Category: News

The Seattle Metro Pickleball Association reached a bittersweet but important milestone this week. 4 years ago, SMPA was formed by a group of passionate pickleball players with a vision of growing the sport and enabling more people to discover, learn and fall in love with this great game. Since that first meeting over coffee and donuts, the organization navigated its early formative years led by the steady hand and calming presence of its first president, Jerry Kindinger. For those of you who have met Jerry on the courts, you know all about his easy smile and friendly demeanor to go along with his mean dink game. What you may not know is he has also been a fierce advocate for pickleball with government officials and community center directors these past 4 years and has led the way for SMPA to seek more opportunities for all of us to play. He has presided over SMPA from the original 8 founding members to its current total of more than 300 members. But all good things must come to an end, and this week Jerry served his last day on the Board of Directors and President of SMPA.

This is an important time for SMPA. Our Vice President, Theresa Haynie and Director Miguel de Campos are the last two founding members still on the Board. They are both serving final terms before they too ride off into the pickleball sunset. So the questions we need to ask ourselves as an organization are What Now? What Next?

The founding members have done a great job of forming the Association, establishing its policies and rhythms that make this thing go. From being officially designated a 501 c3, working with SPR to add more and more pickleball lines to tennis courts, to establishing the Seattle Metro Pickleball Classic as the premier outdoor tournament in the Pacific Northwest, SMPA has accomplished a lot under the leadership of its first president. It’s now up to the next generation of Directors to keep it going, keep the momentum, and to take it even further, to build on what’s been done by Jerry and the other founding Directors.

I believe the time is right, we have the structure in place, we have the right folks on the Board, and we have a powerful community of passionate pickleball players ready and willing to take some big swings, to reach our goals of building a permanent pickleball facility somewhere in the metro area, and to continue to grow our influence and promote the sport in our communities.

The challenge for us is to make those big swings count. To seek the right opportunities, to work with the right people, to find the right time to mobilize our forces. That’s the job the current Board is willing, and excited, to take on. But to have the kind of success we seek it will take all of us. We all need to continue to raise our voices for new courts, more access to existing courts, more opportunities to play. We all need to be active participants, in both big and small ways, in growing the sport. Together we can make a difference.

Though following in Jerry’s footprints is daunting, I’m honored to succeed him as SMPA president and push SMPA forward. As is the case with all our Directors I promise to be bold, be the squeaky wheel you need me to be, and to swing for the fences to reach our goals.

If you’re not yet an SMPA member, join and add your voice to hundreds of others in support of growing pickleball in the Seattle metro area. If you are a member, thank you, and let me know how SMPA can help in your community or how you can help SMPA!

You can learn more about your SMPA Board of directors here and you can reach out to me directly at president@seattlemetropickleball.com

See you on the courts!

Frank Chiappone

President, Seattle Metro Pickleball Association

Covid may have halted online meetings, but not the fulfilling of director duties spelled out in the Seattle Metro Pickleball Association (SMPA) Bylaws. The Board selection committee recommended three new directors to replace termed-out director and SMPA President Jerry Kindinger, and directors who’ve stepped down for family and professional reasons, Tom Grubb and Sean Oldridge. In the online election that followed, these new Directors received the overwhelming majority of member votes and have now joined the SMPA Board:

• Jessica Prince (Mercer Island), subsequently elected Secretary of the Board
• Fran Myer (Kenmore), Pickleball Hall of Fame and local legend
• Sarah Webb (Seattle), retired pathologist and organizer of Miller CC pickleball

At the next Board meeting, held Monday, May 10, the Board said goodbye to the departing directors and elected these officers to guide the organization until Spring of 2022:

• Frank Chiappone, President
• Theresa Haynie, Vice President
• Jessica Webb, Secretary
• Drew Thoresen, Treasurer

If you have tried playing pickleball outdoor during the late afternoon in Seattle or Shoreline lately, you probably noticed that local high schools tennis teams are practicing on a lot of the public courts.

Where are they practicing and where can you play?

Seattle

In Seattle, the following tennis courts have pickleball court lines and ARE NOT reserved by high school tennis teams:

• Delridge (West Seattle)
• Discovery Park (Magnolia)
• Georgetown
• Observatory (Queen Anne)
• To be confirmed: Soundview (Crown Hill)
• Walt Hundley (West Seattle)

Tennis teams ARE practicing at the following tennis courts that are lined for pickleball during weekdays until June 11th:

• Bitter Lake – 3:30-6:30pm
• Green Lake East – 3:00-5:00pm
• Miller – 3:00-5:00pm
• Soundview – 4:00-5:45pm

For completeness sake, here are the other Seattle tennis courts that are also used by high school teams. None of those have pickleball lines:

• Bryant 3:00-5:30pm
• Froula 3:00-5:30pm
• Jefferson 3:00-6:30pm
• Laurelhurst 3:30-5:45pm
• Volunteer 3:00-5:00pm
• Solstice 4:00-6:00pm
• Rainier Beach 5:00-7:30pm
• Rainier 4:00-6:00pm
• Meadowbrook 4:00-7:00pm
• Lower Woodland 3:00-6:45pm

Shoreline

In Shoreline, all the Shoreview Park and Shoreline Park tennis courts are reserved for high school tennis teams from 3:00 to 5:00pm on weekdays until June 18th. You can double check court reservation status on the city’s web site.

The Twin Ponds tennis court has recently been resurfaced, has lines for two pickleball courts and should be available on a a first-come first-served basis.

END OF APRIL UPDATE: The Seattle Parks Department only organized pickleball on the Jefferson tennis courts (as announced in the flyer above) twice. Then they quit doing it and forgot to tell the pickleball players about it. So players are still showing up and organizing games on their own.

The Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) Department is organizing Senior pickleball on the Jefferson Park outdoor tennis courts, next to the Jefferson Community Center on Beacon Hill.

This program is part of SPR’s “Rec’n The Streets” program. In case of iffy weather, check out the Rec’n Streets schedule and notifications on their Facebook page.

In spite of the picture above that shows people playing on a pickleball court with pickleball lines and a pickleball net, there are no pickleball nets or pickleball lines on the Jefferson Park tennis courts.

On Friday April 9, SPR had brought two rolls of blue masking tape, hoping that pickleball players would know how to use them to mark court lines. They also brought a net that was smaller than standard.

Some players marked one court with chalk and used the tennis net as you can see on the picture above. Other players spent a long time laying down masking tape to line a second court and used their own portable pickleball nets.

There are rumors that SPR is considering buying “bright yellow line markers” for next time. They might also have real pickleball nets. In any case, if you have chalk or a portable pickleball net, bring them.

Be aware that there will be no play on April 16.