Pickleball Magazine 2-2 Courtesy of The Pickleball Guru | Page 18

FROM THE USAPA
Playing
Pickleball
In �� States
BY JAY READINGER,
USAPA AMBASSADOR, COLORADO
PLAYING IN ALL 50 U.S. STATES.
I
t did not begin as a plan to play in all 50. We
retired early and jumped through a window
of opportunity to go sailing for a while. In the
winter of 2010 we left the boat in Newfoundland
and went to Florida for the winter, where we
were introduced to pickleball and became full-
fledged addicts (state #1). Back in Newfoundland
to continue our sailing, with paddles aboard
we used old fishing net and played on docks
or any flat, relatively smooth surface. We took
the opportunity to play at Cape Spear (the
easternmost point of N. America) on a chilly,
foggy, windy day. That may be where the quest
began…to play in the Four Corners of North
America. When we finished sailing we moved to Steamboat
Springs, Colorado, and started the pickleball program
there.
We still had three grown children living in New England
so we drove back for a visit. Trace Colorado to Maine on a
map and you can easily travel through 12 states heading
east and seven on the way back. That’s 19 more states
(now at 21); the quest was well underway. Sometimes it
was a tournament that fit our schedule, sometimes it was
recreational ball with a local group; other times it was
some good play with a local ambassador, like Rocky Clark,
and a few times it was skinny singles against each other
(one of our favorite games), playing on whatever tennis or
16
makeshift court we could cobble together. The following
spring we traveled to Phoenix via Utah to have some
lessons with Steve Wong on the (then brand-new) Surprise
public courts. We still credit Steve with much of the
success and devotion we have for this game. On the way
back we traveled via New Mexico. That summer, having
decided to do some touring out west, we headed north
through Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana where we played
with Vance and Donna Christensen at the beautiful courts
in their yard in Whitefish; up to 27!
The following winter I was asked to deliver a eulogy
in Hawaii so we packed our paddles and got a lot of local
interest as we played on the tennis courts in Kailua on
Oahu. That spring we attended the first
USAPA Ambassadors Retreat at Lake
Tahoe in California, driving via Nevada
with a short side trip up to Oregon so
three more states counted: up to 31.
Summer found us on a long-planned
trip to Alaska. We timed it so we could
play in the Alaska International Senior
Games in Fairbanks where we earned
a Gold in MD and MS, Silver in WD,
Bronze in WS, and Gold together in
MXD as well as 2 Golds in shotput,
2 Golds in discus, and 2 Golds in javelin
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