Weather's a changin'.  Feel it in my bones.  A couple of things to cover in this week's Pickle Jar so let's explore the Pickleverse.  This just jumped into my head, are the stranded astronauts making time and a half while stranded on the space station.

1. One Day Fun Day Tournament (Tyrone):  Many thanks to the Tyrone Pickleball Club for hosting a very enjoyable and well run tournament this past Saturday.  As you may remember their original date was washed out by the remnants of Hurricane Debbie.  Due to the date change two of our teams that qualified the Bernel Briners to compete for the Central Pennsylvania Pickleball Cup had vacation conflicts on the new dates so we scrambled and were able to fill those slots and still compete for the team championship.  Tyrone entered 8 teams, Blair County Pickleball Club entered 4 teams, the Bernel Briners entered 4 teams and there was one independent team from Somerset.  Since the number of teams were varied (need 4 teams to qualify for the team cup) matches were set by a random drawing.  Seeding for the single elimination round was determined by the number of victories and the positive point differential.  Randy and Tina went 4-0 with a +35 point differential and grabbed the number one seed with Anthony and Ronda grabbing the number 2 seed with both qualifying for the elimination round.  As reported earlier, Anthony and Ronda won the bronze medal for the individual team competition.  A Blair County team (the one that beat Tina and I) grabbed the silver and the independent team from Somerset team won the gold.  In the end the team competition was decided by which club had the highest winning percentage, which were your Centre County Bernel Briners with a 70% win rate.  It was close with Blair County close behind.  Blair County was the previous cup winner and I have heard, they want the cup back.  Everyone up your game to defend the cup in 2025!

2. C3 Sports:  C3 Sports will reopen for pickleball on September 2nd!  The SignUpGenious link can be found below.  As of this time, the hours and the fee are the same as before.

3. Labor Day:  Both C3 Sports and The Centre will be closed on Labor Day.

4. State College YMCA - Wanted:  in mid-September (the 12th I believe) the YMCA will begin their team pickleball league which runs for about a month.  They are in need of some intermediate level substitutes.  This would be a great way to get introduced to playing with some new (to you) players and try something a little bit different.  The Y hopes to eventually expand the size of the program in the future so this could be a nice taste test.  If you would like to be interested as a sub contact Drew at:  dvontish@gmail.com

5. Duncansville Tournament:  September must be everyone's favorite month to hold a tournament.  Duncansville is holding one during their Community Days.  I don't have a lot of information other than what is available on their FB page:  https://www.facebook.com/DuncansvilleCommunityDays/

6. Coudersport Tournament:  I bit of a drive but if not for the pickleball, the possible Fall foliage may make it worth heading up.  See a copy of their flyer below.  I may even look at this one since my bike rides will be done.

7. Pickle Jar Hack:  Just because it deals with pickle jars - https://www.facebook.com/reel/3103453564673387

8. Where's Randy:  September 1 I will start working on riding my pledged 400 bike miles in September.  I hope to knock out a nice chunk during the first 4 days of the month with the weather looking so cooperative.  I was very lucky to rent a yurt in Ohiopyle State Park so for September 2 - 4 I will be rolling along on the Great Allegheny Passage.  Due to some travel plan changes I have to pick a new Day 1 ride.  My usual go-to ride for Day1 has been the Pine Creek Rail Trail so that is the number one contender.  Fundraising has gone very well.  I am close to setting a new personal best for a single year.  I shared my Times Square photo with the trail association that maintains the Redbank Trail.  They in turn forwarded that to the Clarion County Tourism office and that led to an interview and they want to incorporate my efforts in some promotions for the trail, including outfitting me with a GoPro for next year's ride when I ride a Clarion County Trail.  This year they want to do a Ride WIth Randy day when I do the Redbank Trail.  Not sure what I have got myself into.  Anyhow, so many of you have been so generous in donating I want to thank you again.  If anyone else would like to donate and help fund pediatric cancer research follow this link:  https://greatcyclechallenge.com/riders/RandyHoffman  So if you don't see me around the courts as much in Spetember, I am probably rolling down some trail.

9. Tip Of The Week:  I have touched on this before but this version comes from my personal experiences at the tournament.  Tina and cruised through four preliminary matches 11-1, 11-2 11-4, and 11-2.  A good number of our points were won in 4 shots or less.  In one game Tina never had to serve.  Then in the elimination round we came up to an experienced, skilled and patient team.  We got thumped 15-4 and that was after starting off with a 2-0 lead.  My personal opinion is that they were not that much better than us but much more experienced in taking points past the 4th hit and just waiting to attack.  Once we got behind that took my serve out of the game since having faulted twice already I had to go with a safer serve.  I also started to try and attack balls that weren't the best candidates to do such.  So just a fair warning to future partners in rec play I will put even more emphasis on skill development and that can mean more losses as I screw up.  I will also be looking to extend rallies to become more comfortable in going beyond 3 to 4 hits and the point is over.  Now if there is money on the line or someone gets the better of my gentle nature.......
   
   

OK, I have rambled on long enough.  Have a great Labor Day week. Stay safe and if I don't see you on the court, perhaps I will see you on the trail.  Below are the SignUpGenius links for C3 Sport and The Centre.

The Centre:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B4BA5AA28AB9-51056034-nvsc

C3 Sports:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B4BA5AA28AB9-51056042-c3pickleball

Randy Hoffman

Holbrook PIckleball Ambassador

https://holbrookpickleball.com/

Discount Code = RANDYHOFFMAN20