Club Info
Join The Club Today
The following is a summary of the fees associated with joining the Grande Prairie Pickleball Club:
Pickleball Canada - $10 (includes insurance)
Pickleball Alberta - $5 (membership)
Pickleball Alberta Development fee-$5
Grande Prairie Pickleball Club-$50
There is no ‘opting out’ of these fees. If you are currently a member of another Club, you only pay our Club fee, as Pickleball Canada and Pickleball Alberta fees are only paid once, not for each Club one joins.
History of the Club
Our Pickleball Story
By Jean and Mel Larsen
The familiar line “we’d never heard of pickleball” was true for us when we first saw it being played in Apache Junction, Arizona in 1998. Being new to the snowbird community, we were looking for things to do and pickleball looked like fun, so we started playing and were soon addicted.
Wanting to be able to play back home too, in September 2002 we started a small group. I would make calls (no texting!) each week to ensure we would have enough players for 2 courts. At that time, our nephew Mike Humbke was teaching at IV Macklin school and was familiar with pickleball through his gym program, so he enabled us to use the school gym one night a week. No pickleball court lines on the floor, so we used the badminton lines!
Unfortunately for the group, our life routine would take us to Abbotsford in late October for several weeks before heading back to Arizona, and no one in the group was willing to take charge/make calls to ensure enough were coming each week to enable play, so after attempting that program for 3 or 4 years in the fall, we gave up. But before long we heard of a group starting at the College, so we met the Atkinsons.
As a side note, because we loved pickleball so much, our grandchildren learned to play when they were pretty young, and when Jakob was 24, he was recognized on the Abby Pickleball Facebook Page as the longest playing pickleballer in Abbotsford at that time.
The Quest for Courts
By Lindi Speager
It all started in 2016, when my husband and I returned home from our first few winter months in Phoenix, Arizona, with our new addiction to pickleball.
We returned to Grande Prairie and started our search for other people to play pickleball with.
Eventually, we found two couples (John and Gwen Atkinson, Sandy and Lawrence Richer) playing at the college gym, once a week and they were very excited to have us join their small group (even though the courts were too small and the dividing curtain interfered with our backswing).
The following spring, when we returned from down south, we started playing on the outdoor tennis courts in Muskoseepi Park, using masking tape to mark the lines of the pickleball court and lowering the tennis nets. This was even more fun than playing at the college, but chasing the balls was a pain. We started wearing clothing that had the deepest pockets, so that we could come play 10 or 12 balls before having to collect them up. A few more snowbirds wandered by and saw us playing and thus our group began to expand.
The next year, even more people began to play with us in the park. Now we had 14-25 people competing with tennis players to use the 3 available tennis courts. We needed a place to play. We began our search by approaching city council and they told us that we would need to be a non-profit club before they would consider our proposals. So we talked to some of our playing mates and they agreed to join with us to form a club.
We did numerous presentations to the City. They continually told us that pickleball sounded like fun, but really what was pickleball? The City then decided to provide the Dave Barr Arena as a potential place to play. They purchased 6 portable pickleball nets and painted pickleball lines on the floor. In no time those 6 courts were overwhelmed with players. We held many ‘learn to play pickleball’ clinics and even sponsored our first pickleball tournament. It was a huge success. We also had our first delegation head to the Alberta 55+ games to compete in pickleball.
Our Club numbers reached over a 100 members, so now we were on a mission to get courts dedicated for pickleball.
We continued to do presentations to the City but they still thought that this was just the latest fad; no money for us yet. After a number of years of repeatedly doing presentations and being repeatedly being rejected, we were just about ready to quit the quest.
All of a sudden the City decided to dangle a small sum of money and three unused tennis courts for us to work with. “Let’s take the money, do what we can, get this process started, and then see what happens,” was our attitude. So we took the money and started our career of begging every single contractor to cut their prices so that we could afford them. After countless hours of negotiations, we figured we could paint 10 permanent courts, 2 temporary courts and fence them in. NO more chasing balls. Yippee!
So the work began. The club members, about 75 of them now, all stepped up to clean and prep the old tennis courts for the fencers and painters. Wonderful people showed up on sunny days, windy days, and rainy days to get the work done.
Fast forward to July, 2020. We have beautifully painted and fenced courts, but no more money and COVID affecting all of the grants previously available to community groups. My husband and I had previously purchased the nets and posts so they could be installed. We figured that we would be paid back whenever the Club could afford it, but our Club members said “No Way!” They wanted to personally donate money to cover the costs of the nets and poles. And yes they did. They were amazing and generous. Our Swan City Rotary Club stepped up to give us a small donation, as well. We made it. We could now start playing on these courts.
The icing on our facility came when the United Way stepped up during the COVID isolation period to provide us with enough money to finish our basic plans. A seating area with picnic tables, some sturdy benches, wind screening, sun shades, and a new cemented entrance way was completed.
The quest was complete.
Now our club has almost reached the 300 member mark and community people are able to come out and enjoy this amazingly wonderful sport. We are so fortunate to have found this sport and all of the amazing people that come out to enjoy our beautiful pickleball facility in Grande Prairie.
A special thank you goes out to the original executive of our organization – Debbie Isley,Ed Teichroeb, Karen Nielsen, Brian Backus, Sandy Richer, Lawrence Richer, Doug and and Lindi Speager.
My Pickleball Story
By Peggy Reynolds
My first time ever seeing or hearing of pickle ball was in 2006 when we started going to Yuma, AZ for the winters. I liked to play badminton which was the only game I played with a racquet.
In Yuma many seniors played court shuffleboard and were always encouraging us to play, which we did. It seemed the encouragement was not there in pickleball. You needed your own racquet, balls, and needed someone to play with. I didn’t know anyone and my husband was very involved with the shuffleboard game.
A year later I met this gal from Southern Alberta with a fractured upper arm and was curious about her injury, to which she replied that she fell while playing pickleball. Now, I thought this is not a safe game for me. However, I was still curious about the game. Sometime later I learned that if you were a beginner, you could start playing between 9:30 and 10am, after that the real players had the courts. I felt like it was kind of a snobbish sport. I had a plan though. I don’t remember the year exactly when I decided maybe we could start this sport in GP with the seniors. I talked to the president of the Golden Age Club at that time and asked her if it was possible to start something there. I checked very carefully to see if there was something going on here but there wasn’t anything at all.
Some people that were playing in the U.S. knew something about this sport, but nothing was official. The president said maybe we could use the senior center and play there but I assured her that the ceilings were too low. I had to try and find people that were interested in playing this game before we could do anything. There was a couple from Beaverlodge and there were three others in GP that showed interest. The College, through Dwayne Head, said we could use their facility. I think we were charged $20 or $25 for the hour that we played but we had started it. I remember that they had these drapes between courts so you really couldn’t take a good back swing when you were on the north side.
I kept trying to get more members and phoned every week to make sure we had enough players to play. In the summer we played in Muskoseepi Park on their tennis courts. In November we would go back to Yuma so I believe it was Gwen Atkinson who said she would look after it while I was gone. Soon there were more people coming to play and one of the players was a member of the People’s Church and said that the Reach Center could be used to play. We had about 26 people. While there, it was open to all ages and so the membership grew. One day I played with a young person. He was a good player so while reaching for the ball, I twisted my knee and because I was a walker I couldn’t afford any such injuries. I quit playing and am still playing floor shuffleboard.
In The Beginning…..
by John and Gwen Atkinson
It was late summer of 2012. I was glancing through a section of the local sports news in the Daily Herald Tribune and noted that pickleball had no participants at that time, to be part of our Provincial Seniors’ area team. Pickleball...? Never heard of it! Research was needed immediately. NB: at this time, we knew nothing about pickleball playing snowbirds!
The game; indoor/outdoors; badminton-size play area; usually doubles format; net height slightly less than tennis; underhand serves only; (Great! Old shoulder injuries from rugby playing years ago would not be a handicap); bats/paddles somewhat larger than in table tennis; however, game played with the despicable lower elementary school ball made of flimsy plastic, a holy excuse for a spherical projectile. Nevertheless, for a reasonably active 70 year old, the game might offer exercise and a lot of fun. My wife, Gwen, with a strong background in racket sports, especially tennis, was also interested. We decided to make inquiries.
We soon discovered that a small group of neophytes was about to meet at the College gymnasium for a weekly $20 court usage fee, for one hour only at noon time. Some equipment was provided, including nets, rudimentary paddles - varnished plywood - and the official ball. The latter was impressive; much harder, heavier and larger than anticipated; predictable and a true high bounce. As Gwen remarked, “This is a game I am going to enjoy.
I know I will be able to punish it, especially on my serve.” (Opponents would soon be guarding boobs and privates). Because of the awkward time availability - and College parking fees - and the limited local interest of the sport, it meant that there were very few participants initially. Even though we studied the official handbook, at first there was some confusion about rules. Obviously, concern was that legal serves headed the list. One lady visiting from BC, insisted on a tennis style serve causing some hilarity. She missed 3 tosses, finally connecting on the fourth. The ball, however, was lost in the nearby bleachers and the paddle had slipped from her grasp, nearly braining her partner – me - and crashed into a wall! “This a really dumb game,” she shouted and stomped away, never to be seen again.
In addition to our small group of enthusiasts- ourselves, Kate and Bob Hamilton, Peggy Reynolds, Marilyn Turner and an incredible number of drop-ins, along came Lindi and Doug Speager, who were expert badminton players. Their interest, of course, was essential for the later club development. Following the winter, we started to play on the tennis courts in Muskoseepi Park. Unfortunately, net adjustments, and taping pickleball court dimensions on the asphalt, then removal of the tape was a major chore. By this time, Gwen had become the person who kept track of our players and their phone numbers and emails, etc. Mel and Jean Larsen, Debbie Isley, Karen Nielson, Sandy and Lawrence Richer also became stalwarts of the “club”. Our pickleball group's winter fast approached, wondering where we were next going to play.
Karen Nielson, now sadly deceased and missed by all, then secured permission to use the Reach Centre for two nights a week. This was a brilliant move and Karen kindly volunteered to arrange everything and supervise the players. The Club thrived. Great assistance was given especially by Kevin Morrison, Bernie Olydam, Debbie Isley, Dale Sales and Farron Hood. Soon it was nonstop play on all courts! Doug and Lindi then became instrumental in the next phase of the Club, so I will leave it to them to describe how our Club progressed so successfully.
N.B.: Inevitably I have forgotten other founding members. My sincere apologies. My excuse is increasing age and memory lapses.