Mike Sausser. Photo by Dannie Cortez.
Linda Krueger. Photo by Dannie Cortez.
Robin Weaver. Photo by Dannie Cortez.
Cynthia Schwartz
From Nov. 2 to 10, the Indian Wells Tennis Garden (IWTG), a $77 million professional sports complex, will host the world’s largest pickleball tournament. IWTG is owned by Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle Corporation. Twenty-eight tennis courts will be converted into 45 pickleball courts that will accommodate hundreds of matches for more than 2,500 professional and amateur pickleball players.
More than 110 USA Pickleball Association (USAPA) certified referees will participate in the tournament. Five of these certified referees are members of the PebbleCreek Pickleball Club: Paula Handrup, Linda Krueger, Mike Sausser, Bill Plesha, and Robin Weaver.
The path to becoming a USAPA-certified referee requires classroom and on-the-court training, observation, and an intense mentoring program. The timeline to become a certified referee can be several months to more than a year.
Bill Plesha is the southwest regional referee coordinator. In 2018, Bill refereed more than 500 matches in 20 tournaments. While Bill Plesha is not a tournament pickleball player, he plays socially with his wife Lynn and friends on the PebbleCreek pickleball courts.
At the 2018 national tournament, Mike Sausser refereed the match between the top four women players vying for the gold medal on center court. This match was televised live on ESPN. At the western regionals in Los Angeles, Mike refereed 27 matches in one day. Mike said, “I referee because it gives me the opportunity to spend more time around the game I love…the social interaction with all my friends in the pickleball community and hopefully give something back by being the best official I can be.”
Linda Krueger started playing pickleball when she and her husband moved to PebbleCreek in 2015. Linda says, “I became a referee as a way to help me learn the rules of the game and become a better player. I found that I enjoyed refereeing and decided to become certified.” Linda became certified in 2018 and clocked 16,000 steps in one day of refereeing.
Paula Handrup has been a certified referee for three years. Paula says, “At the 2018 national pickleball tournament, I refereed a total of 100 matches, including the open men’s doubles pro match on center court, televised on ESPN. Due to [my] many artificial joints, playing pickleball became limited, but refereeing has kept me involved in this fabulous sport.”
Robin Weaver refereed the western regionals in Fountain Valley, where more than 1,000 players participated. She recently returned from the Las Vegas Open, where the matches were held on the roof of the Plaza Hotel. Robin became a certified referee because she believed it potentially could improve her game by watching and learning the best players’ techniques.
Interested in the fastest growing sport in the United States? Visit the PebbleCreek pickleball website at pcpbclub.org or email [email protected].