By Jerry Niemeyer, Pickleball League Vice President
The winter Pickleball League is on the horizon, and we are excited to get this party started. We have 40 more teams than we had in our initial summer season. Many of those teams are new to the league, and we certainly give them a hearty welcome to ALTA’s second pickleball season.
The inaugural season of ALTA Pickleball ended in August at the Atlanta Pickleball Center with 18 teams receiving their awards for excelling in their assigned levels. The season was eventful in mostly good ways, but it came with a steep learning curve. There were some stumbles along the way, but that is all in the past.
We heard your concerns and we have smoothed out many of those rough edges that appeared during our initial season. We have expanded the playoffs to reflect our more familiar tennis playoff procedures. All first- and second-place teams will earn playoff spots. Depending on how many divisions are at your level, third- and fourth-place teams may also be eligible. Now that we have one season behind us, we have team histories to help us with team placement. We anticipate that this season will be more competitive, and therefore more fun.
We have assembled an excellent team of volunteers to help you through the winter season. We have former ALTA presidents, former league vice presidents, and volunteers with more than 15 years of experience to assist you. More importantly, several of our coordinators have also volunteered with USA Pickleball. Their expertise with this sport will help all of us through this winter season.
We hope you had some great holidays, but now it’s time to warm up and get the pickleball party started. Where else can you dink your way to a championship?
