reserve Updates

Open Play: Several people have asked “Do I have to sign up for Open Play, or can I just show up?”. Well, there are two answers: no, you don’t HAVE to sign up. No one is going to turn you away from the courts if you don’t sign up online ahead of time. But, SHOULD you sign up? Yes, please, whenever possible! Most people will check online to inform their decision to come out and play or not, especially if they are driving from a ways away. If no one has signed up, they won’t want to risk coming out to find any empty court and no one to play with. Do you look online to see if others are going to be there? Sign up while you’re on the system! Also, the sign up gives you a place in the “Notes” field to communicate to others WHEN you will be there, such as “arriving 9 am” so that your friends will know when to show up if they want to play together.

Paddle Battle Sign Up Timing: For Paddle Battles, the online signup currently closes at noon on the day of the event. This allows us to see if there is enough interest (i.e. enough teams signed up) to hold the event. In cases where there are less than 4 teams signed up by noon, the event will likely be cancelled. People can still come out and unlock the courts themselves and play, but an organized battle won’t occur.

Wider World of Pickleball

When you were first introduced to pickleball, what did you think of the scoring system? I know I was going “What’s with that third number for doubles?”. Ever wish that you and your partner could stay on the sides of the court you prefer to play without having to stack? Does it frustrate you when your amazing shot just gets you a side out instead of a point? Well then rally scoring just may be for you! This article explains some of the pros and cons of it and says USA Pickleball has a committee investigating the effects on the game. The Major League Pickleball (MLP) events are already using it as well. It doesn’t sound like any changes are imminent, but this could be more widely used in the future for our sport.

Speaking of MLP, the first event of 2022 took place a couple weeks ago in Austin, TX, with two more events later this year. Former local pickleball pro Lee Whitwell was named the MVP for the second time in a row. Read more about it here.

Seems like I’m hearing more and more about NFL players who enjoy pickleball lately. Since Drew Bledsoe sold his house in Bend a couple years ago I’m not sure how likely we are to run into NFL players in Central Oregon. But, keep this story in mind in case you see some giant athletic guys on our courts.

And… I’m just going to leave this story here without too much commentary, though the picture below will show you where this is headed. The most surprising thing to me was that there’s a place you can do this in Bend. Who knew?

Lots more Pickleball courts coming to Eugene, OR (though not til 2024 or later).