Left to right, back row: Lori Dougherty, Kim Corbel, Elizabeth Espy, Georgia Graeff, Lisa Henriksen; front row: Kathy Mendel, Donna Johnson, Reggie Mamer
Pam McWhorter
That fact is certainly true here in our PebbleCreek active retirement community. A large portion of our club travels north for the summer or they simply don’t play in the extreme summer heat. Nonetheless, it’s still a challenge to find court time. At 6 a.m. players make it work. But for those who are night owls, 6 a.m. arrives a little too early. To solve that problem, some PebbleCreek Pickleball Club members meet at night. The Night Crews!
I recently visited with a Wednesday night crew that was started by Kim Corbel. Kim works during the day as a middle school teacher. She has invited seven other pickleball players to join her to play, practice skills, and to just have fun! The night crew has their choice of courts 1-12 where the courts are lit. This group begins their play after dinner around 7 p.m. and ends around 9 p.m. The official end time for the pickleball courts is 10 p.m.
I can’t tell you how much fun they have, because they want to keep it a big secret, but I witnessed a lot of competitive fun! One court was kept at a slower pace to work on specific skills. The other court had a “guest, higher level player.”
On the day of my visit, the guest was Georgia Graeff. In the past, Kim has had Kit May and Maureen Strachan visit as well. She has the higher-level player provide feedback and of course they also add a challenge to their overall play. Many thanks to these players for helping this group improve their game!
Some of the benefits of night play are no crowd, no waiting with paddles in, and no yelling BALL ON! Secondly, you can play skill-building games such as a dink game and the 5th and 6th player in for unforced errors. Last but not least, there are beautiful Arizona sunsets and …on the night of my visit, a full moon!