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 15th, 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 21st.
5. Social is up and running, and will return to its regular time (9:30 – 11:00 M-F) on Monday November 2nd. We will also be starting the new Round Robin sessions for Men, Women, and Mixed this coming week (Monday Nov 2nd). More information to follow as available.
Please give these new plans a fair chance.
WELCOME BACK!!!
Glenn Carter & Penny Jacobsen
