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My wife Loretta and I are going to try and play pickleball sometime in June of 2009 at the Las Vegas and Vacaville Pickleball sites listed on the USAPA website, and to at least visit the Lincoln Hills and Roseville Dell Webb communities and observe whatever pickleball is going on in those communities. I will report back here after the trips on whatever we learn about Pickleball in those communities.

So far on previous visits, we have not been able to catch anyone playing at the Roseville court. Maybe we will get lucky on our next visit and get to talk to some of their players.

We are also going to be visiting in Elk Grove, Ca for a short time, so if anybody knows of Pickleball in Elk Grove, or possible sites for Pickleball in the future, please send us an email as soon as possible by clicking on the "Contact Bob" link at the top right of this page.

As of January 1st 2009, I am no longer entering points for USAPA sanctioned events. I will sometimes answer email sent to the USAPA about rankings and ratings that may be forwarded to me. This may happen only until such time as they have a replacement take a seat on the USAPA board. I have been and probably will continue to provide programming support for existing programs when needed, but will not be setting any policies on the systems. Since I have more free time now, I will begin going over this site and making some changes and additions.

This area will have information pertaining to the USAPA including links to certain areas of the website and occasional comments or surveys about current pickleball practices.

Click here to see if you have been given a USAPA player rating. Entering a sanctioned rated tournament in a rated event lower than your rating could result in loss of ranking points for that tournament or more! Go to the usapa.org ratings page for instructions on how to file an appeal if you disagree with your rating. Players without a rating may self rate themselves for a tournament, but require approval of their rating by the Tournament Director.

On our 2nd trip to the Sacramento area, my wife and I made a point of arriving in Vacaville, CA on a Sunday so that we could join the pickleball group that plays indoors on Sundays at the Georgia Duke Center. This is a public gymnasium where they have up to 6 badminton courts that are set up for pickleball on Sunday nights. This happened to be Super Bowl Sunday, but they still managed to fill 3 courts for the evening with a couple of extra players rotating in. I was told that they had 21 players the previous Sunday. If you play pickleball and happen to be in the area, I would highly suggest you give it a try. It will be well worth your time.

This was our first experience playing indoor on a gym floor with the indoor ball and it was a lot of fun! The players were very friendly and while some were inexperienced, they made up for it with great enthusiasm and greater speed of foot and strength that comes with youth. There was a nice mix of all ages in the group and they rotate players between courts after games so that you get to play with a variety of players. I had forgotten how high the younger group can jump and how fast they can move!! According to some of the players, they have a group that also plays on Tuesday and Thursdays outdoors at a park in Vacaville whose name I have forgotten The contact names and phone numbers are mixed up on the USAPA web site, but whoever you call will try to help you. I will try to post the correct information here later.

We also managed to play one time at Lincoln Hills on this trip also. The pickleball courts are located near the tennis courts and both groups appear to be very active. Since they currently have two courts, the players bring lawn chairs so they can sit around and talk and have snacks sometimes while they wait their turn to play. We enjoyed the games and talking with the players, but couldn't stay too long as we had other commitments in the area. As far as we can tell, Lincoln Hills appears to be the current leader in senior communities for pickleball in the Sacramento area although we could have missed one that wasn't listed on the USAPA web site.

The last pickleball place we got to visit was Johnson Tennis Club where they have 4 pickleball courts set up on what used to be the basketball courts. We happened to visit on the wrong day, so nobody was playing but the courts were nice although a long hike from the club house for us old folks. However, the next day we received a nice invitation from one of the pickleball players at Johnson Ranch to play indoors which they do one day a week when it rains. Unfortunately, we had to miss that unique opportunity because of previous plans that couldn't be broken. I should also mention in passing, that the Tennis Pro at Johnson Ranch was extremely helpful in walking us out to see the pickleball courts and that it seemed to be one of the most active tennis clubs I had every had the privilege of visiting. It looked like a tennis player's dream come true.

I almost forgot, that we did drive up to the town of Meadow Vista to inspect their 4 outdoor pickleball courts which are public. They were nice courts, and the contact name given on the USAPA web site was willing to play one afternoon with us, but we were not able to do so as we need to go home a week earlier than planned. These courts were located in a big public park which had many other activities available for the community. I heard that some of the players from Lincoln Hills were planning to go up and play one afternoon which sounded like fun if we had more time. These are the first public courts that I have run across, although I know that there are others around the country.

December 2008: Pickleball in Lincoln Hills, CA

My wife Loretta and I visited the Dell Web Community in Lincoln Hills recently. We arrived about 4:00P.M. on a Wednesday and of course had to check if their was any Pickleball courts in the community. We found 2 courts set up for play on a basketball court next to the tennis courts and a game in progress with a few players watching. Everyone was extremely friendly and invited us to play which we did with borrowed paddles for a couple of games.

After browsing at homes in the area the next day, we made another visit to the pickleball courts to check out the action and found both courts busy with lots of other players sitting around the courts watching and enjoying snacks. While we didn't have time to play, everybody was again extremely welcoming and indicated that they have approval for three more pickleball courts to be built next to the ones currently being used. I believe they said that they already have about 200 members and were growing.

While I'm extremely bad at remembering names, a couple of the players indicated that they had been to the Huntsman Senior Olympics in Utah and had won some gold medals. Anyway we enjoyed the visit with their players and this was definitely one of the highlights of our trip to California. Thanks to everyone there for the welcome.

Click here to see the USAPA Ranking System Documentation for 2008. Read about changes in Senior Pickleball tournaments by age that will bring Pickleball more in line with the Age Rules followed in many other senior sports!

Click here to read the USAPA Rating System Documentation on the USAPA web site.