Pickleball Magazine 2-1 Courtesy of Pickleball Rocks | Page 60

FROM THE USAPA

PebbleCreek Pickleball Club

BY PAT MURPHY , PRESIDENT OF THE PEBBLECREEK PICKLEBALL CLUB , GOODYEAR , AZ , FOR 2017 AND USAPA TRAINING CHAIR

In the early ‘ 90s a man named Ed Robson had a vision to build an Active Senior Adult Resort Community in the west valley of Phoenix , Arizona . At the turn of the century another visionary arrived here in Goodyear , Arizona . That visionary was Grover Lumbard , our founder and the first president of the PebbleCreek Pickleball Club . Grover and his wife , Cathy , moved to PebbleCreek from Seattle in 2004 . He brought with him his love of a sport with a crazy name : pickleball . Through his efforts and the efforts of many other early pickleball pioneers , the PebbleCreek Pickleball Club was born in 2007 , in Goodyear , Arizona . The first meeting of the club was called to order on January 24 , 2007 , although the club had no courts to play on . Grover started right away working to get courts here in PebbleCreek . After some pleading with the PebbleCreek HOA , he got approval to use the single basketball court located by the tennis courts . This single court became known as “ The Wall ” due to its very small size . The players only had about 4 feet of space before hitting the wall . “ The Boys ,” Larry Bergman , Dan Graville , Bob Herzig and Dave Bleau , became known as the “ Four Bloody Boys .” This came about because of the small size of the court and aggressive play that landed them into the wall . The big winner of many of those early pickleball games was The Wall .

Grover , with the help of our first member , Lou Ann Ashburn ( known as “ The Pickleball Lady ”), convinced Ed Robson to build some dedicated pickleball courts . With the plans approved , construction was started in early 2007 for four new pickleball courts . Early one day , Grover stopped by to check on the progress of the courts . Imagine his surprise when he saw a worker looking over blueprints for eight courts ! He immediately called many club members over to show them and celebrate . On Nov . 18 , 2007 , the eight new pickleball courts opened . The very first players on the new courts were Walt and Betty Royle . It has been reported that they sneaked down to the courts around midnight , sleeping bags in hand , and spent the night . They got up , Betty made coffee , and at 6:15 a . m . they were the first club members to be playing on the new pickleball courts . Back in the days before our fancy computers , the club had to manually manage many of the club ’ s activities like court reservation , while today it is all handled on the club ’ s web page . Things were simple ; they used a piece of paper as a signup sheet and it was posted at the courts . The problem was , erasers had become a useful tool for getting your name on the signup sheet — simply erase a name and put your name in . So the club solicited a club member to be the “ Lady in Charge ” of the reservation signup sheet . Helen Hurley
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