Sherill Mercer (in the middle) with four new players.
Constance Angus and Sherrill Mercer
On October 5 the Pickleball Club began its winter schedule of events by starting with this season’s first TGIF Night Social Play. Every Friday from 4:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. club members bring snacks to share and several of the courts are open for social play. Players at all levels play together. It’s a great way for new players to play with players of all levels of the game.
At this season’s first TGIF Night, four friends went to the courts just to hit some balls and begin finding out what the attraction is to playing “the fastest growing sport in the world,” the court sport that plays with a cute yellow ball with holes in it and is called pickleball. They weren’t playing long before another player invited the wide-eyed foursome to come over to courts 1-8 and join in for some food and play. In the course of the conversation Constance Angus, wife of the President of the Club, John Angus, learned that the foursome was trying to learn how to play. Constance asked if the curious new players wanted some instruction and the novices jumped at the opportunity. Within minutes another player, Sherrill Mercer, the New Member Ambassador, heard there were new players on the courts and she invited the newbies to sign up for a free Novice Instructional Class, which is offered at no charge every Friday afternoon. It didn’t take long before Constance and Sherrill had moved the new players over to join in on the social. Quickly, Sherrill had the foursome signed up for their first instructional class and on the courts learning the basic rules of serving, returning the serve and how to keep score. The giggling began and so did the addiction to the game of pickleball.