In this issue:

Cohort play update

Future use of schools

Update on Cohort Play

The Club had planned to implement Cohort-based play on November 22 nd, before receiving the changed guidelines from the Premier on Nov 12. We are aware there are many questions about cohorts and cohort based play. Please be patient as we continue to plan and we will try to answer as many questions as possible.

In responding to the mandatory cohort form, members chose to be placed in a cohort based on:

- Level,

- Partner,

- Specific play time;

- Or placed in a formed cohort under a specific leader.

Please note that some members asked to be placed in a men only or women only cohort . There were not  sufficient replies to make a men only or women only cohort possible.

Those that asked to be with a specific leader, automatically have someone to help organize the group/cohort. The other cohorts (level, partner, time play) were created by the club and do not have a leader. Some members in these cohorts did volunteer to be captains, when they replied to the survey. Nicole Currie (Nikki) contacted these members asking if they indeed would help be a captain for the cohort they were placed in. This was in preparation for play at Red Willow. We want to thank all those members who have agreed to help out as captains/leaders. They will be contacted again closer to the restart date to finalize the process and answer specific questions on processes for the captain.

Of course Pickleball play through the club is now put on hold and we are waiting to see if play will resume after the two week closure. Dependent on this news, you will receive notice of when and how play will resume at Red Willow. If you have been registered in a series play at Servus and BActive you will also receive notice about whether/ when these series will resume. More information will be sent regarding refunds but be patient as we have to wait and see what will happen and whether/ when pickleball will resume.

In January there will  be a maintenance process put in place to accommodate cohort requests from new or existing members who had not previously asked to be put in a cohort. It will also accommodate changes within a cohort. In January whether/ when play resumes , new cohort-based play at Servus Place and other SAPC venues will be organised.

I know you are asking “How will this cohort play work.” The Club will assign each play time to a particular cohort. The system will only allow you to SEE and register to play, IF you are a member of that cohort. So for example when play begins at Red Willow, a member will check the Red Willow calendar, and will only see the time(s) available to their cohort. That is the only time(s) they are able to register to play. This will be the same for all play venues beginning in January.

As we've mentioned before play times will be allocated equitably to each cohort on a "per member" basis. This means that cohorts with more members will get more play times. Note that in larger cohorts, only a small portion of them can attend each session (e.g. only 10 out of 50), whereas in a small cohort a greater percentage of their members can attend each session (e.g. if only 10 in cohort, all 10 can attend a session.)

You must log into the website in order to see cohort-based play opportunities. You will not see opportunities open to other cohorts. This prevents you from accidentally registering for play with the wrong cohort.

The cohort you are in (example M03 or S05) is now indicated in your membership profile. You can also see a new cohort directory online -- so you can contact your cohort colleagues when you need to. To see who is in your cohort, do an advanced search specifying your cohort group (eg: SO5). All your cohort members will be listed.
Here is the link to the cohort directory.

Special thanks to Ray Keroack for all of this behind the scenes work which has taken so much time to create.

Now for all of those questions you may have; on the website under the heading “Play”- cohort based play, you will find the explanation and the answers to the questions you may have. Many we have mentioned above. Here's a shortcut to that page.

As we move forward, awaiting news about pickleball play reinstatement; please read the cohort play information on the website.

Future School Use

The districts have confirmed that there will be no Community Use of Schools through February 2021.

Until then stay safe!

In this issue:

Changes Coming - Get Ready for Mandatory Cohort Registration

Red Willow Play Changes

Changes Coming - Get Ready for Mandatory Cohort Registration

We are changing our play to make it more overtly compliant with new health guidelines and to keep our members safer and healthier.

A mandatory cohort form is coming in the next two days. All members who want to play in future sessions this winter MUST reply to the mandatory form, thereby qualifying for this new play. A link to the form will be provided in an email to you.

You have seen in our news that COVID cases are rising in the Edmonton zone. In response, new restrictions on gatherings have been released for the Edmonton area. In addition, this month, there is new Guidance for Sport, Physical Activity and Recreation.

For the first time, pickleball is explicitly mentioned as a sport that must only be played in cohort groups. These rules also now clearly state:

• no one should be part of more than one sports cohort,
• sports cohort groups must have no more than 50 members, and
• participants switching sports cohorts should not play for a two-week interval.

In response, your board has passed a resolution that, for the foreseeable future, all our play will be more overtly and explicitly compliant with these rules. Your safety matters.

To do this as quickly as possible, here’s some of what will happen.

• A mandatory cohort form will be issued to all members by Oct 27.
• • Members will only have three days to respond.
  • The form will ask if you are in a well-functioning, cohesive cohort and want that cohort kept intact and assigned some play times in our calendars.
  • If you are not in a well-functioning, already-established cohort, you will have the opportunity for the club to place you in a new cohort. We will place you based on some high-level criteria. We DO NOT have the capacity to quickly plan this to meet everyone’s detailed criteria. We will do the best we can, using ONLY the criteria we have put into the survey.
• A second form will be issued to the identified leaders or prime contacts of the previously established, well-functioning cohorts to identify and confirm their SAPC members, desired play times, etc.
• Based on the results of these two forms, play times will be assigned to cohort groups.

If you already have an SAPC play time reservation at Red Willow, B-Active or Servus Place, please keep your reservation and attend the session you have booked. In addition, another week or two of reservations at Red Willow may be booked using the current reservation practices. No one expects that we can convert to explicit cohort-based play overnight.

Explicit cohort-based reservations will become available for some November times at Red Willow as soon as we can implement this.  The same will apply to January and subsequent play times at other venues.

What can you do now to get ready?

• If you are in a well-organized cohort, you need to quickly decide amongst the current members of that cohort if you want to belong to and play only in that cohort going forward. You also need to pick a leader or prime contact for that cohort, and each of you needs to identify that same leader on your responses to the mandatory cohort registration form. This will then be the SAPC cohort we assign you to.
• Watch for the mandatory cohort form and complete it with the three-day period.
• If you are a leader of an existing cohort:
• • pick a name for your cohort,
  • determine 1^st and 2^nd choices for play times (weekday mornings, weekday afternoons, weekday evenings, weekend days).  Note that weekday-day times are likely to remain more plentiful than evening and weekend times.
  • determine if your cohort wants some assigned reservation types like the following:
  • • reservable series play, where members pay up front for 8 to 14 weeks of play, once a week, first come-first served within the cohort, no refunds or cancellations. Members find their own substitutes within their cohort for any sessions they need to miss.
    • sticker-pay, individually-booked events, first come first served within the cohort, self-cancellations allowed
    • reserved cohort-determined play. This is open only to well established cohorts. It is cohort-determined play, where you assign play times to cohort members according to your own methods not using SAPC systems, and where the cohort figures out how to pay. This means either (i) pay up-front online with no refunds or (ii) pay by means of stickers on a sign-in sheet, and guarantee to the club that your cohort will always have the minimum number of stickers needed. This option is not recommended unless you already have a proven method of fairly and equitably assigning play times to all your cohort members.

Note that only SAPC members can be in SAPC cohorts. If someone wants to join our club now, they have only a day or two left to do so. Then we will likely suspend taking new memberships for at least a month and  until this new cohort-based play is well organized. This is only fair – we have new members joining every day and we usually welcome them. But we don’t want people inadvertently joining our club, paying their $30, then finding they can’t play with the club for two-plus months because they didn’t respond to the initial survey and because we’re not yet ready to start adding new members to existing cohort groups.

Wish us luck. Your club volunteers have a lot of work to do in the next few weeks to make this happen.

If you want to help us through future projects like this, or want to serve in any other volunteer capacity, please update your volunteer interests in your profile. You will find there are many options to choose from. Your profile can be found under the ‘head and shoulders’ icon (or arrow icon) in the top right corner of any page of your website.

Red Willow Play Changes

If you were to chat with fellow members about “how’s Red Willow play going for you??”…you’d possibly hear, “nice to be at it again inside away from the wind, my serves stay in!”, or-“Sit-play-sit s'more!!??”, or- “Not sure I’ll go anymore” ..etc..??

In early October we launched Red Willow (our solitary venue at the time) and have since heard feedback and have also launched more and different venue play opportunities.

Here’s what’s being done to address the play and financial stress of Red Willow play. (You probably didn’t know that Red Willow was teetering on a negative cost for the club).

Starting November 1^st, Red Willow Sessions will transition to the following:

• 10 player limit (at each session) - so captain plus 9 registrants.
• 2 stickers per player.

This change is to help us enjoy more quality play (less sit time!), and helps with the financially sustainability needed for this venue.

Keep your paddle up!

Weekly Online Registration for Indoor: now at Thurs 12am.

Just when some of us are now accustomed to the new digeetal youniverse and are ok with using the website scheduling tool, here's a curveball.

Well not so much a curve, as an off-speed slider. You know those serves right?  

Here's the changeup. 

The Indoor Session Registration window time is changing. Here it is.

Starting this week on Thursday Oct. 15th, and for each Thursday thereafter, the "registration window" opens at 12am, yep, the spooky zone.

It's just the way the system will work best, meaning- no human has to interrupt their dinner and urgently manually manage the window.  Our website will do it for us!

Only, it can't tell time, just the day. So, we have a 12am. start, Thursday Oct 15) to register for ALL indoor sessions for that following week's period (Sunday to Saturday)

Ok, so the recap. This time with colour!

Starting THIS week, and for all future weeks, the night owls and early birds can scoop their weekly session spots starting at 12am Thursday mornings (aka Wednesday midnight).

Just getting the word out- real-time, to get-in-line, in-time!

Reserved Group Play at Red Willow

Your club is always trying to satisfy the diverse needs of our many members, and we're not afraid to experiment once in a while and adapt as circumstances change.

Some of you have asked if your small cohort group of pickleball players could reserve Red Willow or a couple of courts elsewhere.  Well, we're still looking into the "elsewhere," but we also have an opportunity now to try this at Red Willow.

This opportunity has arisen because we don't yet have enough individual members booking into the established sessions at Red Willow. (Yes, we know that is because most of you would rather keep playing outdoors while the weather holds, and we understand that.)  Anyway, we might as well make good use of any indoor facility we can, right?

Here's the scoop on our trial group plays at Red Willow:

• Two sessions are now set up, one for this Thursday Oct 8 and the second for Thursday Oct 15. You will see these in the Red Willow calendar, the Indoor calendar, the Reserved Play calendar and the All Play calendar.
• One member may book the entire session on behalf of their cohort or other group of fellow players. All players must be SAPC members.
• The sessions will be from 9 am to 11 am.
• The one who reserves will also act as captain and must agree to learn and apply our club's rules for safe play at Red Willow. This includes adherence to the rule to sanitize and leave the facility by 10:55 pm.
• The fee for the two hour session is $50 including GST, and this must be paid online by credit card upon reservation.
• Of course, there can only be one reservation per session, and it will be first come, first served.
• Registration for the Oct 8 session will be open at 12:00:01 am Tuesday Oct 6, and registration for the Oct 15 session will open at 12:00:01 on Thursday Oct 8. At that time you will begin to see a "Reserve" button on the event description page. (Sorry for the inconvenient time, but that's how our system's automated registration opening feature works. Will you wake up just before midnight to snag this spot? Maybe you can rotate this job within your group if we have more of these.)
• Instructions for accessing the building will be provided to the captain upon reservation.
• The captain will have all attendees fill out the regular sign-in sheet, but will not collect stickers. The captain may collect cash from each group member.
• Each group may range from 8 to a maximum of 16 players. 
• For this trial, if your group manages to snag the Oct 8 time, please let some other group grab the Oct 15 slot. (However, if no one has booked the Oct 15 slot by Oct 10, then go for it!)

For this trial period, questions regarding these specific group reservations may be directed to Treasurer@pickleballstalbert.ca. After the trial, please direct reserved play questions to RegPlay@pickleballstalbert.ca.

Questions from potential captains regarding the Red Willow venue may be directed to our Red Willow venue coordinator, Nicole Currie.

Please see our website's home page or the Sep 28th news posting for Red Willow safety and play rules. 

See the Reserved Play page under the Play menu for instructions on making and cancelling a reservation.

Keep your paddle up!

We're pleased to bring you more play opportunities, and your board and the Facilities Task Force is busy looking at warehouses and other facilities to try to address some of the expected shortfall this indoor season, but we also gather from the low sign-ups so far for Red Willow play next week, that many of you are not yet ready to move indoors.

That's okay -- we understand.  But we want you know that the reservations made for Red Willow play next week are very low.  So low, that the club may lose out, economically-speaking, on each and every session.  Now, we are prepared to lose a bit on several sessions at the beginning and ending of each season, but we have to draw the line somewhere. We hope you understand that if we don't get all of next week's sessions at least 60 or 70% filled by say sometime Sunday Oct 4, then we will start cancelling some of these sessions.

Don't worry, we will bring them back in subsequent weeks when the weather turns colder.

All indoor sessions are reserved play and we have several other provisions in place to limit contact between people.  Making a reservation is easy, and you can't play indoors without one.

For more information see:

- the article on your website's home page,

- the newsletter posting of September 28th, and

- the updated webpage on Reserved Play found under your website's Play menu.

By the way, if we do cancel a session that you've already reserved, you will get an email telling you that your reservation is cancelled.

Keep your paddle up!

More Indoor Venues Please

Red Willow Indoor Play: How To

Getting “Carded!?”

The Search Continues

More Indoor Venues Please

St. Albert is a vibrant, growing bundle of award-winning communities that…uh-oh, s’cuse me- sorry, this isn’t the Mayor talking or a Tourism Alberta brochure. Ok- back to our newsletter.. Our club did however get a well-crafted plea in front of the Mayor and council this week though, asking for more PB play venues. And it’s exactly because St. Albert is filled with, and here’s the key word, “Active” communities, we registered the interests and passion of our members with the civic purse-strings in hopes of them tabling future plans for more indoor PB courts! Have a read at the letter that was well-received (and kindly responded to!) by the Mayor.

This initiative is part of our club vision to grow our venues and facilitate more facilities, until we can all enjoy courts within walking distance, preferably along covered & heated civic corridors, or at least maybe have those moving escalators like in airport terminals. Ah well, a club can dream can’t we?

In stride with this dream and more rooted in a “near term” feasibility, we are looking at possible warehouse bay options and evaluating the physical and financial requirements for that kind of supplemental venue.

Red Willow Indoor Play: How To

There’s a few (6!) things to both prepare for, remember and do when attending Red Willow this Fall season, ok- PLUS another eight COVID codes for indoor play..so, a brainfull of things to know and do for Oct 4^th and our new beyond.

This list of essential play protocols is also on our club website. These protocols are absolutely the “law’ of proper entry-play-exit actions that in fact enable us to use these facilities.

Just because it’s soo important, we need to emphasize the MASK protocol. No Masks- No enter, No exceptions. It’s just the way it has to be to satisfy the conditions of using this facility.

Please study & review this list, and follow whatever helpful direction the Captains may have to give you to steer you along while coming to and being at Red Willow.

FYI, we’re starting with just 2 sessions a day for the first week Oct 4-10^th.

After this first “adjustment week” we’ll fill out the calendar with our planned play for the rest of the month.

Red Willow Specific Rules: Online Registration starts on Oct 1st.

1.     15 reservable spots and one held for captain for a total of 16 players per session.

2.     One sticker for now - may change in January or if we reduce the number of players per session.

3.     There are no hangers or chairs in the lobby. Hang your coats on the back of your chair.

4.     No backpacks please. Bring only a small bag, water bottle and indoor shoes.

5.     Captains will be sanitizing chairs. (The church is providing a cloth and sanitizing cleaner for them to use)

6.     Only one person in the washroom at a time and only use the middle stall and middle sink.  Members must bring wipes and sanitize each contact point in the washroom after each use.

To manage the risks of COVID-19 infections, here is the new way we’ll conduct Indoor Play sessions. 

1. Play is by reservation only.  Click on a session in the indoor calendar to reserve a spot.

2. Chairs will each be spaced 6 feet apart in the gym and are not to be moved or shared. Each player must use the same chair throughout the event. (Captains will sanitize the chair at the end the session.) 

3. To enable the socialize we know will happen, masks must be worn at all times except when playing. Masks may also optionally be worn while playing.

4. Court players can either agree to each serve with their own ball or to share a ball.  Players provide their own balls and should sanitize any used ball after each game.

5.  Session starts and ends:

6. No touching of others' paddles. Do the "Covid wave" after each game. 

7. We have promised our venue owners that we will touch and use nothing else in their facilities other than what is referenced in this article. Please help us keep these facilities safe for all.

8. As indoor play opportunities are limited during this pandemic, please limit your reservations to "All Play" sessions or sessions rated at your specific rating level.

Give a cheer that we can at least have some fun (and relatively safe) play this winter!

Getting “Carded?!”

Ah, those early “pre-legal” days..of sprucing up or having some jawline stubble to help advance our age at the tavern entrance. Well, being asked to produce your club ID may take your mind back to those anxious times, ahem- that is, if you ever tried that, not saying anyone did. Not to worry, this is not being asked of all of you.

Although, as we’re moving to a digital wonderland of cloud-accessible membership info, captains at play venues that are simply doing their duty may need to check “who’s who” from time to time. If you’re “opting out” of having your name and rating displayed on the membership directory (as is your preference), our much appreciated volunteer captains- who can now check a paperless directory online, won’t “see” you, and thereby be put in the onerous position of declaring you unwelcome to whatever specific rated session it may be (thus preserving precious, limited play spots for paid, registered & appropriately rated members).

So, please enjoy the new feature of printing out your membership card IF you’re a ghost and we can’t see you in the directory. This is your new obligation to help maintain our club “members only” play privileges.

The Search Continues

No, not for the Ark, Spock or an ever-flowing Fountain of Youth. We search for something far more plausible- some assistance with club duties!

These current postings for a Web Coordinator and an Assistant Treasurer, are opportunities to learn and contribute to the goings-on of our year-round club business and development projects! There’s training and support from all of us current Board and Committee members, so if you’d like to pitch in and help shape the future of our SAPC, take a look at the duties and send us a note. (Note that the Assistant Treasurer duties are not specifically posted, and will be developed in collaboration with anyone who steps forward. The duties could range from some basic bookkeeping to advanced financial management. They will be a subset of the duties of the Treasurer which are listed in the Board Members Job Description document.)

(we've removed the fancy headers, Councillor email addresses and dozen or so "cc's" from the original, official letter..here's the content only)

......

Re: Urgent need for indoor pickleball playing facilities for St Albert 

Esteemed Mayor and Councillors,

Greetings from the board of the St Albert Pickleball Club. We hope that this letter finds you all well in these “interesting” times. We would like to commend all of Council for the vision you have to make St Albert a healthy, active community and promote our City as the preferred place to live, raise a family and retire.

As the St Albert Pickleball Club we are very thankful for your leadership in developing the Alpine Courts to be a first rate pickleball facility, and for making the St Albert City schools available for indoor play to the extent possible. We also treasure the relationship we have with the City Recreation and Parks department.

As you know, there has been a phenomenal growth in the sport of pickleball in North America. St. Albert has seen the same growth in interest, as the sport of pickleball is health-building activity, conducive to developing friendship, serving a social need for connections to people and community.  This sport can be played by those of all ages and is particularly well-suited to growing numbers of seniors who want to stay active.  St. Albert’s interest in playing pickleball has barely diminished during the pandemic, and we expect the trend of rapid growth to resume unabated, as proper facilities become available. We had over 640 members in April 2020, and wouldn’t be surprised if our numbers quadrupled within four years, given sufficient play venues.

The interests of St. Albert residents have been hampered by not having sufficient indoor pickleball facilities. As well, the longer our city goes without having a central indoor pickleball facility, the more we will see opportunities to play pickleball and host tournaments slip away. Facilities in Edmonton and other surrounding communities are starting to pull players and tournaments away from St Albert, resulting in lost opportunity to contribute to the economic sustainment of St. Albert businesses and services.

The lack of adequate indoor spaces limits the growth of this sport in St Albert and the positive impact on the community that it can bring. 

We also want to be clear that the model of play currently provided by Servus Place is not conducive to fully developing pickleball play for the majority of players. As a club we look forward to being a part of a facility with 12 or more courts and where we can structure some play, providing opportunities for players to develop their play with those at a similar skill level, and providing additional fun through participation in round robins, paddle play, ladder play, shootouts, fun tournaments, family play, and all (mixed) play.  We also look forward, as our club grows, to being able to nurture youth play, build champions and feed competitive players into regional, national and international competitions. These are not possible without a strong local presence and a strong supportive club made up of many volunteers.

Our vision to be the preferred club for St Albert and the region, both for recreational and competition play is in danger of slipping away as the window of opportunity closes and other communities provide better play opportunities. 

So, we are in urgent need of an indoor facility to call home in order to remain the preferred option for pickleball play in St Albert, and to maximize the social and health benefits that pickleball provides to the seniors and families of St. Albert.

As part of our strategic planning, we recently met with Matt Bachewich, President, Active Communities Alberta and part of the ACA board to sustain our ongoing dialogue with ACA, and to discuss progress on their plans for a facility in the City of St Albert. 

It was great to again hear their vision and their passion to provide facilities that will help our community to be more active in multiple sports, and we look forward to further develop arrangements with Active Communities Alberta for using the facility, should their plans become a reality. At this point it looks like we would be an excellent fit together, and we see a clear path forward to make this facility our home base.

We hope that you as our City leaders will support Active Communities Alberta in realizing their plans and thereby help us to provide the best pickleball experience possible in St Albert. 

Thank you for the opportunity to provide our point of view.

On behalf of the St Albert Pickleball Club (SAPC) board,

Eileen McClean, President SAPC

Indoor Play is Coming

Sticker Sales Resumed

Indoor Pickleballs for Sale

Indoor Play is Coming!

Thanks Eileen and Nicole for securing over 20 play-times per week at Red Willow, arranging for captains, and more. And thanks to Carol P for continuing on as our Registered Play coordinator. Carol will soon be setting up these reserved play times. Watch the upcoming news and the indoor calendar. The first indoor play time will likely be Oct. 4. 

To help you get ready for this Covid prevention-oriented play, see the two articles below.

Sticker Sales Resumed

Need a new sticker card? Orders are now being taken online again. See the Store under the Members menu.

Indoor Pickleballs for Sale

To encourage and allow regular sanitation for health safety reasons, members are asked to provide their own balls for indoor play this year.  To facilitate this, our club is selling a limited number of indoor pickleballs.  These are only available through our online store under the Members menu. No cash sales.

Total cost including GST will be $12 per set of 3 balls. These balls are suitable for play at Red Willow Community Church.  (If we secure other indoor venues this year, they will likely use orange balls.) 

> Members may buy up to 3 sets each.

> This round of sales will be ended when our order of 200 balls are sold or on Sep 23, whichever comes first. 

> Balls must be picked up from Elsi on one of the following days:  

     > Parking lot, Alpine Courts:

          - Fri Sep 25     6 pm to 6:30 pm

          - Sat Sep 26  11 am to 11:30 am

     > Parking lot, Red Willow Community Church:

          - Mon Oct 5 10:45 am to 11:10 am 

Please wear a mask to collect your balls.  Stay safe and keep our volunteers safe!

Thanks Elsi for overseeing the pickup of these balls! 

Porta Potty: No Go

3.0 Shoot Out Openings

Shootouts - How to Qualify and How Register, And Why I Don't See Shootout Events in My Calendar

Rating Etiquette:  Note From The President

Rating Questions: Who's a What?, I Can Play Which? Don’t Repeatedly Bruise My Opponents?

July Play Data

Smart Phone App for SAPC Members

Youth Opportunities

Porta Potty: No Go

With all the legwork in discussing, consulting and arranging for this vital, yet basic means of dealing with our diuretic urgencies, you’d have thought we were planning a lunar landing. The considerations and approvals required for placing a Porta potty at Alpine seemed to approach that level of NASA detail.

Unfortunately, it will not be in place this year. The club worked to get all our ducks in a row with the costs, supplies, insurance and cleaning assignments but alas, our plans were waylaid by that significant, now multi-seasonal x-factor we know as Covid.

Here’s the City’s response to our request.

……………..

Thank you for your request to place a portable toilet at Alpine Park at your association’s cost for the 2020 season.  The heath and safety of our community members and staff remain a top priority for the City of St. Albert.

 The City has an annual program where 35 portable toilets are placed throughout the City at local sports fields and high traffic parks.  However, the financial commitment for the program to adhere to the additional cleaning requirements due to COVID-19, resulted in the decision to not operate the portable toilets for 2020 in St. Albert.

 At this time, the City cannot approve your request; to maintain consistency and uphold the value of public safety, the City of St. Albert is not approving the addition of the portable toilet at Alpine park in 2020.

…………………………..

Thank-you to Ed Dover (club member) of Live Easy | Home Service Experts who offered to pay for the rental cost of a porta potty.

 3.0 Shoot Out Openings

And these “Shoot Outs” are a good thing?- that you want to attend?, be in front of?, and put your name in for??

Why yes! In fact, some players find that our shootouts are the best play they have ever had because they are closely matched with players of their own skill level. These “tournament-similar” games are often close, have heart pumping action and help to improve your partner work and game focus. Seeing these same players each week also increases your social connections!

Register by clicking the on the “3.0 Shoot Out Preregistration” banner on the Alpine Calendar.

You will get a welcome email, then a weekly invite email that you must confirm, to be included in that week’s play.

Shootouts - How to Qualify and How Register, And Why I Don't See Shootout Events in My Calendar

Here’s More “How To” Instructions about Shoot Outs

 To be in the pool and be eligible to register, one must first PRE-register for the entire Shootout season. To be in the next week's event (a specific weekly shootout), you must then successfully register for that event.

You PRE-register by clicking on the 3.0 or 3.5+ Pre-registration event in the Alpine calendar or the Reserved Play calendar.  If that pre-registration "event" is full, add your name to the waiting list.

You register for a weekly event by either clicking "Register" in the weekly email you get OR by clicking on a particular weekly event in the calendar.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You will only SEE these events in your calendar IF you are a member of the PRE-registered pool.  All other members, please note that these events are at 6 pm every Tuesday (3.0) and Wednesday (3.5+), but do not show up in your calendar.  Sorry, but this is the only practical way of limiting registrations to those who have pre-registered.

Also, please note that weekly shootout event registrations open at 6 pm, six days before that weekly event.  Before this time, you will not see a "Register" button in the Calendar event.

Questions? email Regplay@pickleballstalbert.ca or a shootout captain (Ken Dentzien - 3.5+; Mikki Melnyk or Roger Bradley - 3.0).

Rating Etiquette:  Note From The President

I have fielded many questions about rated play and extend an apology to members who have asked about playing down. I have been telling them they should not be attending 3.0 sessions. This year at Alpine we have only added + to the 3.5 play as it encompasses members at 4.0 Level as well.

The reason 3.0 is in place, is that we have over 100 Players at this level and wanted to provide them with an opportunity to play without 3.5 rated players using all of the courts.

 Upon reflection and on review of the club’s expectations, members can play down. (See next article)

~Eileen

..................................................

Note: this "play down" option is excluded from Shoot Outs & Round Robins That means, no sandbagging at lower level Shoot Outs or Round Robins. ..and sorry, no esteem boosting domination allowed.

Rating Questions: Who's A What?, I Can Play Which? Don’t Repeatedly Showboat My Stuff & Bruise My Opponents?

Perhaps it’s a Spring thing, (mid June for St. Albert), but there have been many questions about rating levels, so we’ve revisited our club policies have the following refresher and revision on expectations of members.

What Level Can I Play At?

Members can play down a level or lower from their Rated ability for GENERAL play only. This allows for advanced Members to coach the lower level, and to be ENJOYED for your participation in their play, NOT to win every game and feel superior in your playing ability.

Who Are YOU to Ask??

Club sessions are wonderfully overseen by our volunteer captains. Captains are there to assist us all, in organizing the session play. In performing these session duties, you may be approached by a captain to confirm your rated level of play. Captains can ask a member about their rating level. This is simply something they may need to do. Please respond civilly.

In the binder at the venue there is an up-to-date list of member ratings. If there is some apparent error with the manual binder, you may “go digital” to show the captain your club Membership Profile. If you have a freshly acquired and much celebrated updated rating (yay!), please bring your form to show, and remember to email our Membership Director to get your Member Profile updated. 

Club Rules Regarding Ratings

● Do not tell another SAPC member that his or her rating is incorrect. If you believe someone’s rating is incorrect, please contact the Captain at the venue.

● Do not tell another SAPC member not to attend club-organized play for a particular rating level because you think he or she isn’t good enough to do so. If you believe someone is attending club-organized play that is inappropriate for his or her rating level, please contact the Captain at the venue.

● SAPC members are allowed to attend club-organized play for their  level or lower. For example, an SAPC member who is rated 3.5 can attend club-organized play for 3.5, 3.0, 2.5, etc., but cannot attend play for 4.0 or higher. This gives advanced players a chance to help mentor less-skilled players, who in turn have an opportunity to learn by playing with better players; it also allows players recovering from an injury to ease back into playing.

● Couples who want to play together must play at events intended for the lower of the two ratings. For example, if one person is rated 3.5 and the other is rated j.0, when playing together they must play at events for players rated 3.0. If an event includes play for both rating levels (such as “3.0+” in the previous example), they must each participate with the players at their own level—e.g. the 3.0 player should play with the other 3.0 players in attendance, and the 3.5 player should play with the other 3.5 players in attendance—unless the event mixes everyone together.

● Do not use the ratings system as an excuse to behave poorly toward other players. It’s all too easy to look down on players who have a lower rating than you, or to resent players who have a higher rating than you. Always respect your fellow club members, regardless of their rating.

If there are any questions about any of these rules, please contact a Board member (their information is in the binder and on the club website).  If there are questions about Rating Clinics, email rating@pickleballstalbert.ca, or see more detail on our “Skills Levels & Ratings” club page.

July Play Data

We have all been participating in a grand outdoor July Alpine playpen, and for those of us still interested in a world where numbers are gathered, studied and evaluated- the lab coats n’ clipboards have thusly concluded: the SAPC consistently enjoy this sport in rain, wind, clouds, and even with fatigue, they come still.

Here’s the session data from Alpine.

• 3.0 play:.  6 sessions, average 23 people, Total 142 
• 3.5  play:  11 sessions, average 25, Total  269
• All play:  10 sessions, average 21, Total 209
• 4.0 play NEW.  3 sessions. average 7, Total 21 
• Round robin 3.0:  3 sessions average 16, Total 48 
• Round robin 3.5:  3 sessions. Average 16, Total 50 
• Round robin ALL:  I session,  5
• Kings and Queens: 2 sessions, 15 and 3 

Note: Shoot Out data hasn’t been included in the above, as it’s vast popularity has broken our abacus spools. Thanks to Ken’s sharpie & appealingly legible whiteboard & the Mikki/Roger dynamic duo (plus James "the wiz" Porter), we have we been manually interfacing- to conduct & adjust weekly events.

Smart Phone App for SAPC Members

Yes, you read that correctly. Now there's a tech-friendly way to securely access your Membership Directory to connect with friends for when you need a fourth on the courts?..want to invite folks to your patio party?.. or let Mark N. know he left his spiffy chapeau on the fence?

Members can simply download "Wild Apricot for Members" from the Apple Play, or Google Play Store.

Once you download this app and log in using your SAPC ID, you can:

• See your event registrations (called "tickets" in the app)
• See a list of upcoming club events (and register for each weekly 3.0 or 3.5+ shootout if you are in the pre-registration pool and therefore eligible to register)
• See the member directory
• See your profile (and prove your consolidated (club or tournament) rating to a captain if asked)

Captains may also use the member directory to look up a player's consolidated rating. As mentioned in an article above, captains may need to check ratings now and then.  Members, if you have disabled the display of your rating in the member directory,  please consider changing it from "No Access (hidden) to "Members" (can view). 

Being able to access our Membership Directory using this digital, real-time sync'd tool saves us from having to format, print and distribute member rating lists every time we have some rating changes. So, we're saving trees, some extra browser clicks, emissions, all that earth-friendly, sustainable future generations good stuff too. Look at us go!

Youth Opportunities

If you are interested in opportunities for youth pickleball at the Provincial level, you may email youth@pickleballalberta.org.  We are informed that at the moment they are merely gathering information for future correspondence, and you're invited to connect with them if you're a household that have youth interested in playing.

If you are interested in SAPC club youth programs, you may email us at SAPC Info, and we'll keep you posted on any upcoming activities and/or opportunities to volunteer for sharing your ripened wisdom and pearls of play.

Dear Member - click the newsletter title to read articles on:

Personal Space & Sanitizing

Session Arrival and Sign-In Procedure: NEW

New Signs: Could Be Fines!

Being Good Citizens At Alpine: 30 Minute Rule For Public Play

Your Membership Record: Some Profile Details

Have You Been Rated Elsewhere?

Shootouts In The Calendar

Calendaring Our Sessions

Rain? What Rain?

Captains Needed: 2.5, 3.0, All Play, 4.0

Tools For Captains & Team Lists

Accidents May Happen: Report Head Injuries

Opportunities To Serve

Personal Space & Sanitizing

It is important for members to continue to practice social distancing within the walkway. This is the one area where congestion is NOT currently in compliance with social distancing.  The club is working with the city about the gate issue (as members who have sanitized their hands and pickleballs, then have to touch the handles of the gates to enter the courts!)

By all means, bring your sanitizing sprays or gels into the courts if you’d like to re-sanitize often.  Your hands won’t shrink much and will recover.

Let’s please be mindful of our wandering digits..our fingers, and what they grab, brush by, lean on etc. You’d probably be surprised how much of everything we touch in our surroundings. Let’s keep our hands to ourselves (always good advice), limit our touches to our stuff and thereby reduce our “fingerpainting footprint.”

Session Arrival and Sign-In Procedure: NEW

The purpose of the following new actions is to help captains manage everyone for Covid Safety. It is all very choreographed to enable Captains to clearly know who is playing in their session, and then to communicate the new protocols each time, with everyone.

Please enjoy playing your part in this new orchestra of “in?, then back out, and return” movements for our sessions. Ready?

1.       If you have arrived early (for a warm-up) before a scheduled session…

Or you were already there playing and whether you intend on joining the new session or not…

Or, if you are on the courts but at the end of your scheduled session…

YOU MUST ALL LEAVE the courts via the EXIT when the captain rings a bell. (Yes, this may interrupt and will terminate a highlight-reel unfinished game)
If you are starting or resuming play, make your way to the ENTRANCE. The captain of the new session will then lead all club players into the courts.

2.       If you are arriving for a session, you must WAIT OUTSIDE THE COURTS until the captain leads you in.  Yes, you may sing as you stroll in together.
3.       If you are confused or don’t notice the bell, please respect the efforts of the captain to tell you where to march, where to wait, when to re-enter etc.

We recognize that waiting outside will mean some loong wandering lines and scattered (yet socially distancing) bunches.  Take courage. We can do this, unless you’d like to hold knotted ropes like in Kindergarten.

Note that if there are public (non club) people freely playing on the non-club courts during these orderly session transitions, they will not need to participate in these “departure & arrival marches” since we are just being responsible for managing club members’ activities.

As well and most importantly to many of us,  here's something that all members will need to do in helping efforts for safe play sessions: On each sign-up sheet you will notice the following:

By signing this sign-in sheet you confirm that: to your knowledge you are COVID free; you have not spent more than 15 minutes within 6 ft of anyone testing COVID-19 positive in the past 14 days; you take reasonable steps not to be exposed to COVID-19; you take the sole responsibility for the risks of participating in Club activities; and you understand that the St Albert Pickleball Club reserves the right to remove you from the facilities or programs for any reason.

New Signs: Could Be Fines!

The City put up new signage about facility hours – 8 am – 9:30 pm daily. Please avoid the unfortunate sting of fines for playing before or after these posted hours. If you really must be there before 8am- enjoy a stretch. If you’re dueling at sunset, make peace before 9:30pm.

Being Good Citizens At Alpine: 30 Minute Rule For Public Play

Reminder for Alpine regarding Club time. We have been allocated plenty of time by the City for our programs (isn’t it fabulous!). We have also worked hard on behalf of our membership to appropriately schedule time for each level. That said, there are times when scheduled Club play does not require all the courts provided to us. When this occurs, the club will “give up” it’s unused courts to the general public.

Club members not playing in a scheduled Club session can also certainly use the unused court(s), and when they do- please observe the City’s guidelines regarding “30 minute play” at Alpine.

It can be intimidating for a family with young children or others new to the sport to ask to rotate in, so as stewards of the sport it’s up to all of us to be mindful of others that may be waiting. Afterall, the courts are for the enjoyment of all (not just a few focused foursomes).

The City does not have staff resources to monitor Alpine, and the Club isn’t interested in extending ourselves to monitoring private play on its unused courts, so please let’s all be good neighbors and share the courts.

Your Membership Record: Some Profile Details

For those who have re-joined (after letting their membership lapse), here is some info about what you may need to do. Because our system does not automatically add you back to your rating group, please email info@pickleballstalbert.ca , requesting to get added back to your group and (we will do it manually..because even awesome computer programs still need humans now and then).

Getting added to the right rating group means you will not miss out on targeted invitations about rating clinics or shootout registrations!

As well, as some of you have discovered when re-joining, you must also request to rejoin the club Facebook group ( where we post social information and notices referring you to the SAPC website for official stuff).

Lastly, if you have opted not to get most club emails (which is an option and your choice) may we say that you may miss out on targeted fun, useful and even important emails (such as our recent Covid post). For this reason, we suggest to not opt out, and to continue receiving club emails so that your life can be more fully inundated with all things PickleballJ.

Have You Been Rated Elsewhere?

Just a reminder that if you have received a rating elsewhere, other than from our club-arranged rating clinics (for example from in the States, or the one you may have bribed Julio for in Huatulco J),  you need to send that signed and dated form to Gerry Gartner's email to have it entered on your membership record.

Shootouts In The Calendar

If you are interested in joining this type of play, here is how to register.

You will see weekly 3.5+ and, 3.0 Shootout Pool Preregistration “banner events” in the Alpine calendar. Click on that banner event and you will be directed to a page with details and a “REGISTER” button if there is room (and you will get an email to complete your registration), or a WAITLIST button if you’d like to be automatically moved in when there’s an opening for that week.

When you are successfully registered, the event will show in your calendar (like magic). If you are not registered, that Shootout evening will look open on the calendar (but it’s actually not).  This is the way our new system works (and we just wanted you to know so you don't see an apparently empty spot in the Alpine calendar on some evenings of the week, and erroneously conclude that Alpine is wide open on that night).

Calendaring Our Sessions

Please note that the Alpine Calendar is fluid, as we are always trying to use the courts efficiently. It is important then that you check the Calendar daily. The data from every two weeks will be examined and changes made on an ongoing basis.

For example, at the moment we have courts split between 2.5 and ALL play only. If the courts assigned to other levels are not consistently used, then the sessions for each levels  will also be split.

Special thanks (and patience please), to those captains who could be managing two levels of play! They will let each group know where they need to place their paddles.  With two levels of play, there will need to be two placements of paddles outside the courts to avoid congestion within the walkway...(quite the feat!)

Also, with many members belonging to some cohorts and other clubs with strict rules, and some members waiting to return at Stage 3, these ongoing Calendar changes are how we can achieve the best utilization of the courts assigned to the club. 

Rain? What Rain?

This may totally sound like a “liability” statement (ok, it is)… that when a captain makes the call and ends a session (due to whatever: dense pollen?, locusts? or rain etc.) players who remain- do so at their own risk.

Captains Needed: 2.5, 3.0, All Play, 4.0

Thanks to our current roster of volunteer Captains, we have been enjoying organized play sessions all thru the weeks. That mesmerizing multi-coloured Alpine Calendar fills us with both and anticipation and anxiety at how we need to find time to mow lawns, do groceries (and ahem- stop neglecting our Honey-Do lists) so we can play and play…and play!

Help us continue our enjoyment by volunteering as a Captain for any of these sessions. Training is provided. Your service is greatly appreciated! 

Tools For Captains & Team Lists

The club is now making it easier for captains to contact each other to arrange for cover-off and for teams to get organized. In particular, we have started to publish captains lists and teams lists on our website. To view this Captains list, go to the SAPC Website and along the main banner see “ CLUB MGMT”, roll your cursor over that heading and see “CAPTAINS”, roll over that and see “Alpine Captains”, and take a look at that easy-view list!

There is also a complete Volunteers list on this page, with all our Committees, Venues, Tournament, Social and Board members etc.

Note: if you are a venue coordinator or team lead and would like your list published, please email Ray at Treasurer@pickleballstalbert.ca.  We will adjust the format of your list to whatever you need. The objective here is to have one list that meets all your team's needs (eliminating any separate lists anywhere else).  We can also publish other material your team may need and locate it on our SAPC website for easy access.

We commit to maintaining these lists for you. If you spot a list that is out of date, please let one of the following people know:

• for a Captains list, contact the Venue Coordinator listed on the top of the list or on the Teams and Committees page on our website,
• for a Team list, contact the Team Lead.

Team leads can choose to send list updates to Ray or can choose to maintain their list themselves in a club Google Drive. Changes made in that location are automatically reflected in our published web pages.

We also hope that the publication of captains and team lists will attract more people to these teams. If you'd like to meet a few more people, have more fun, or help in any way, contact a team lead or venue coordinator.

As with other club confidential materials, these lists can only be viewed online by members, and should not be distributed outside our club."

Accidents May Happen: Report Head Injuries

There’s probably a few of us nursing a tweak, an overuse injury or a gash (did you hear about Ron G’s “nasty one from the fence ties?) And sure, lots of us may just shake off those inconvenient reminders of age. However, when it’s a head bump, we always need to inform the Captain (for precaution’s sake). There’s also an ice pack and a First Aid kit at every session for your safety (so you don’t have to rely on hockey tape and KleenexJ).

Opportunities To Serve

Web Coordinator: we would like a tech- willing volunteer to serve on the team helping with coordinating our website. Have a look at the job description and send us a note!

Facilities Task Force: this is not just some committee for meetings, planning and discussion. It’s a “task force!” (Sorry we can’t afford crested shirts) St. Albert has a big shiny vision for its Active Communities and we have a wondrous group of passionate players that will depend on this high-performance advance team to help position our City with more and better playing facilities. If you have some experience with big ideas (and sure, dreams count too) and capital projects perhaps, let us know!