ROBSON RANCH 1ST ANNUAL SKILL LEVEL PICKLEBALL TOURNAMENT

ROBSON RANCH 1^ST ANNUAL SKILL LEVEL PICKLEBALL TOURNAMENT

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

(SKILL LEVELS 3.5 THRU 5.0)

MARCH 21, 22, 23, 2013

DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION MARCH 1, 2013

Thursday, March 21^st 2013

Women’s Doubles (3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0)        

Friday, March 22^nd 2013

Men’s Doubles (3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0)

Saturday, March 23^rd 2013

Mixed Doubles (3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0)

**Rain Date Sunday, March 24^th if needed**

*$5.00 lunch with be served daily courtside for players and spectator.

* Full menu and daily specials will be available each day in the Robson Bar/Grill for lunch and dinner.

Many vendors will be set up courtside with a variety of pickleball items; such as paddles, clothing and jewelry. A 50/50 drawing will be held daily along with a special raffle to be held at the model homes area.

A USAPA booth will be set up to allow sign-up for the pickleball membership or to renew existing memberships.

For more detailed information to enter our tournament go to usapa.org, or go directly to pickleballtournaments.com to register online or print off a registration form.

We want to welcome everyone to come and view our Robson Ranch community and our state of the art pickleball courts. We encourage all Robson communities to come and join us for a weekend of fun, competition and comradery. We promise to have some of the best pickleball play in all of Arizona!

If you have any problems registering or any questions concerning the tournament please contact:

Al Hager, Tournament Director

(419)-619-1122 or email hager1371@aol.com.

Mission Royale Tournament Winners

Congratulations to the following club members who won medals at the Mission Royale Tournament which was held Jan. 30 - Feb 2.     Full results can be found here . 

Congratulations to Dave Wong and Dave Lawell who took a silver in the Men's Doubles 3.0. 

Congratulations to Caroline Anderson (3rd from right) and her partner Dee Rochel for taking a gold medal in the Women's Doubles 3.5

Congratulations to Barb Hager and Terri Yates for taking a silver medal in the Women's Doubles 3.5 

Congratulations to Al Hager and his partner Cookie Drake for taking a silver medal in the Mixed Doubles 55-59. 

Congratulations to Al Hager and his partner Patrick Kane for taking a silver medal in the Men's Doubles 5.0. 

Note:  Photos courtesy of Bill Kvistad

Robson Ranch Pickleball T-Shirts

With our tournament just around the corner, t-shirts are ready to be ordered.  Several  styles/options will be available.  This year’s color will be gold(yellow).  Order your’s today and show support for Pickleball, Robson Ranch, and tournament players/volunteers.

There is some concern to previous shirts not fitting correctly.  I will supply links to the shirt specifications.  Each specification gives the measurement and how the measurement is taken.  You can measure a shirt that correctly fits and match the size exactly.  Each individual is responsible for ordering their correct size.

I will supply an order form.  Payment is required prior to shirt being ordered.  Once order is submitted, a 2-3 week turnaround is expected.

The Robson Ranch Logo from our RR Pickleball blog will be used.  Any change in the color of the logo requires an additional $15.  Cost of the shirt will be comparative to last year $14(S-XL), $16(2X), $18(3X).  Price may vary if a more expensive shirt is requested.  Price includes shirt, print, and tax.

The link to the shirt site is: www.sanmar.com.  Last year’s shirt style was ST700 and LST700.  Click on specs for sizes.

Deadline for orders will be 14 Feb(Valentine’s Day).

Point of Contact will be Steve Arthur (540)355-8065 or gitpicker42@aol.com.

We've got LIGHTS!!!!!

Note: that the lights must be shut off by the last group leaving the court and MUST be turned off by 9PM in consideration of Comanche Dr. Residents.

2ND ANNUAL MISSION ROYALE PICKLEBALL TOURNAMENT

DATES: Wednesday, January 30^th thru Saturday, February 2^nd, 2013

Just a reminder for all you Pickleball enthusiast, last day of registration for the Mission Royale tournament is January 10^th. Please get your registrations in to help support Mission Royale’s tournament.  Even if you are not playing please take time to attend a day at their tournament just to see how the tournament is ran. They have great food at a reasonable price so you could enjoy lunch one day with friends. Pickleball vendors will be there with items to sell as well as raffles to take a chance at winning items!

PLEASE HELP SUPPORT OUR INTERCOMMUNITY FRIENDS WHO WILL IN TURN SUPPORT OUR TOURNAMENT!

Referee Seminar

To All Pickleball Club Members

As Director of our March tournament, Al Hager has asked Nancy and me to manage the referee portion of the tournament. For the tournament to function smoothly, it's critical that we have a large number of trained and willing referees. We need to have trained referees for all 16 courts all day for 3 days plus backups so that no one gets burned out from refereeing too many matches. With tournaments at Palm Creek, Mission Royale and Robson, our area needs a large number of qualified referees. I know a number of our members attended the training session at Palm Creek led by Tom Gearhart and then practiced during our round robins at Robson. Tom has again graciously agreed to provide a training seminar. This training is essential for those of you who have not refereed in the past and I'm sure a refresher course would be helpful for those who took last year's training, but have not had much experience at tournaments throughout the year. As noted in the flyer below, the training will require attendance at both the January 5th and 12th sessions.

If you're interested in becoming a referee and willing to attend the 2 training sessions, please send an e-mail to larrykraus@yahoo.com so we can contact Rosemary Reese at Palm Creek to ensure that passes are available and also add you to our list of possible referees. We appreciate the commitment of our members to help ensure that our tournament is a smoothly run, first class endeavor.

Larry and Nancy Kraus

Referee Seminar

Do you want to learn how to referee a pickleball game? If you do, we as a club need you. Just sign up at the pickleball courts.

WHEN: Saturday, January 5, 2013 2:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M.

Where: Pickleball Courts

Commitment: 2 Saturdays (Jan. 5^th & Jan 12^th & practice refereeing 12 games before “In-house Tournament”.

What you should do before the seminar: Go to USAPA.org and click on Official rules, print them and then read and understand them. Understanding the rules is imperative to being a good referee.

Instructor, Tom Gearhart #389

2013 Board of Directors

Election Results for the Robson Ranch AZ Pickleball Club for 2013 are:

Sandy Byrnes - Vice President

Larry Kraus - Treasurer
Dave Lawell - Director-at-Large

Ken McManis - Director-at-Large

The 2013 Board of Directors will be:

Don Pixley - President

Sandy Byrnes - Vice President

Dard Price - Secretary

Larry Kraus - Treasurer

Steve Falek - Director-at-Large

Dave Lawell - Director-at-Large

Ken McManis - Director-at-Large

Robson Ranch View publication

Despite a warm and humid summer, the courts at Robson Ranch here in Eloy have had close to 8-10 people playing daily with an influx of up to 28 or more when the Summer League would visit on Mondays.  On Labor Day, Robson Ranch was the host to the Summer League which you see pictured.  The Summer League consists of hardy desert players from Palm Creek, Mission Royale, and Robson Ranch. The League played throughout the summer varying the venues on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

While many stayed here at the Ranch this summer, others tried to beat the heat and humidity in other parts of the US. Some members were not terribly successful as summer in many other states were sometimes more humid and hot as verified by Larry Kraus who stated July 4th was hotter in Michigan than it was here on the 4th. (In case you forgot, our July 4th pool party and parade was canceled due to rain with very cool temperatures.) Dale Mumy, who visited during the summer for a few weeks, stated it was hotter in Ohio before he left there than it was in Eloy.  I think he brought a bit of humidity with him unfortunately.

Some of our more competitive members were out winning medals of various colors this summer. A quick check shows: Mike Rains with 3 Golds and a Bronze; Al Hager with a Gold, 3 Silvers, and a Bronze; Larry Kraus with 2 Golds; and finally Nancy Kraus with a Gold.

As a club we have at least two very exciting things coming up this season. First, will be lights on courts 5-12 which will enable us to play in the cooler evenings and also enable late tournament games if necessary. Secondly, our first USAPA sanctioned Pickleball Tournament will be held March 21-24, 2013.  I have confirmed lessons for 3.0 and above players will once again be given by Larry Kraus, as well as, referee instruction for our tournament.

For more information about the RRAZ Pickleball Club please go to the RR HOA site under clubs and find pickleball and/or visit our blog at http://robsonranchpickleballclub.blogspot.com/ .  Everyone is welcome to come to a lesson to see if pickleball is for them.  Check the board by the pickleball courts for lesson information.  Membership in the club is $20 for the complete year or $10 after August 31^st.  Our dues year runs from January 1 to December 31.

Royal Oak, MI Tournament

Larry Kraus and his partner Bud Stefanko took the gold in the Men’s 4.0 skill level event at the Royal Oak Summer tournament.   The tournament which was held Aug  24-26^th in Royal Oak, MI had a total of 101 teams playing over the 3 days.   Full results can be found here. 

Michigan Tournament Winners

Nancy Kraus and her partner took a gold in the 65-69 age bracket at the Michigan Senior Olympics which was held June 11-15 in Rochester,  MI.    Full results can be found here . 

Larry Kraus and his partner Tom Burkhart took the gold in the Men’s  60-64 age bracket at the Meijer State Games of Michigan which was held June 23-24^th in Grand Rapids, MI.   Full results can be found here.