The Pickle Jar
PJ December 23 - 27
No big intro this week, I need to focus on some important details for the coming week and 2025 so let's head off for the Pickleverse.
No play at C3 Sports this week.
Here is the schedule for The Centre for the coming week : MONDAY the 23rd = normal schedule, TUESDAY the 24th = drop-in from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM and reserved courts from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, CHRISTMAS = Closed, THURSDAY the 26th = Drop-in from 10:00 AM to Noon and reserved courts from Noon to 2:00 PM, FRIDAY the 27th = Drop-in from 10:00 AM to Noon and then reserved courts from Noon to 2:00 PM.
As a heads up for next week, December 30, 31st and January 1st will have 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM drop-in and 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM reserved courts HOWEVER only the 3 courts on the large gym side will be available. The turf side of the building is reserved for another activity.
The SignUpGenius below has been adjusted to reflect the upcoming changes for the coming week.
Tournament Alert: The State College High School Future Business Leaders of America will be hosting a pickleball tournament at The Centre on February 1, 2025. The tournament will run from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM. This an "open style" format where the only brackets are Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. Within those groups there are no sub-brackets for age or gender. A nice twist to the awards is that should one group, say 3 male/male teams sweep gold, silver, and bronze in a bracket, a prize would be awarded to the top finishing female/female and mixed gender team. Here is a link to see more about the tournament and how to register: https://sites.google.com/scasd.org/fbla-pickleball-tournament/tournament-details.
Dinking In The New Year: There is still time to register for DITNY. We have a number of teams from the local area headed down to Altoona to try to mine for some precious metal. For more information follow this link: https://app.pickleballden.com/external-tournament/3241865.
The Centre: Effective 2025 The Centre will no longer be using paper punch cards. They will be instituting an electronic tracking program to manage prepaid games. You no longer will have to dig through a wallet or purse to look for a paper card. Walk in the door, go to the desk, warmly greet the desk attendant and provide them with your name and they will "punch" you in on the computer. Wait, it even gets better. The more you play, the more you save. Here is the cost breakdown. If you only purchase one session at a time the per session price is $8.00. If you purchase 10 sessions the cost per session is $7.50 ($75.00 for the block of ten), and if you purchase a block of 24 sessions the per session cost is $7.00 ($168 for the block). While this may not seem like a big discount, please keep in mind that The Centre has not raised their prices in the past two years so not only holding but also creating discount options is commendable IMHO. Now to make this happen The Centre needs all players to establish accounts and create a profile. The account not only allows them to manage this tracking program but also assures that players have signed off on the liability document, and they have provided emergency contact information. If you object to completing this I guess you could always go play at ..... oh wait, there is no indoor facility locally which is open to the public that does not require at least a liability waiver. TO SET UP YOUR ACCOUNT (if you don't have one) go to this website: https://apps.daysmartrecreation.com/dash/x/#/online/nittany/login where it takes about 2 minutes to complete, is free and you won't have to do it at the desk. If you already have an account you are good to go and you can start purchasing sessions. FYI - the paper punch cards you are currently holding will be honored until they are used up.
Hopefully I got everything out there in an understandable fashion. If you have questions feel free to let me know. If I don't have an answer I will try and forward to someone that might. Time to sign off and go dig out the aluminum pole for Festivus on Monday. Have a wonderful week and I hope to see you on the court soon.
The Centre: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B4BA5AA28AB9-54128582-nvsc#/
Randy Hoffman
Holbrook PIckleball Ambassador
https://holbrookpickleball.com/
Discount Code = RANDYHOFFMAN20