October 1: Save the Date!
October 1 (Saturday) will be a trifecta of activities for the club, so make sure to put it on your calendar!
Round Robin: 8:30 - 10:30 is a round robin. Sign up ahead of time on Court Reserve. These events tend to fill up, so sign up soon if you want to participate.
All-Member meeting: 10:30 am. Following the Round Robin, we’ll have a meeting that all club members are invited to attend around the picnic tables at the courts. We’ll have a short presentation from the board about the current state of the club, and then have an open questions/suggestions period for anyone who’d like to provide constructive feedback on the direction of the club.
Potluck: ~11:00 am. Following the All-Member meeting, we’ll have a potluck that all members are welcome to join. We might start a bit later than this, depending on how long the meeting goes.
If you have feedback for the club that you’d prefer to share in a more 1:1 setting, please feel free to speak to one of the board members or send us an email during or after the potluck. We want to hear from you on how we’re doing and if you have suggestions to make our club better!
8th Annual Frontier Days Tournament: June 21-25, 2023
We have chosen the date for next year’s Frontier Days Tournament: June 21 - 25. Mark your calendars to play in or volunteer for our club’s biggest fundraiser for the year! Registration will open on Jan. 1, 2023. A few related updates:
After years of having Andie Price as our Tournament Director, we had to say good-bye as she has moved to Tennessee. We wish her all the best and thank her for her support of our club.
Taking Andie’s place, Cathy Hundley will be our Tournament Director for next year. George Shrum and Whitney Smith will be the Registration and Operations Managers. They’ll also be getting plenty of help from Jim Price as Tournament Consultant and Referee Coordinator for the event.
Prize Money increase: One of the big draws for our tournament are the Men’s, Women’s and Mixed Open events, which include prize money for the winners. Since our club has paid off our loans at this time, we are going to direct more of this year’s tournament income back into prize money. Last year, we paid out $6,000 in total to the Open event winners. This year, assuming there are enough entrants in the three brackets, we want to increase that pay out to $10,000. We expect this will help draw even more top players to our tournament, keeping Frontier Days as an event some of our favorite pros mark early on their calendars so they can attend each year.
Referees: In addition to putting more money towards the Open purse, we’re also planning to put more money towards paying referees. This should incentivize more of them to attend, with our goal being to have refs for all matches if possible.
Social Media: We’ve created a Facebook page for Frontier Days to help promote the event and share content related to it. If you are a Facebook user, you are welcome to follow the page to stay up to date on tournament information.
Pickleball Planet
Many of you are familiar with Pickleball Planet, owned by LPPC members Jen and Rick Toso. They wanted to let other members know that when you place an order their website, if you use code LaPine2022 at checkout you will not be charged for shipment to La Pine, since they can usually arrange to deliver your products to you at the courts.
Tournament Results and Upcoming Events
Speaking of tournaments, some our members played in the Rally in the Valley tournament last weekend and brought home some hardware:
Men’s Doubles 3.5, 60-69 age group, Bronze Medal: Rick Toso with partner Bruno Frei
Mixed Doubles 4.0, 50-59 age group, Silver Medal: Jen Toso with partner Bob Friel
Mixed Doubles 4.0, 60-69 age group, Silver Medal: Cyndie Gill with partner Ken Garcia
Mixed Doubles 3.5, 19-49,50-59 age groups, Silver Medal: Rick Toso with partner Kathy Obannon
Women’s Doubles 4.5, 60-69 age group, Gold Medal: Jen Toso with partner Jeanette Welker
Congratulations Cyndie, Rick and Jen!
Here are the tournaments coming up through the end of the year in Oregon:
Prineville Picklebrawl in Prineville, Sept. 9-11 (registration is full)
Inaugural Tualatin Valley Tournament in Forest Grove, Sept. 10-11
2022 Paddling for Childhood Cancer, Klamath Falls, Sept. 23-25
Paddle the Rogue 2022 in Grants Pass, Sept. 30 - Oct. 2
Octoberfest in Albany (Albany Tennis/Pickleball Club), Oct. 10-11
Pickleball Zone Fall Classic in Bend, Oct. 20-23
LPRD Flooring Update
Though we’re still enjoying plenty of sunshine and warmth right now, it won’t be too long before we head back inside to get our pickleball fix. As those of you who have played indoors at LPRD (La Pine Park and Recreation Department) know, the court flooring has issues with bubbles, where it has separated from the subfloor. LPRD has contracted to have this issue fixed in the month of September. We expect courts to be ready for play by the time inclement weather sets in. Of course, your ability to hit those spots accurately, resulting in a ball that barely bounces, will no longer be something you can take advantage of :-)
Thank You’s
Beginner Instruction: For the last few months, a group of members have been holding an informal instruction class on Monday mornings open to players who are new/newer to pickleball. This has been an amazing resource for many of our new members and we can’t thank the volunteers running it enough! Thank you to Mike Williams, Cathy Hundley, Dreena Williams, Mark O’Brian, and anyone else who has helped that I might have missed!
Court Cleaning and Screen Hanging: A couple weeks ago, we had a crew of volunteer members out on Friday morning to clean our courts and hang up the new screen material on the parking lot side. The screen helps reduce some of the wind at court-level on the south side courts, and also gives a more consistent background to see the ball against. Thanks to all the volunteers who came out to help!
Miscellaneous Topics
Paddle Battle: The Monday evening 3.5+ Paddle Battle continues to be a fun event with strong turnout. Starting this coming Monday, we’re moving the start time to 5:30 since we’re losing daylight earlier and earlier. Be there ahead of 5:30 to warm-up so we can start on time.
Court Reserve: We have seen an increase in the percent of players signing up on Court Reserve for daily open play. Thank you! Let's get to 100% of us signing up each time we play. It really helps those who are deciding to make a longer drive to join us.
DUPR: This is a reminder from last month that if you want to be rated as a player, an easy, free option is to sign up on the DUPR.com website. Begin playing with and against other DUPR members to get your rating. Questions? Talk with a board member or other club members who are using it.
New Equipment: The club has ordered an electric backpack leaf blower for use in cleaning pine needles off the court before play. It should arrive in ~2 weeks and will be in the shed, accessible by captains.
Treasurer’s Report
Total funds as of 8/26/22: $ 12,154.66
General Fund $ 7,275.20
Tournament Fund $ 4,879.46
Welcome New Members
Our club has reached an all-time high of 166 members! This month alone we added 19 new members, which is wonderful because we all know it’s more fun to play when we have more fun people to play with. Welcome to the club!
Ryan Pierson, Pat Luce, Kevin Rose, Kimmie Johnson, Nate Johnson, T.J. Murry, Julie Schlendorf, John Schlendorf, Lisa Brown, Joe Pinochi, Mona Pinochi, Tim Driver, Dana Pantuso, Ed King, Marla Prentice, Michael Salvage, Kelly Anez, Doug Anez, and Eric Eastman