Tanglewood’s First Annual Invitational Tournament – Winter Fest – 2008

Are these guys registering for a Pickleball Tournament or a Hockey Tournament? A Florida sport takes on a Canadian appearance, eh.

Tanglewood’s first annual invitational tournament was held on Saturday, November 22 at the Tanglewood courts. Participants from The Villages, Solivita, Sarasota-Venice, Sun City Center, and 1000 Trails Peace River started arriving shortly after 7:00 am to register. The numbers total--30 on the men’s side and 24 on the ladies’ when play started. The format for the day was a double elimination with the winners of the first round moving to the A side and the non winners moving to the B side.

Tanglewood was honored to have Jack Beck the Ambassador for Sarasota County, Donna and Rich Donald, Joint Ambassadors for New Tampa Florida, Al Rosati , Ambassador for The Villages, and Marcel Lemieux, Ambassador for Mirabel, Quebec, Canada participating in the event. The new RA for the Atlantic South Region, Dick “Greenie” Greenfield (the player above in black) made the trek down from The Villages as well. There were seven ambassadors and one RA all involved in the tournament. Former RA for ASR, Neal Nightingale drove over from Sun City Center to watch and talk Pickleball with eager players.

The first matches started at 7:45 with brisk winds and the temperature in the 40’s. As the matches heated up so did the day. Under tournament rules, players are allowed to take two one minute breaks during a match. Most of these time outs were used to unbundle the various layers of clothing. The ladies’ first round was a very hard fought affair with many of the matches going to three games to decide who would move to the A side and the B side.
A great crowd of spectators was led in cheering sessions by our own professional clown, Louise Lemieux. Louise led everyone in the Tanglewood cheer. Visitors purchased lunch and bought tickets in the 50/50 draw. The players were really impressed with the number of people who stopped by to enjoy Pickleball for the first time.

As the day progressed teams were eliminated and the final round was started just before the lunch hour. In the men’s A division, one of the most hotly contested matches was the A final group of Rich Donald and Al Goldberg of Tanglewood against Steve Allen and Bruce Everhard of Solivita. There were tremendous rallies that had the crowd cheering. The Tanglewood duo prevailed 11/3 and 11/2.


In the men’s B division Tanglewood’s Jim Hoch and Jim Maynard teamed up to win over Mark Jones and Travis Weaver in another hard fought match.

The ladies final was just as exciting as Judy Goldberg and Linda Kramer prevailed over Solivita’s Cathy Miller and Margie Diaz, 11/5 and 11/5

The ladies’ B division was won by Nadine Powers and Louann Dubendorf of Kings Pointe Club. Jill Condon and Gloria Stoles won bronze for Tanglewood. For all the results of the tournament, readers are invited to go to the Tanglewood Pickleball blog

The club wishes to thank the volunteers who helped with setup, registration, the sale of 50/50 tickets, and the clean up at the end. Without your help this would not have been possible. A special thanks to Kathy Keller and her crew who prepared the lunch for all the players and spectators.

As players from centers arrived, the most common comment heard was, “whow what nice facilities.” After coming off the courts, visitors visiting for the first time remarked, “these are the best courts we have ever played on.” John, the owner of Tanglewood, you deserve credit for doing the job right. Thanks to you for buying and your crew for putting up the windscreens in time for this tournament they came at the right time.

Everyone has remarked about what a great tournament Saturday was. This all became possible because two players came back from a tournament held at Kings Pointe Pickleball Club in Sun City Center and said Tanglewood nee
ds something like this. Jim Hoch and Al Goldberg started the planning and never looked back. They got John’s permission to hold the tournament, went out and solicited sponsors and invited the players to come. Tanglewood players were invited first and then outsiders were invited to fill in the draw. What a fanastic job these guys did in a period of approximately eight weeks. The Tanglewood Pickleball Club cannot thank them enough.
Both players and spectators alike enjoyed a great day of Pickleball. It is great to see a new club have such success in their very first event.


All players and spectators are reminded that the Heartland Senior Games, Pickleball event, is scheduled for Friday, March 6, 2009 at Tanglewood. Watch for information on registration on this site and come visit.



by Wayne Roswell