Women’s Doubles 3.0 Silver Medalists Susan Phillips and Pat Pennington. Photo courtesy of Marv Enerson.
David Lawell
The third annual Robson Ranch Pickleball tournament was bigger and better than the previous two. Over 400 entrants participated in the five skill levels in the women’s, men’s and mixed doubles divisions. After four days and many, many matches, medals were awarded to 180 individuals or 90 teams. After all was said and done there were no losers. The bitter taste of defeat soon disappears because of the sweetness provided by the feelings of great competition, friendship and camaraderie shared amongst the entire pickleball family.
Our own Robson pickleball family shared in that success as many of our players went deep into the tournament with many winning medals. Congratulations to Robson players and medal winners: Al Hager, Larry Kraus, RC Weidner, Jeff Hamrlik, Pat Pennington, Susan Phillips, Jeanine and Kelly McKinna.
Once again this year Al Hager and his crew of helpers from Robson and sister communities in Casa Grande and the state of Arizona drew rave reviews as one of the most liked and most well run tournaments in all of Arizona. The hard work of all involved is rewarded when the visitors to our community make comments of “what a beautiful and friendly community we have at Robson.” Fortunately, for most of the tournament, anyway, the weather co-operated allowing players and spectators to enjoy the experience. Only a couple of matches had to be postponed permitting the play to be completed without extended play on the rain date.
Looking to the future the Robson community will be hosting a third tournament in 2015. Robson Ranch has been selected by the United States of America Pickleball Association (USAPA) to co-host with Palm Creek the 2015 USAPA Nationals VII tournament. The tournament will run Sunday, November 8, through Sunday, November 15. Saturday, November 7, Robson will host a practice day and referee training. The first four days of play will be at Robson Ranch and involve women’s, men’s and mixed doubles play of age groups 19+ and older. The next four days of play will be held at Palm Creek and will be competition involving women’s, men’s and mixed senior doubles and singles open play and junior division doubles, mixed doubles and singles play. Junior division involves players 10 years of age and under up to 18 and under in two-year age increments.
As one can see this is a large undertaking hosting a tournament that will involve 800+ pickleball players from all over the world. What an opportunity for the residents of Robson Ranch Arizona to step up and showcase our community and club by volunteering some time to make it happen. And by the way, also set aside time to enjoy pickleball played by the best players of all ages on the planet! You will not regret it!