Greetings from our Club Leaders

October 31, 2015

 

Greetings Palm Creek Tennis Players,

            Summer is over, and people are starting the migration to Palm Creek in earnest starting next week.  We look forward to reconnecting with everyone for the launch of the 2015-2016 Palm Creek Tennis season.  By now all should have heard of our good fortune regarding our old tennis courts being replaced with courts identical to the north bank of courts.  The last we heard was that demolition is scheduled to begin about November 15^th, and plans are to have the new courts play ready by the middle of January.  While we all would have preferred to have the construction completed before our arrival, we will do what is needed to work our tennis program around the construction.  As Lisa Harold observed when Sun said they were ready to get on with the court replacement -- let’s get it done while they are in the mood. 

            As you should expect, this project will impact our “normal” program start-up in many ways.  To that end a committee of 6 men and women from your tennis club have had substantial discussions during the last few days. We decided that changes need to be made, and this is the right time to try some new approaches.  So, the main reason for this communication is to share some of them with you as early in the process as possible:

1.      For some time now we have talked of a new court numbering system.  Effective next week,  courts 1 through 4 will be the north bank (new courts) starting with court 1 on the east end by the Pavilion progressing to court 4  next to the tennis shack on the west end.  Court 5 will be directly across from court 4, and courts 6, 7, & 8 will progress to the east with court 8 being next to the dog park. Courts 5 through 8 will obviously be the new construction.

2.     After much discussion, it was decided that we will replace our Ladder League format with something that will be easier to administer and will not require the level of commitment from players the ladder did.  No need to worry about getting substitutes if you can’t participate every week.  No last minute panic when someone new checks in or someone doesn’t show up.  In place of the Ladder League format, we are going to a formal Round Robbin format.  We will have organized Men’s, Women’s, Mixed, Intermediate Men (normally 2.5, 3.0, and 3.5), and Saturday mixed Round Robin play weekly (see schedule sheet and Tennis Anyone brochure attached for detail).   Players will need to be at the courts 15 minutes before scheduled play to sign in for the days play.  You will follow the format on the Round Robin sheet that corresponds with the number of players who have signed up.  Most of you have played this format and are familiar with it.  While the numbers of players probably won’t support more than one skill level early in the season, it can certainly be split into two skill levels as our numbers increase.

3.     In the past, Glenn Arnold has given up all his Saturday mornings to oversee a mixed Round Robin, and Jerry and Doris Grayson have sacrificed their Sunday afternoons for the Sunday group.  We will combine those groups into a Saturday Round Robin group which will be shared by Glenn and Jerry.  

4.     We are still offering seasonal court booking for doubles or singles players seeking a regular group to play with weekly.  Start discussion with those you want to play with, pick a designated leader for your group, look at the open slots on the schedule sheet (attached) and contact Jim Weaver to get your schedule booked for the season.  Wednesday afternoons are still reserved for our weekly Happy Hour at the Pavilion.  Our social calendar is pretty well put together – more about that at our first Club Meeting on Saturday November 21^st.

5.     Social is up and running, and will return to its regular time (9:30 – 11:00 M-F) on Monday November 2^nd.  We will also be starting the new Round Robin sessions for Men, Women, and Mixed this coming week (Monday Nov 2^nd).  More information to follow as available.

 

Please give these new plans a fair chance.  

 

WELCOME BACK!!!

Glenn Carter & Penny Jacobsen

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!

Our leaders, Glenn Carter and Penny Mason were recently informed that on approximately November 15 demolition will begin of our south four tennis courts(#1-4). New construction will follow immediately which will result in those courts being transformed into state of the art post-stress concrete courts identical to our north bank of  courts.  The target for completion is on or before January 15, 2016.

We're Getting Ready!

The Arizona summer did its usual thing....depositing sand all over our wonderful tennis courts.  But on Wednesday, October 21 a hard-working group of loyal "Palm Creekers" braved a chilly, wet morning and cleaned off our courts.  In the words of Hank Olsen, our team leader... "Rain or shine we will clean!" Actually the job is easier when courts are wet! Yes, they were very wet, we had a downpour that stopped at 7:30AM.....our start time!

Our cleaning party.  Note the ominous clouds!  And look at that dirt! "It takes a village!"

Ron Bates and Dave Reiter are a team.

Sheryl Maydew....you are a PICKLEBALL player!!!

Max Maydew...another pickleball player with court cleaning experience!

Glady and Hank Olsen putting on some finishing touches. Hank never stops working!


Thanks to "Next Door" and Sandy Murray's email blast we had a crew of eight.
Thank you to everyone who came out on the dreary day. A special thanks to our PB players, Max and Sheryl Maydew and to Dave Reiter.  

It's a Wrap!

The official "Season" at Palm Creek is coming to the end.  On that note, the Tennis Club held their "wrap-up" social event on Saturday, March 21 in the San Tan Room.  Roberta Gill and her committee of hard workers served up a tasty dinner of "wraps" along with veggies and dip, chips and the perfect dessert for the weather - Klondike Bars.  Those attending the dinner were entertained with a fantastic slide show of photos taken at almost all of the season's events by our "official photographer" Jim Gill.  Jim managed to get some fantastic photos of our players in action throughout the year.  Our many thanks go to Roberta and Jim for a fantastic evening!   

About 75 members enjoyed the "Wrap-Up" tennis dinner.

Club Chairman, Glenn Carter held a brief 'business meeting', telling members that he has volunteered to act as "interim manager" as we begin the next season.  He also presented the projected management team that will lead the Tennis Club for the 2015-2016 season.  

Glenn Carter got us in-line for next season.

We'll be looking forward to seeing everyone in the fall!

       

Tennis and All That Jazz

  

We couldn't have asked for better weather!  Roberta Gill and her committee of helpers organized a fantastic evening of "Tennis and All That Jazz" on Saturday night, March 7.

Club members gathered at the courts, bringing a variety of delicious appetizers and bottles of wine to share.  The wines were wrapped in plain brown paper, tagged, and placed on tables labeled in several categories.  As members tasted the wines throughout the evening, they voted for their favorites.

All sorts of hot and cold appetizers and a few deserts were available.

Your choice of wine was "red" or "white"...then taste and vote.

Once members had made a few tasty choices and visited with others, we were treated to a concert by the Central Arizona College Jazz Ensemble.  What an amazing group!

Gwen and Hank chatting.

Joan, Diane and Jalene comparing notes.

Surprise guests from "across the pond," Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip.

The ensemble consists of music students from Central Arizona College and a few community members.

  We were entertained by a number of musical selections of all types of music with many of the musicians taking turns at solo parts.  One of our tennis members, Larry Marik, participates with the ensemble throughout the season.

Larry Marik showed his talents with several instruments.

The lively music even brought dancers 

out onto the floor.

It was a glorious evening on the patio!

Tennis Club 2014-2015 Championship Tournament

The Palm Creek Tennis Club Championship Tournament was held February 20-22, 2015.  There were matches for Men's, Women's and Mixed Doubles in A,B, and C Divisions. There were some great matches and a good number of spectators cheered on the players.  Many of the winners were determined in tie-breaks.  Certificates were presented to the winners at a club pot-luck dinner on Sunday night, February 22.  

Bev was "light on her feet."

Maurice reached for a shot.

Hit it, Lloyd!!

Some of our winners:
Top Left:  Women's Division B, First Place: Penny Jacobsen, Terry Bradley
Top Center:  Women's Division A, Second Place:  Bev Argo, Marilyn McCombs
Top Right:  Mixed Division B, First Place:  Penny Jacobsen, Bob Hetzler
Center Left:  Men's Division C, First Place:  Curt Warren, Lee Guftason
Center Right:  Women's Division C, First Place:  Mary Dombrowski, Jan Fritz
Bottom Left:  Men's Division B:  Jerry Grayson
Bottom Right:  Men's Division A:  Lloyd Woods, Maurice Parobec

Congratulations to all the players...and to the workers who organized and
ran the tournament and the awards dinner.

The Super-Bowl of Tennis

And then the rains came!!!!!      Our second annual Super-Bowl of Tennis was scheduled for Friday and Saturday, January 30 and 31.   Sadly we all awoke on Friday to a rainy, dreary morning.  The courts were soaked.  Our teams had gathered the previous Wednesday to meet their partners and plan a little strategy.  But on Saturday the skies opened up and we were rained out!   The team captains and event organizers planned to try again on Saturday.  The weather was a bit better, a few hardy members tried to dry out the courts, but it was a loosing battle.  We still faced wet and slippery courts...no play today, either!

Teams gathered at the tennis pavilion several days before the Super-Bowl of Tennis to meet their partners and plan a little strategy.

Janice Jensen, Jalene Carter and Roberta Gill
did a great job of organizing our Awards Dinner.

But....the Super-Bowl of Tennis Awards Dinner and Cancer Benefit Auction was scheduled as the final event of the weekend.  The party must go on!!      We had a "full house" in the San Tan Room on Saturday evening.  Our planning committee did a great job of providing appetizers, sandwiches and dessert for the crowd.

The Tennis Super-Bowl got off to a good start with some tasty appetizers.

Once dinner was over, our auctioneers took over. Penny Jacobson and  Nancy Restum had collected donations of food, wine, craft items and some merchant gifts to award to the highest bidders.  Larry Marik helped to get the crowd in a bidding mood.  At the end of the evening, we had raised over $1100 to contribute to the Palm Creek Cancer Awareness Project.  Good Work!!!

Penny Jacobson and Nancy Restum got the bidding started on auction items.

Larry Marik helped Nancy keep the bidding going.

Our Super-Bowl Teams planned one more effort and scheduled matches for Sunday morning, February 1. This time we awoke to a super-thick fog.  We would have had trouble seeing the other end of the court had we tried to play tennis.  Our players gave in, and the tournament was cancelled.  We'll try again next year!