Seven Wood River Valley pickleball players qualified to compete at USA Pickleball’s National Championships at Indian Wells Tennis Garden, in Palm Springs, Calif., held Nov. 5-13. To qualify for the Nationals players were required to win a gold medal at a regional championship or lottery entry. The local players brought home two gold medals, a silver medal and a fourth-place finish.
Elaine Ingram, a Valley Club resident, and her women’s partner, Kitty Flaherty, Mercer Island, Wash., won a gold medal in the women’s doubles 60+ 3.0 level. George “Geordie” Foster, of Ketchum, and his partner Lee Sponaugle received a silver medal in the men’s doubles 55+ 4.5 level. Sponaugle, the president of the Wood River Valley Pickleball Alliance, won a national champion gold medal in the men’s singles 55+ 4.0 level. Sue Hamilton of Ketchum, and her partner, Larry Smith, from Coeur d’Alene, won six rounds and finished fourth out of 40 teams in mixed doubles 60+ 4.0. Sam Adicoff, former executive director of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation, and partner Debbie Benson, from La Quinta, Calif., competed in mixed doubles 60+ 4.0 level.
Sun Valley resident Fred Hartzman, the west campus director of The Valley Club, created the first national event in 2017 when he was the tennis club director at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Pickleball is played with paddles and a plastic wiffle ball on a court about a quarter of the size of a tennis court. It is the fastest growing sport in the country. There are courts in Elkhorn, Sun Valley, The Valley Club and numerous private courts, and at Atkinson Park in Ketchum, the only public courts in the north Valley. The recently formed Wood River Pickleball Association (WRPA) has more than 225 members.