GRAHAMSVILLE--Pickleball, the fastest growing sport in the United States, continues to gain new members in Sullivan County and just recently the 60-member Grahamsville Pickleball Club organized by Sherri Steinhauer held the 2017 Grahamsville Pickelball Slam, the first open tournament ever held here.
Steinhauer, a
strong advocate of the sport is a former Ladies Professional Golf
Association golfer, a two-time major champion and three time winner of
the British Open.
She is a major factor in helping pickleball grow in Sullivan County.
Sherri and Tami
Shaver helped get the sport organized in Grahamsville with a pickleball
orientation last year at the Grahamsville Fairgrounds Tennis courts
where interested players learned quickly why pickleball is the fastest
growing sport in the USA. The club meets and plays on Saturday mornings.
Sherri had help from a number of experienced players who live in Orange County who showed new players how the game is played.
Sherri had help from a number of experienced players who live in Orange County who showed new players how the game is played.
Pickleball has
also shown growth both in Liberty and Bethel where the sport is actively
played on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons and last winter the
sport switched indoors to the BOCES gym in Liberty and plans are being
formulated for indoor pickelball to continue this winter.
The 2017
Grahamsville Pickleball Slam and BBQ attracted 10 competing teams (20
players) plus they had 11 players playing socially on seven pickleball
courts.
The tournament
players competed in nine rounds of five games for a total of 45 games
plus a total of four playoff championship games.
Championship match winners John Clark/Stephen Komar defeated Joe Pilny/David Luczyski 11-3 for the tournament championship. In the third/fourth place game third place went to Jeff Conklin/George Realmuto over Kaith Humphrey/Maureen Plainfield 11-8.
Some history on
this sport is that pickleball was first started in the summer of 1965
on Bainbridge Island, Washington at the home of then State
Representative Joel Pritchard.
The pickleball court is similar to a doubles bad-mitten court and is 20 x 44 feet for both doubles and singles. The net is hung at 36 inches on the ends and 34 inches at center.
The court is striped like a tennis court, with no alleys, but the outer courts. The inner courts are divided by service lines and the inner courts are non-volley zones and extend 7 feet from the net on either side.
The outer courts, and not the inner courts are divided in half by service lines. The inner court are non-volley zones and extend 7 feet from the net on either side.
To play the game the ball is served with an underhand stroke so that contact with the ball is made below the waist level.
Points are scored by the serving side only and occur when the opponent fails to return the ball, hits ball out of bounds or steps into the non-volley zone.
The first side scoring 11 points wins but must be leading by at least two points.
The return of service must be allowed to bounce but after that the ball can be volleyed (hit in the air) and this is where the fun of the game begins and its referred to as the "rally."
An important part of the game is that the server must tell the score and what number server they are....example 4-2 server one. If you don't do this you lose a point.
The pickleball court is similar to a doubles bad-mitten court and is 20 x 44 feet for both doubles and singles. The net is hung at 36 inches on the ends and 34 inches at center.
The court is striped like a tennis court, with no alleys, but the outer courts. The inner courts are divided by service lines and the inner courts are non-volley zones and extend 7 feet from the net on either side.
The outer courts, and not the inner courts are divided in half by service lines. The inner court are non-volley zones and extend 7 feet from the net on either side.
To play the game the ball is served with an underhand stroke so that contact with the ball is made below the waist level.
Points are scored by the serving side only and occur when the opponent fails to return the ball, hits ball out of bounds or steps into the non-volley zone.
The first side scoring 11 points wins but must be leading by at least two points.
The return of service must be allowed to bounce but after that the ball can be volleyed (hit in the air) and this is where the fun of the game begins and its referred to as the "rally."
An important part of the game is that the server must tell the score and what number server they are....example 4-2 server one. If you don't do this you lose a point.
Following competition the BBQ , eats and fellowship were enjoyed by all.
Champions of the
first annual 2017 Grahamsville Pickleball Slam tournament are, left to
right, second place Joe Pilny of Bethel and David Luczyski of
Claryville, first place Stephen Komar of Milford, Pa. and John Clark of
Goshen and third place Jeff Conklin of Pine Bush and George Realmuto of
Middletown
In this tournament action shot Stephen Komar, left, waits at the net while John Clark , right, returns a volley.
The two went on to win the 2017 Grahamsville Pickleball Slam tournament.
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