ROBSON RANCH PICKLEBALL CLUB
people,” he says.“ It’ s always in the top 10 or better.”
On the other end of the country, for communities like Robson Ranch, located in the southwestern Arizona desert, pickleball courts have been a standard recreational amenity for some time.
Win Oppel, Vice President of the Robson Ranch Pickleball Club, says not only did Robson have pickleball courts when he looked into the community more than four years ago, they’ re actively discussing ongoing expansions as the community grows.“ We have pickleball courts at all of the Robson facilities in Arizona and have been discussing them during the buildout here,” Oppel says.“ We have a membership of more than 300 and just closed on our 1,000th house, so it’ s a pretty big draw.”
Oppel says sports like tennis are no longer bringing people to the community and, in fact, tennis courts remain all but vacant.“ The tennis courts don’ t get any use, not like they did 10 years ago,” he says.“ With the pickleball program, we constantly have
players out there. At night, we have lit courts and run a couples program in the evening.”
While Oppel has been a resident for more than four years, he was an avid pickleball player prior to discovering Robson. Oppel had been coming to the area in his RV with his family for five years before looking to put down roots.“ The pickleball community is fairly active in Casa Grande, and most RV parks have some sort of pickleball program going on,” he says.“ I learned to play, and Robson’ s courts were a big attraction for us, a big piece of our decision to move here. There are 16 courts, a dedicated program, and the management of Robson is extremely supportive of the program.”
With two in-house tournaments a year, Robson residents play amongst themselves. Other tournaments throughout the year open up to neighboring communities.“ Our Sixth Annual Pickleball Tournament drew more than 400 people— 100 from inside the community and the rest from four or five other communities in the area,” Oppel says.“ They’ ll play here one day and Palm Creek or Mission Royale at other times.”
The goodwill generated by local and regional interplay is giving back to the community in spades. Robson is home to two pickleball ambassadors, Mickie Storckman and Larry Kraus. Residents in the community travel to local high schools to teach pickleball lessons several times a week. There’ s also an official outreach program in place. Oppel says every pickleball event typically has a benefit for the community involved.“ Tournaments usually are where we give back the most,” he says.“ At Christmas, we had an in-house event where all the money raised went to the Eloy Fire District’ s Children’ s Christmas Fund, which gives gifts for disadvantaged children.”
As pickleball takes the country by storm, dozens of resorts and communities are jumping on the pickleball train— to the delight of their guests and residents. •
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