Saturday, December 23, 2017

The blog is no longer being updated but will be maintained for historical reference.  Current Robson Ranch AZ Pickleball Club information can be found at http://robsonrancharizonapickleball.webs.com/

Wednesday, March 8, 2017


Palm Creek Medal Winners From Robson Ranch

The 14th annual Palm Creek Pickleball Tournament was held March 2, 2017 through March 5, 2017.  While walking through the crowd each day of the tournament, it was obvious that a number of Robson Ranchers, both players and observers, were there to support our local club players.  The Robson Ranch Pickleball Club was well represented both in the number of our players participating in the tournament as well as the number of players winning medals.  According to my count (which might be a little suspect) there were approximately 151 medals awarded during the event.  Of those 151 medals, Robson Ranch persons took over 10% of them.  The medal winners were as follows:

Men’s Doubles

Gold
Silver
Bronze
Skill/Age
3.0/50+
R. C. Weidner
Gary Christenson



3.0/65+

Bear Bloom
Larry Suskevich


3.0/70+
Don Gibson
Mike Pennington








3.5/50+
Ron Hunt
Lloyd Muth








4.0/65+
Jeff Hamrlik
Dave Wong







Mixed Doubles

Gold
Silver
Bronze
Skill/Age
3.0/65+

Pat Pennington
Larry Suskevich







4.0/65+

Sue Waibel
Dave Wong







4.0/70+

Lynne Wolf
Wayne Champagne







4.5/65+

Binki Thalheimer
Larry Kraus






Women’s Doubles

Gold
Silver
Bronze
Skill/Age
3.0/70+
Jean DeChristopher
Judy Gottsch






4.0/65+, 70+
Overall

Sue Waibel
Fay Bruns
Doris Betuel
Bernie Bruner

4.0/65+. 70+
Group 65+

Doris Betuel
Bernie Bruner


4.0/65+. 70+
Group 70+
Sue Waibel
Fay Bruns








4.5/50+

Dianne Zimmerman
Shelia Parkinson




2017 Robson Ranch Pickleball Club 
Internal Tournament

The Robson Ranch Pickleball Club held our fourth annual internal tournament on February 13th and 14th. While intended to be primarily a social event the level of competition continues to improve thanks to the participant’s play, an increasing number of resident referees and the volunteer’s support. 

The tournament planning and decision making was provided by the Resident Pickleball Committee comprised of Chuck Bonesteel, Mary Burton, Wayne Champagne, Mickie Storckman and Gerard Wittman.  Planning, organizing and work started in November of 2016 and continued until the tournament’s end.  This committee was supported by a group of team leads in the following areas: announcing, Gerard Wittman; court supplies, Steve Falek; check-in and registration, Ron Graf/Sandi Feller, first aid, Mary Burton and the Eloy Fire Department; food, Pam Phillian; and referees and line judges, Steve Arthur.  A number of volunteers who are not identified herein due to a fear of omitting someone supported these team leads.  The Pickleball Club would also like to acknowledge the Robson Ranch Singers for their participation in the opening ceremonies.  Finally, the club would be remiss if we failed to thank the entire ranch community for allowing us to tie up half of the Sports Club parking lot during our two-day tournament.  A HUGE thank you goes out to everyone. 

The tournament was double elimination.  Competition categories were Women’s Doubles, Men’s Doubles, and Mixed Doubles.  The skill levels were 2.0/2.5, 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0 plus with medals awarded to the teams finishing first, second and third place in each category/skill level.  The matches this year seemed to be even more competitive with a large number of them going to three games in determining the winners.

There were 117 individual players comprised of 65 men and 52 women.  55 of those players did not play in last year’s tournament.  Medal winners totaled 72 with 24 Gold, 24 Silver and 24 Bronze medals awarded.  10 women, 9 men, and 6 mixed double medal recipients were repeat winners from last year.  26 medal winners did not play in last year’s resident tournament.  8 women and 5 men won two medals each. 

The opening ceremonies held on the 13th included the Robson Ranch Singers performing a wonderful
a cappella rendition of the United States and Canadian national anthems.  This was followed by the Women’s and Men’s Doubles events.  There were 24 women’s doubles teams and 27 men’s doubles teams.  After a total of 39 and 45 matches respectively, the Women’s and Men’s Doubles Team medal winners were:

Skill Level
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Women’s Doubles
2.0/2.5 
Becky Barrett
Sue Roneki     
Carol Knapp
Nellie Cronewett
Linda Farestad
Jo Parkin
3.0
Brenda Kline
Susan Phillips
Sherry Riebli
Gail Mallen
Maureen Weidner
Jackie Christenson
3.5
Sue Sherwood
Dennice Smith
Jan Kinley
Jody Muth
Sharon Vaage
Dianne Dunsford
4.0 Plus
Brenda Amans
Donna Duran
Laurell Graf
Jeannine McKinna
Sue Waibel
Barb Hager
Men’s Doubles
2.0/2.5
Dan Hennessey
Jim Uhrich
Lorne Roneki
Joe Ward
Jim Parkin
Mike Doyle
3.0
Win Oppel
Gary Christenson
Bill Sturgeon
Bob Carlson
Mike Pennington
Don Gibson
3.5
Ron Dunsford
Richard Cronk
Jon Nees
Tom Burnside
Michael Scoggins
Mike Casey
4.0 Plus
Jeff Hamrlik
Jeff Jones
Lloyd Muth
Ron Hunt
Mike Campbell
Dave Reese

On the second day, the competition was entirely Mixed Doubles in each of the previously mentioned skill levels.  There were 42 mixed doubles teams.  These teams played 76 competitive matches to determine the medal winners in each skill level.  The winning teams were:

Mixed Doubles

Gold
Silver
Bronze
2.0/2.5
Becky Barrett
Jim Uhrich
Jon Ward
Christina Campbell
Linda Farestad
Muns Farestad
3.0
Lila Nees
Larry Suskevich
Susan Phillips
Mike Pennington
Dongmei Lu
Mike Scroggins
3.5
Jody Muth
Greg Schneider
Debbie Shipman
Brian Shipman
Sharon Vaage
Tom McKinney
4.0 Plus
Jeannine McKinna
Larry Dietrick
Donna Duran
Jim Duran
Brenda Amans
Jeff Hamrlik

The club looks forward to an even better and larger participation level next year.  Should you want to take part in this fun event and get bit by the pickleball bug, you can get started for next year.  Classes occur each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10 AM teaching the game.  You then play with a group of people having your same skill level, while you continue to improve.  This year we had a number of people who won medals last year at a lower level move up and win medals at the higher levels.

PHOTOS will be posted soon under Pickleball Pictures in the menu listing to the right.

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Robson Ranch plays pickleball for charity



The following was taken from the Casa Grande Dispatch.

 By TANNER CLINCH Staff Writer
 Dec 13, 2016

ELOY — Playing pickleball was the newest way members of the Robson Ranch community decided to try and come together to help disadvantaged families in Eloy, by having a tournament for all those who cared to join.  Christmas tunes were blasting on the speakers while a spread of Christmas goodies awaited the more than 60 players between their matches. A suggested donation of $10 to play raised nearly $1,530 toward the Eloy Professional Firefighters charity that brings everything needed for a family Christmas to some of those in need.  “We were trying to break our fundraising record from last year, which was a little over $1,000, and I’m happy to say we went well past that,” said Edie Preis, who coordinated the event with the pickleball club.

The Eloy Professional Firefighters is the union for all the EMTs and firefighters of the Eloy Fire District. Every year they do their adopt-a-family program where they deliver toys, clothes, pajamas and shoes to all the kids of some area families as well as a complete Christmas dinner, according to Scott Roninger, the president of the organization.  This year they adopted four families, finding some who need it most through their line of work as well as coordinating with schools and churches in the area to make the most impact. They give roughly $500 in goods to each family, depending on how many kids they have, so this one fundraiser got them nearly to their goal, according to Roninger.

“Anything to help the kids in Eloy,” said Louise Kant, who was helping to organize the event. “And when the whole community comes out to help the kids, it’s really special.”  They were helped by the Robson Ranch Pickleball Club, which has nearly 250 members and is growing every day.

The event had 64 pickleballers placed into teams of 16 with aggregate scoring throughout all the matches.
Team Reindeer got served by Team Grinch, while in the other matchup Team Santa overwhelmed Team Elf.
After working up an appetite on the courts, players were welcomed to the party catered by Flashbacks Diner in Arizona City.

“We have a great time. It keeps us off the courts and out of the liquor cabinet,” said Preis with a grin.

Monday, January 2, 2017



Membership Information Robson Ranch Pickleball Club


It is time to pay your dues for the 2017 year (January 1 through December 31.)  There is a penalty of $5.00 as specified in our bylaws if we do not receive your dues by January 31, 2017.  The membership form is found under the Documents Section (section 6 down the right side of this blog). To print out the form, just below the word File near the top of the left side of the page, is a printer icon which you may select to print the form.

Please complete the form (1 per club member), sign it and drop it off with your check in the south most lock box outside of court #1.  Should you wish to mail your check and form, please send both to our treasurer:
Larry Kraus
5426 N. Commanche Drive,
Robson Ranch,
Eloy, AZ.  85131.


Please make your check payable to:


Robson Ranch Pickleball Club.

Thank you for your continued support.

The Robson Ranch Pickleball Club Board of Directors.