by Jan Tatom

For the Sequim Gazette

Membership in Sequim Picklers is growing by leaps and bounds as interest grows in the sport of pickleball.

There are now 131 members, including those who travel from both Port Angeles and Port Townsend, to play at Third and Fir streets in Sequim.

Play has been expanded to include more winter days indoors at the Boys & Girls Club when the facility is available.

Check the Sequim Picklers’ website at sequimpicklers.net to see the play schedule, pick up a membership application, scan the pictures of picklers in action or just to see what is available.

For those interested but unfamiliar with the sport, classes and loaner paddles are available, or just stop by the courts to watch and learn; you always are welcome.

Local youth learn the sport through clinics provided by the Sequim Picklers at the Boys & Girls Club in Sequim, with the last clinic held for 21 students on Dec. 28. More joint activities are planned with the Boys & Girls Club, including a youth league for next summer.

The next clinic will be held in La Push. It will provide instruction to middle school and high school students and their teacher coaches.

The Sequim Picklers are partnered with the City of Sequim and Sequim Family Advocates to build eight tournament-quality pickleball courts, to be located in the southwest corner of Carrie Blake Park. The final location will be published in the comprehensive Carrie Blake Park Master Plan. The main hurdle to court construction is the $216,000 cost. So far the Picklers have raised — through donations, pledges and grants — $105,055 of the funds needed. Thus far, six grants have been written and more are in the drafting stage.

Thanks go to the City of Sequim for the $51,000 budgeted for the courts; First Federal for the $5,000 challenge grant, Sequim Sunrise Rotary for its $500 pledge and to the Olympic Medical Foundation for its $500 donation.

Currently, funding assistance is being sought from local businesses in supporting a project that will bring tourist dollars to the community, as well as provide a healthy family sport.

All donations are tax deductible and those that exceed $1,000 will be recognized on site in perpetuity. Your donations and pledges are welcomed! Forms are available at sequimpicklers.net.

Sequim Picklers continue to work to build a better community through volunteerism, partnerships and a fun, aerobic sport; if you have questions or desire more information contact Jan Tatom at jantatom@olypen.com.

Jan Tatom is co-director of communications for the Sequim Picklers.

Picklers make impact in La Push

The Sequim Picklers’ Jan. 25 clinic for the Quileute Tribal school in La Push was a big success. Members left Sequim at 8:30 a.m. and by 12:30 p.m. they had started their two-hour pickleball clinic with their students in grades 7-12. Sequim Pickler clinic instructors were Doug Hastings, Ben Sanders, Sandy Gunn, and Gary and Margie Rone. Twenty students and two teachers participated on three courts. The group worked on basics strokes such as serving, returning, dinking, ground strokes and lobs, followed by modified games using the skill components just practiced.

They finished the day by setting up each court with a fun activity in which the students could win raffle tickets for a drawing at the end of the day. One court had targets for placement skill, another court had a modified pickleball game where one person takes on two players (called King of the Court). The third court played standard doubles with one team being the King of the Court and would take on all challengers. First winner of three points would reign as the King or Queen.

The prizes for the drawing were several pickleball items from the National Pickleball Tournament in Arizona. Prizes included hats, a pickleball paddle and pickleball carrying bags.

Mark Jacobson, the school’s principal/superintendent, said, “I spoke with the staff at the end of the day and they said that the students loved it. I guess I will be ordering equipment and supplies! I can’t thank you enough for coming up and teaching a clinic on this. It gives our students something else to do besides playing basketball. I greatly appreciate it.”

Jacobson learned about pickleball while watching the Sequim Picklers play and visiting its booth during the Sequim Lavender Festival.

— Submitted by Doug Hastings, President, Sequim Picklers