After 10 years on the mission field in Indonesia as the wife of a

Mission Aviation Fellowship pilot and upon returning to the

States, I became a United States Professional Tennis Association

(USPTA) certified wheelchair and able-bodied–tennis-teaching

professional. I then began creating quality grassroots–family

tennis programs in 1996 with quality programing for adults and

children. I have 35 years of broad-based–tennis and pickleball

experience. 

 

I have had articles published in five issues of USPTA’s

ADDvantage magazine, created Call-T’-Court Tennis in

neighborhood cul-de-sacs, and coauthored The Opportunity to

Go to the Next Level, a manual for after school tennis programs

for the Intermountain Tennis Association. As a United States

Tennis Association (USTA) School Tennis Coordinator in Colorado

in 1999, I trained and supervised new clinicians preparing to

conduct training for physical education teachers involved in

instructing tennis.

 

After moving to Houston in 2000 and teaching tennis in the

Texas heat until 2007, I convinced the D. Bradley McWilliams

YMCA at Cypress Creek to implement a pickleball program in

2008. From my tennis knowledge, I adapted tennis lesson plans

and drills to pickleball and began to recruit students. My

enthusiasm for teaching pickleball at the Cypress Creek YMCA

led me to conducting demonstrations and small clinics at other

YMCA’s, churches, and any place someone would let me display

my new passion.

 

Seeing a need to create an event for the new players in our area I began directing a couple of small, sanctioned tournaments at the YMCA at Cypress Creek. Next was The Real Dill tournament downtown Houston. That tournament now draws top USAPA players. 

 

I have competed in many tournaments over the past 12 years, medaling at the USAPA National Tournament in singles for five years in my age bracket and other tournaments around the US. For two years, I served on the USAPA Board of Directors as the Chairperson for USAPA Ambassadors encouraging and promoting new ideas that would help them be equipped to

better shepherd new players to the game.

 

In July of 2013, my husband and I moved to Hot Springs Village, Arkansas. I served as the past president of the HSV Pickleball Club and currently am committee chair of events, training, and rating teams. Later in 2018 I became a certified pickleball profession through International Professional Teaching Pickleball Association (IPTPA).

 

I authored my first book called Pickleball – One Court at a Time – Building Homegrown Programs is about planning, building, and developing pickleball anywhere. 

 

After all these years, the vision still remains—developing each player’s skills to their highest potential, motivating and challenging players through quality match play and lessons, and initiating and establishing new pickleball facilities from the ground up.