Brenda Weide
A huge thank you to Kevin Hillstrom and all the coaches who helped with our Player Development classes this year. We appreciate all the time and effort that went into helping us become better pickleball players. Several of the referees said they saw a huge improvement in players’ skills used during the club tournaments.
Two years ago when Nancy Popenhagen became president she asked Steve Schaefer to develop a program that helped all players, from beginning to advanced, learn new skills. Kevin started working with Steve a year and a half ago. A huge thank you to Nancy and to Steve for their foresight to what we need as players.
Over the last year Kevin has instituted skills classes where they taught us a skill and divided us four people to a court with one coach. It was separated by levels, and skills were taught accordingly. The coaches helped each of us master the skill being taught and gave us input on other areas as well. As a participant I appreciated their help and feedback as we each learned new skills to improve our game.
More than 400 people went through the classes this year, which is a huge increase from previous years.
Kevin Hillstrom is a Burgundy player and has played in many tournaments both inside and outside PebbleCreek (PC). In the lessons he taught us what he’s seeing outside of PC and how we can be better players.
Glenn Schneider said, “My wife Debbie and I feel so fortunate that we found PebbleCreek and pickleball. The Pickleball Club has so much to offer, whether you just want to enjoy games with your friends or want to see how far you can go with improving your game. And if the latter is your objective, the club has a multitude of training, events, and tournaments to help accomplish this. My personal favorite has been the Sunday skills classes that have covered a variety of areas important to develop my abilities to the next level. I really appreciate the many volunteers who take time away from their busy schedules to make this happen. I hope someday I will be able to give back by helping with these sessions.”
Diamondbacks Baseball Contribution
Last year Jo Comstock was able to sign PC Pickleball up at the Diamondbacks baseball stadium to earn money for people buying tickets to the baseball games. We earned a small percentage of each person’s ticket purchase, which went toward our pickleball fund. We received a check this year for $147. Thank you, Jo, for paying attention to details!