I know, you all have been waiting for the drop of Part II for the weekly Pickle Jar.  At least that is what I tell myself.  It was a long weekend so let's throw the kickstand up and explore the Pickleverse.

1.    WHRC Tournament - Local players fare well down in Johnstown this past weekend.  SaraLee F. and TIna R. brought home gold in the Women's 3.0 bracket.  Amy J. and Kyle K. snagged a silver in the Mixed Doubles 3.0, Age 49 and Under bracket while SaraLee F. and Randy H. scooped up the bronze.  John and I had a lot of fun in the Men's 3.5 Open Age bracket, we will let it at that.  Many thanks to Dirk Johnson and Lisa Miller for putting together a fun event.  See you in October.   PHOTOS BELOW (may post some action shots next week).

2.    Johnstown YMCA Tournament - Lisa Miller, the tournament director, asked to share with you that there are still opportunities to register for the Greater Johnstown YMCA Open on April 26 (Men's and Women's) & 27 (Mixed).  Skill brackets they hope to run are 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, and 5.0.  As is the norm, they may need to smoosh some together if a bracket is short teams.  For example this weekend John and I were in the 3.0 bracket but since neither that bracket nor the 3.5 bracket had enough teams to run a bracket we were all merged into a 3.5/Open Age bracket.  On the flip side the 3.0 Mixed Double bracket had enough to run 3.0 Mixed Age 49 and Under and 3.0 Mixed Age 50 and over.  This is the norm for most of the mid-level and smaller tournaments.  It is an enviable task for the tournament director.  You can register by scanning the QR code on the poster below.  Do not use the URL listed near the bottom, that goes to a previous tournament.  If you are going, they will be using Orange Onix Fuse which are very similar to the orange balls in the ball caddy at The Centre.  When going to a new site it is a good idea to check the court and hit a number of warm up shots to see how it bounces on the venue's floor.  Think about it.  If you have never played in a tournament before this would be a good first trial.  If you have questions about playing in tournaments, reach out to our growing number of participants.

3.    C3 Sports - will be closed on Good Friday, the sign-up has been amended to represent that.

4.    The Centre - will be open on Good Friday, HOWEVER, only the 4 courts on the turf side will be available.  The rest of the building has been reserved for a large wrestling tournament.  Anticipate a large crowd, a full parking lot, and a lot of noise.

5.    DUPR - When people sign up for a tournament they have to pick a skill level usually.  Some are simply self rated with words like novice, intermediate or advanced.  A numeric scale was developed to try to dial in abilities and levels a bit better.  As the sport grew and athletes got better a system was needed to recognize varied abilities and hopefully to prevent really good players from sandbagging a tournament (playing a level lower than their skills to snag medals) so some folks developed what is called DUPR.  I will put a link at the end of this bullet and DUPR can provide more details.  While not perfect, unethical players have learned how to manipulate their rating, it probably is the best method to get a good idea of what your skill level is.  State College YMCA is a DUPR participant and will be holding events for players to play each other to set up a rating for players they can then use when playing in their ladders and some of their other events.  My question to you is does that interest you guys?  Let me know.  If you couldn't care less about assigning a number to your skill level, no worries I don't see this interfering with social/drop-in play.  Here is the link to learn more:  https://dashboard.dupr.com/

6.    State College YMCA - The State College YMCA will be offering an intermediate clinic on April 26, if you are interested here is the link for more information:  https://operations.daxko.com/Online/2025/ProgramsV2/OfferingDetails.mvc?program_id=TMP130531&offering_id=SES3173890&location_id=B89

7.    Tip Of The Week - I'm just going with "have fun".  My game was up and down this weekend.  At one point in a game where SaraLee and I opened a 5-0 lead and then saw that fade to a 9-13 hole we talked about chilling out and playing like we were at The Centre, just competing for the joy of the game.  We managed to fight back and win 15-13.  Thanks partner.  I was able to get some good action shots of SaraLee and Tina that I hope to use as some training tips.

OK, my taxes are done.  I'm a bit pickled out.  To that end I think a bike ride is in order tomorrow. Not sure where. Not sure how far.  OH, keep an eye on TeamReach.  Folks are posting notices they are looking to assemble 4-somes or better.  See you on the court soon!

In case you missed them, here are the sign-ups for indoor play:

C3 Sports:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B4BA5AA28AB9-56255368-c3pickleball

The Centre:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B4BA5AA28AB9-56255381-nvsc

Randy Hoffman

Please consider donating: https://greatcyclechallenge.com/riders/RandyHoffman