Regional
matters
continued
Greetings from the
BIGGEST Little State in
the Union.
Ohio Valley Pickleball
By Cliff Teixeira, USAPA District Ambassador for Rhode Island and
President of the Bristol Pickleball Club of Rhode Island
I’
ve been involved with pickleball for the past four years and
I am amazed by the growth of this sport in our little state.
Check out our locations on the Places2Play app—Newport,
Providence, South County and East Bay areas.
In September, we’ll hold our 2nd Annual Ocean State Pickleball
Classic Tournament. This year’s event will be in Bristol, RI, at Roger
Williams University’s 21,250-square-foot Field House. All money
collected after expenses will be donated to the Alex’s Smile Fund at
Meeting Street. Meeting Street is a local nonprofit organization that
is a national leader in child development, education,
research and training. Meeting Street provides
services for more than 5,000 children and
their families each year.
Alex’s Smile Fund helped Meeting
Street construct its therapeutic pool,
which is used every day by students
both with and without special needs.
A few years ago, the Rhode Island
Senior Olympics added pickleball to its
roster of sporting events. The organization
now holds an annual pickleball tournament
in the fall.
Bristol has an interesting history, with the oldest, continuously
held 4th of July celebration in the U.S. And, believe me, this town
shows its patriotism. Even the main street’s center lines are painted
red, white and blue. Last year, Bristol was also named one of the
“Best Small Towns in America” by Architectural Digest.
Lately, I’ve been contacted by local schools, Parks and Recreation
departments and YMCAs to give pickleball demonstrations and
lessons, so pickleball is alive and well in little Rhody. Be sure to
check out our local Facebook groups—“Rhody Pickleballers” and
“Bristol Pickleball Club of RI.”
Bristol, Rhode Island
A Classic New England Getaway
Population: 22,954
A small waterfront Rhode Island town located between Providence
and Newport, Bristol has a strong nautical heritage and is home
to the America’s Cup Hall of Fame. The picture-perfect locale also
boasts the country’s oldest Fourth of July celebration, and the traffic
lines on one of the main streets are painted red-white-and-blue. —
Architectural Digest
W
orking with the Convention and
Visitors Bureaus in numerous cities,
the Owensboro Pickleball Association,
Inc. (OPA), based in Kentucky, recently
hosted the Greater Ohio Valley Pickleball Invitational in
early February.
Nearly 200 players from 11 different states gathered
to play in Owensboro’s Convention Center. “We held
the first physical sports event played at the Convention
Center and this was the first USAPA-sanctioned event
in our tri-state area,” says René Kuegel, Director of the
OPA.
The OPA is a nonprofit organization that has spent
the past year promoting and building the sport of
pickleball in and around Owensboro and surrounding
counties. In just one year, the growth of pickleball
has not gone unnoticed. “We’ve received a lot of
positive comments and feedback from the players and
spectators, but we’ve also taken notice on where we
can improve for next year,” adds Kuegel.
“If the Greater Ohio Valley Pickleball Tournament
in Owensboro, KY, wasn’t on your February 2019
calendar, you may want to consider it for 2020!
Great people, great city, great time,” says Melissa
McCurley of pickleballtournaments.com. She was
on hand to help with the organization of tournament
play and to teach the OPA standard procedures on
how to run a successful tournament utilizing the
pickleballtournaments.com software tool.
OPA will be hosting three more tournaments in 2019.
Follow the Owensboro Pickleball Association on
Facebook or visit the website owensboropickleball.org
for details on all the upcoming events.
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