Marc Austin's Winter Clinics - A fellow member, Marc Austin, is working with Howard County Recreation & Parks to offer some clinics for the winter session. Please see the announcement located under the website menu item Assoc. News if interested.

Preparing to play pickleball - A local chiropractor who is working with pickleball players has submitted two articles to assist pickleball players preparing for play: Pickleball Power Up and a Warm Up graphic.  Both can be found listed under Assoc. News.

HCPA Events Sign Up Now Open!

HCPA Round Robin (RR) and Minor League Pickleball (MLP) events are now available for sign-up via the Stack Team App for events beginning on March 2, 2024.

Please only sign up if you are in the correct age group and level, thank you!

Please arrive for round robins 15 minutes prior to the posted start time. See full rules for round robins below in this email.

Scheduled Events:

*Men’s *Dubs RR
Level 3.5
*All Ages *
Saturday, 3/2
3-5 pm

*Women’s *Dubs RR
Level 3.5
All Ages
Saturday, 3/9
3-5 pm

*Women’s *Dubs RR
Level 3.0
*All Ages *
Saturday, 3/16
3-5 pm

*Men’s *Dubs RR
Level 3.0
All Ages
Saturday, 3/23
3-5 pm

*MLP – *Men’s Women’s and Mixed *Dubs RR -
Level 3.5
Must have a 3.5+ DUPR rating or you won’t be permitted to participate
Men’s and Women’s registration are two different events on TeamApp. Please pick the right one.
All Ages
Saturday, 3/30
3-5 pm

All events are held at the PutAway in Millersville. 254 Najoles Rd Suite A-K, Millersville, MD 21108

All Events will be recorded in the DUPR HCPA Club

Please only sign up if you are in the correct level, thank you!

Please sign up as an individual, including minor league pickleball. For round robins, you will be playing with a different partner each round of play.

Go to the HCPA TeamApp page now and then click on “Events”.

Better hurry, they fill up quickly!****

ROUND ROBIN and MINOR LEAGUE PICKLEBALL CANCELLATION/ARRIVAL POLICY***

All cancellation emails must be sent to: 

hcparoundrobin@gmail.com

HCPA Round Robins and MLP are non-transferable and non-refundable.

Cancellations

• The cancellation cutoff is 24 hours prior to the event start.
• Any player who cancels after that time will forfeit the right to signup for or play in a HCPA Round Robin or MLP the next two times they are offered.

No Show or Late Arrivals

• All players must sign in 15 minutes prior to the posted start time.
• Any player who arrives after the posted start time is considered a no show.
• Any late arrival or no show player will forfeit the right to sign up for or play in a HCPA Round Robin or MLP the next two times they are offered.

Leaving Early

• Any player who leaves a HCPA Round Robin or Minor League Pickleball prior to the posted end time, will forfeit the right to sign up for or play in a HCPA Round Robin for two months.
• This does not apply to any player who is forced to leave early due to an injury sustained during the HCPA Round Robin or MLP.

Please remember, Round Robins and MLP necessitate an exact number of players. Players who cancel late, or worse, don’t show up or leave early, potentially ruin the event for the other 15 players. Games can’t be played without the required number of players. Please respect your fellow players.

The later the cancellation, the harder the slot is to fill. Additionally, late cancellations are unfair to waitlisted players who would love to play, but due to late notice of slots are often no longer available or unable to get to the courts on time or don’t have their equipment with them. Please cancel as soon as you realize you have a conflict, aren’t feeling well, or are injured; waitlisted players and our volunteers depend on your timeliness.

Please leave enough time to park and still get to the courts 15 minutes early to check in. And, we all know that traffic can be unpredictable; please plan accordingly.

If a Round Robin or MLP is canceled by HCPA due to weather or other unforeseen circumstances, players will be notified by email and will receive a refund.

If an event is full, please send an email to 

hcparoundrobin@gmail.com

 to be added to the waitlist.

Events will not be rescheduled.

IF EVENTS DO NOT FILL UP****
If all of the events do not fill up on or before February 20, 2024, HCPA may have to cancel ALL of the Events planned for March due to a lack of interest.

HCPA Competitions Committee

We recently lost a member – HCPA is sorry to share this sad news about the passing of Dave LeDane last week, on Tuesday, January 16th while clearing snow from his cars. It appears to have been a heart attack. Our deepest sympathies go out to Maria LeDane for the loss of her husband. Dave was a great guy and a very competitive pickleball player and tennis player. He always had something encouraging to say while playing with him. He will be missed. A celebration of life is being planned for late spring. If you would like to share your condolences, please mail them to Maria LeDane, 11263 Aslalom Lane, Columbia MD 21044.

Change to Indoor Session at Gary Arthur Community Center - Skills and Drills for Tuesday February 23rd – Changed to Open Play

Gary Arthur Community Center – 2400 Route 97, Cooksville MD, 21723

Tuesday February 23rd, 5:00 – 6:45
Open Play $10
3 courts – 16 Players

Come in from the cold!!

 

Looking for places to play while traveling?

Check out these free apps for finding pickleball courts. Each app uses an entered location to list pickleball courts in that area.

Swimply 

PicklePlay

USAPA Places to Play

For local places to play, check out the updated list on the HCPA website: Local Places to Play

Pickleball Tournament in March - Check out the Bert & Erne Pickleball tournament in Hanover, PA from March 15-17th. (It's about a 45 minute drive)

HCPA is a sponsor of this tournament. As such, HCPA members will get $5 of their registration if they use the code: howardcounty!

If you register in January, the registration fee is $40 plus event fees. In February the fee goes to $50, and in March it goes to $55. If you register in January you get a free shirt.

Please click on the link below to register and get more information:

THE BERT & ERNE CLASH

(https://pickleballbrackets.com...)

Player Development Update - Here is a link to an interesting article regarding the legality of “sidearm” serves in pickleball: https://thepickler.com/blogs/pickleball-blog/pickleball-serve-sidearm-legal  HCPA has posted this, and more than 65 other articles, offering information on new rules and tips for all levels of players. Additionally, there are currently more 170 instructional videos highlighting the full range of pickleball skills and strategies to support beginners up to tournament players.

These articles and videos can be found on the HCPA website under INSTRUCTION and Player Development for MembersHere are links to access these resources directly:

Posted by Jay McTighe – HCPA Player Development and Communications Committees

Happy New Year! - Although it was not starting off as a very happy new year for our Stack Team App users.  We were experiencing several technical issues with the mobile app.  Fortunately, as best as I can see, these issues seem to be resolved. I can now see all the sessions within the Schedule's list view. I'm hoping that the other issues have been resolved as well.

Lake Elkhorn Indoor Sessions - We had to cancel the Jan. 6th sessions due to a lack of interest.  We will offer another opportunity for this venue for Jan. 13th and tickets will go on sale on Sat. around 1 pm.  If we don't get enough people to cover the costs of the facility we may need to cancel this session as well. The decision will need to be made on Tuesday evening so we can cancel the session 3 days prior as per the school's policy. If we do have to cancel, we will refund the members who signed up. So if you would like to try out one of the indoor sessions at LEMS, please sign up prior to Tuesday evening.  We are offering an Intermediate session from 8 am to 10 am and Novice 1 & 2 from 10 am to Noon.

Western Regional Park was a great venue for this years HCPA Open Ladder League. Twenty-four participants took to the courts each week. The league format initially divided players onto six dedicated courts based on their DUPR ratings. Foursomes at each court rotated partners for a total of three games to make up a round. After each round, the top two players moved up a court, and the other two moved down a court. Two rounds were played each week for a total of 6 games. The games were played to 15 points or 15 minutes whichever occurred first. Ties were broken by an exciting one-point Rally scoring tiebreaker!

League participants shared positive feedback and compliments regarding the Ladder League organization and format and stated that they learned important skills while having a good time.

Thank you to Troy Osten as the Competitions Committee Chair, and to Hitesh Nigam and Eric Chiprurnoi as the Co-Chairs of this Open Ladder League. A big thanks also to the substitute players who filled in to ensure we had enough players every week.

Congratulations to Troy Osten and Krupesh Patel who finished at the top of the ladder.

Reminder: The next league will be a Mixed Doubles league in JAN-FEB and is indoors at The Putaway in Millersville, MD. Signups are open now on the Stack TeamApp!

Posted by: Andy Dalal