At a special presentation today the courts at Tanglewood, Sebring, Florida were named after the person who had the vision to bring a brand new game here. Charles Kuehn was honoured today by Patrick Hotchkiss and fellow pickleballers with the dedication of a plaque naming the courts the “Kuehn Courts”.
About one year ago thanksgiving, Charles Kuehn and a group of 4 or 5 people played the first Pickleball game on a quickly designed set of courts in the bash area. Charles Kuehn and a few people taped off some courts and put up nets using plastic pipe from Home Depot. Charles asked Patrick Hotchkiss, as a sports reporter, for our Internet newspaper to work with him on getting some recognition for the sport in the paper. Patrick came to look at what it was all about and as an ex racquetball player became hooked on the game myself.
The rest is history. Tanglewood soon had as many as 12 people trying to play on make- shift courts designed for 8. By the end of the last season, Charles was getting quite a following of avid players. He then approached John Greytak, the owner of Tanglewood, about getting our own courts so we did not have to deal with taking down and putting up the nets every time there was a function in the Bash area.
To make a long story short: Charlie Kuehn used the theory from the movie “Field of Dreams”…Build it and they will come!.....He single handedly talked John Gretak into spending $50,000 dollars to build our current Pickleball complex. When we hosted the senior games a few weeks ago, we had seasoned players from as far away as the Villages that said: “we have the best courts they had ever played on”
Charlie formed a club this year, and we now have about 65 members and about 85 playing the game. The sport has grown by a factor of 10 in just over one year.