New Schedule - Fall/Winter Sessions 2014/15

NEW P'BALL SESSION HOURS

Beginning Monday, October 20, 2014, we will move to our fall/winter schedule.  The sessions will be from 1 - 4 PM, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at Gower Park.

See you then.
UPG Session Notification Division, LLC.

UPG SCHEDULE CHANGE

                    SCHEDULE CHANGE NOTICE:

We are changing the sessions schedule from Tuesdays and Fridays to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays beginning next week (Sept. 1), on a trial basis.

The reasons for the change include the following: 
1) Some members have been scheduling extra sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays.  More scheduled weekdays may alleviate the need to add extra playing time.
2) One day last week we had 26 players.  The 5 courts only hold 20 players at a time, and if there are tennis players as well, our group ends up waiting.  This problem will be magnified in the Fall when good weather brings more players out.
3) The Sunday session has been disbanded for lack of players.

Please let me know if this change causes any hardship.

Gary

The sessions are held at Gower Estates Park in Greenville, SC; sessions begin at 9:00AM.

NEW STARTING SCHEDULE - STARTING FRIDAY AUGUST 22, 2014

BEAT THE HEAT and AVOID SCHOOL BUS CONFLICTS - NEW STARTING TIME:

STARTING ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 22nd 2014, WE WILL BE STARTING THE REGULAR P'BALL SESSIONS AT 9:00 AM. THE CHANGE OF THE STARTING TIME IS TOO AVOID CONFLICTS WITH SCHOOL BUSES. OF COURSE, PLAYERS CAN ARRIVE AT ANY TIME DURING THE SESSIONS.

THE REGULAR SESSIONS ARE NOW BEING HELD ON TUESDAYS and FRIDAYS.

IF FOLKS WANT TO PLAY ON OTHER DAYS YOU CAN MAKE ARRANGEMENTS TO USE CLUB BALLS.

SOME PLAYERS HAVE NOT CONTRIBUTED TO THE BALL FUND. BESIDES SHAGGING BALLS (HINT, HINT) CHIPPING IN FOR BALLS IS YOUR ONLY OTHER RESPONSIBILITY. CHEAP ENOUGH FOR AN ALL-AROUND GOOD TIME, DON'T YOU THINK? 

OUR MATCHES ARE PLAYED AT GOWER PARK, GREENVILLE, SC

Spike
8/21/2014

BEAT THE HEAT SUMMER SCHEDULE

STARTING ON TUESDAY JUNE 24th 2014 WE WILL BE STARTING THE REGULAR P'BALL SESSIONS AT 8:30AM. OF COURSE, FOLKS CAN ARRIVE AT THEIR CONVENIENCE.

THE REGULAR SESSIONS ARE NOW BEING HELD ON TUESDAYS and FRIDAYS.

IF FOLKS WANT TO PLAY ON OTHER DAYS YOU CAN MAKE ARRANGEMENTS TO USE CLUB BALLS.

SOME PLAYERS HAVE NOT CONTRIBUTED TO THE BALL FUND. BESIDES SHAGGING BALLS (HINT, HINT) CHIPPING IN FOR BALLS IS YOUR ONLY OTHER RESPONSIBILITY. CHEAP ENOUGH FOR AN ALL-AROUND GOOD TIME, DON'T YOU THINK? 

OUR MATCHES ARE PLAYED AT GOWER PARK, GREENVILLE, SC

Spike
6/22/2014

SUMMER SCHEDULE and BALL FUND

SUMMER SCHEDULE

Okay, the votes are in. Starting Monday 5/5/2014 we will go to the
Summer schedule - 9:30 AM on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays.

BALL FUND 
Anyone who didn't contribute to the ball fund in Jan/Feb (our last
collection) please bring $10.

 

Pickleball Tournament - Gower Park. April 23, 2014.

GGSSC Pickleball Winners:
Men’s Doubles:
1^st Place: Mike Kaplan and Steve Johnson – Upstate Pickleball Group

2^nd Place: Frank Kinder and Greg Harabin – Sun City/Ft. Mills

3^rd Place: Brad Miness and Jim Mayer - Sun City/Ft. Mills


Women’s Doubles:
1^st Place: Sherry Bruton and Virginia Burgh - Sun City/Ft. Mills

2^nd Place: Lin Kolb and Karen Wolf – Connestee Falls

3^rd Place: Deb Richter and Lora Mason – Connestee Falls

Mixed Doubles:
1^st Place: Frank Kinder and Sharon McKenzie - Sun City/Ft. Mills

2^nd Place: Steve Johnson and Ann Savoca - Upstate Pickleball Group

3^rd Place: Brad Miness and Sharon Davis - Sun City/Ft. Mills

Many thanks to everyone who helped, to those that travelled, and especially to Joni Dilworth for making the tournament a success. 58 players registered and all showed up for the nine hours of matches. Congratulations to Sun City/Ft. Mills for their great showing in the tournament - 2nd and 3rd in Men's, 1st in women's and 1st and 3rd in mixed, to UPG for their victory in men's doubles and 2nd in mixed, and to Connestee Falls for their strong women's showing.

The tournament results above were provided by Gary Allen. UPG

Photos and blurb below by Spike.

This was an exceptional tournament, thanks to the very hard work of Gary and Kaye Allen. Joni and her crew from the Greenville County Rec Dept, the Walgreen reps and all of the ball shaggers did a great job. P'ballers came from all over the place; they played hard and still had plenty of time to socialize. A beautiful day to boot.

Spike
April 24, 2014

UPG - WINTER SCHEDULE CONTINUES

               WINTER SCHEDULE CONTINUES
 

UPG schedule:
Monday, Tuesday, Friday at 1 PM. Gower Park

The Greenville City Parks and Recreation Saturday session begins at 9:00AM.  Gower Park

Greenville, SC
Spike
2/19/2014 

The 6th PASSING THE PICKLE - 1/08/2014 and its HISTORY

OFFICIAL HISTORY OF "THE PASSING OF THE PICKLE"

The tradition started when Mike and Ann acquired the pickle ornament shown above. During our 1st Christmas Party (December 15, 2009) at Corona's Mike awarded the Pickle to Lynn and Ken in recognition of their introduction of Pickleball to The Upstate (imported, by them from Florida). Below is an actual unretouched photo of Ken's hand holding the Pickle (a Kosher pickle by the way).

Soon after, Lynn and Ken left for a 3 month stint in Florida in preparation for their eventual relocation to the Sunshine State. They returned to Greenville for a few days in March 2010 and participated in a Pickleball session on March 16 at Timmons Park. On that occasion they presented the Pickle to Ron and Sharon for taking on the responsibilities of tending to the equipment, scheduling sessions and caring for the BLOG. Ron accepts the award below.

During our 2nd Annual Christmas/Holiday gathering at Jan's home on December 3, 2010 the award was presented to Steve (3rd recipient) for taking over the scheduling and equipment transportation duties while Ron and Sharon were traveling. Official, uncut photo below shows Steve graciously accepting the award while friends look on.

The 4th Passing of the Pickle (During the 3rd Annual Christmas Party - December 14, at Gary's and Murial's home) was somewhat unique in that the recipient was not present because he was out of state tending to his father. In true UPG form - the show must go on and all that - the presentation was made by Steve to Gary H who kindly received the Pickle on behalf of Gary A. Gary A received the award for the work he did organizing the UPGs participation in the Lake Lure Games this year, for volunteering for the 'Orderer of the Balls' position and for taking on other UPG missions.

But, that's not the end of the story.

Finally, on 12/20/2011 - a rainy day at Gower, with six UPGers present (others having to good sense to stay home) the Pickle was formally presented to Gary A by Steve (presentation pictured below). Sharon was also on hand for the playing session but had adjourned to the car when the rain picked up, just before this photo was snapped.

The saga continues:

The Passing Of The Pickle took place for the 5th time. The occasion was the 4th Annual UPG Holiday Party, on December 5, 2012 at the Riverwalk Clubhouse. The much-sought after and Nationally hailed award was presented to Johnny and Carol during a solemn ceremony that reflected the significance of the event. The Kosher Pickle is awarded to UPGers whose contribution to our group and the promotion of Pickleball in general goes well above and beyond the call of Pickleball duty. The The Passing Of The Pickle is akin a collegiate football player being awarded the Heisman trophy. Johnny and Carol initiated a Pickleball course for beginners under the OLLIE program at Furman University. They rustled up paddles and balls, conducted several classes and trained about a dozen players over a period of several weeks. Some of the newbies continued on and came to Gower where they received more instructions from J and C and other UPGers. Some of those new players are - or, soon will be hard core UPG players. Good show Johnny and Carol and congratulations. PS: The Pickle survives best if it spends at least part of the year on a Christmas Tree.

　

Johnny and Carol displaying the Pickle w/ smiling Jan looking on.

On the occasion of the belated UPG Christmas Party held on January 8, 2014 Don Daniels became the 6th recipient of the highest civilian, and most coveted award given to UPG members. The event: THE PASSING OF THE PICKLE. The gathering took place at the Travinia Italian Kitchen and was attended by 26 UPGers and guests. The "Awards Committee" (a division of the UPG) thought long and hard about the recipient - but in the end - Don was deemed the the logical choice for the treasured PICKLE. It is given each year to a UPGer who goes out of his/her way to advance the sport and otherwise contribute to the promotion and enjoyment of the game. Don spends considerable time training new players in the fine art of the game, has repaired the nets several times and eventually convinced the County to replace the nets. He is also an official "ball carrier" and is an all around good guy, unless you are his opponent. As a not-very-interesting side note: Don is the only UPGer to single-handidly construct a very temporary windbrake on the fence at the east end of the courts. It self-distructed after a half hour. 

Congratulations Don for earning the award.

That's it for now folks.

Spike
January 14, 2014