I wish I could have won my first tournament. Well done! I ended up in 4th in my first one with my buddy.
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Gene Click
USAPA Ambassador Oklahoma City
President Greater OKC Pickleball Club (800 members strong)
Married 13yrs
Father of 3 Katelyn(18), Audrey(18), Ethan(17)
Been playing pickleball for 5 yrs
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Whatās up
Iām DJ. Living in FT Worth Texas.
Love pickle ball for the fun exercise.
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What @Wuzup is not emphasizing here (which is the really crazy part) is that he showed up to watch my partner @danisonhighland and I lose play in the pickleball tournament. One person ended up not showing up and so a gentleman didnāt have a partner.
Sir David Grant stepped up to the kitchen and said āIāll play!ā I donāt remember exactly what he was wearing but I can tell you he didnāt have tennis/pickleball shoes. And everything about his outfit made it clear he was a spectator.
Against all odds, David and his newfound partner and friend ended up taking it all the way to the top, and winning the gold! It was epic! 
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My name is DeShawn and I love pickleball. New to this but excited to meet some like minded players. Any recommendations on good paddles?
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Welcome to the pickleFAM @Dshawn95!
Take some time to look around the forumsā¦ and at some of the other posts. I think youāll find some interesting topics! You can also use the magnifying glass at the top-right corner of the screen to search the forumsā¦ thatās a good place to search āpaddlesā and see what posts have already been discussed.
I just noticed that @PickleballPhil posted this: What is the best all around paddle on the market? That might be a good discussion to chime in on, or click the little bell 
icon to follow the topic so you can see what others post there.
Also, if I were you I would follow @brandon b/c thereās probably not another person who knows more about paddles than him. When he postsā¦ I read!! 
You can find that subscribe button at the bottom of the post (click to enlarge this screenshot):
What a story thatās awesome!!
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That was an amazing shot and an amazing night of pickleball!!!
I love that I am competing and exercising at the same time! Such a great sport I could play all day long!
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Glad I could help you out! Crazy night of pickleball!
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Hi everyone, I picked up Pickleball a couple years ago and Iām hooked. Mostly play in the Davis County area in Utah. Definitely always looking for new groups to hit around with.
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Hi I am Chris and I am a newbie! Decided to start playing after a friend introduced me. I am currently working full-time but plan on retiring soon. I have taken a few clinics to get off on the right foot in Greenville, South Carolina.
I was hooked on Pickleball after my first friendly game, now I am hungry for more information and more time to play.
The one silver lining of this pandemic for me is getting to know all of the great people that are teaching people about this game and those that are playing the game. I watched the 3 day summit and was amazed at the tremendous amount of information that was desseminated from all the experts.
CJ, Don and pickleballist, thank you for inviting me to join and meet more great people1
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Hi everyone! My name is Stephanie! Iāve been playing Pickleball for 6 months 
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Hi, Iām Stan Brown and live in Birmingham, Alabama. Iām a former bank exec turned high school business teacher turned Payroll Supervisor for a 21,000 student public school system. Discovered pickleball 3 years ago after playing USTA tennis and golf. Fell in love with the social aspect of pickleball and how inclusive it is. Iām an extrovert and love meeting and interacting with people. After spending a few months navigating the game and gaining confidence in my play I entered my first tournament and won Gold in menās 3.0 50+ dbls. (Many thanks to my partner!) Now I had to keep learning and growing. So, I took my experience as a high school football referee and began studying to become a pickleball referee. After taking the USAPA online tests and then participating in Don Stanleyās clinic at The Heritage tournament last year, I got my first opportunity to referee a match in that tournament. Don assigned me to a mixed dbls match that featured Marsh Freso and Frank Anthony Davis. All I could say was wow! Much fun refereeing, playing, and being the PA announcer for the tournament. Getting to meet amazing people like Byron and Marsha, Don, Karen Parrish, Melissa McCurley, and FAD was so groovy!
I have now created and direct a small charity tournament designed to bring competitive opportunities to beginning and novice players in a fun, inviting, and reduced stress environment. Looking forward to year #3 of the event coming in November.
My hope now is to encourage more people to be a student of the game in not only their play but also in rules knowledge. I hope to recruit more folks to try refereeing for the USA National Indoors tournament that will be here in Birmingham in June 2021. It will be an amazing event in a fabulous facility in a warm and welcoming city. Yāall come!
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Hi Everyone!!
My name is Catherine Parenteau and I am currently living in Naples, FL. I started playing tennis when I was 4 years old in Montreal, Canada. At 15, I was ranked among the top 5 in Canada when I was recruited by a top 25 team Division 1 NCAA, the University of Arkansas. I transferred to Michigan State University after my freshman year where I competed for the next 3 years. During my 5th year at MSU completing my studies, my coach, Simone Jardim (who is the #1 pickleball player in the world right now), introduced me to the sport of pickleball. My love for the game grew quickly and I am currently ranked among the top 5 in the world in womenās pickleball. I now travel around the country to play professionally and really love it!! I also really enjoy teaching other pickleball players to improve their game!
I am really looking forward to be part of this wonderful forum Pickleballist :)!! I am excited to hear all about your pickleball stories as well!
Catherine Parenteau
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Hi everyone!
My name is Athena Trouillot and I am currently living in Naples, FL. I grew up in Miami, FL playing tennis from the age of 4 years old. I was lucky enough to be offered a full scholarship at the age of 16 years old to play college tennis at Michigan State University. I played tennis at MSU for 4 years and loved my experience there! While at Michigan State, I met Catherine Parenteau who was one of my teammates on the tennis team. In addition, Simone Jardim was my head coach while I was at Michigan State the first three years before she moved to Naples to start her own pickleball academy. Catherine was 2 years older than me and Simone introduced her to pickleball once her four years of NCAA eligibility were over. Catherine was still at school at MSU but could no longer compete on the tennis team so pickleball gave her the ability to compete again. I was interested in pickleball as well but being so busy with school and with tennis it was impossible to try to take up pickleball at the time. Catherine ended up getting pretty good at the sport and fell in love with it very quickly. After I graduated from MSU in 2017 I started playing pickleball with Catherine as well. As you can imagine I ended up loving the sport just as quickly as she did. We moved back to Florida after I graduated and we are both working full time in pickleball, teaching and playing tournaments all year round. We feel very blessed to be able to do what we do with pickleball and we canāt wait to see where the sport grows!
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Hi everyone! My name is Lucy - Iām originally from Illinois, but I live in Utah while Iām going to school. Iām fairly new to the game of pickleball because Iāve only been playing for about a year, but I love it! I became obsessed with it from the first time I played. I love the competitiveness and how I can focus on getting better all the time!
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Hi, I am Angus. Originally from Hong Kong. Living in LA right now. Playing pickleball for 1.5 years. Loving it !!
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Hello PB Fam,
My name is Robert and I live in Austin, Texas.
Family is doing great!
I am pretty new to pickle ball. First heard about it in college as an IM sport tans then picked it up at my last job in a sports and fitness facility.
Looking forward to learning more about the sport from everyone here and getting better every day!
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You are inspiring 
what an awesome background in sports.
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