Sun City West...and the Nationals Referee Experience

 You are going to love this couple...they really do embody the 'fun' part of pickleball!  Enjoy!

Anna: I guess you could introduce yourself:

Bill: I’m Bill, this is Jane, my wife.

Anna: And.. tell us about your club...

Jane: You tell ‘em…
Bill: Say that again…

Anna: Tell us about your club, your pickleball club.

Bill: Oh well…we’re in the Sun City West Pickleball Club. About 10 years ago it had 50 members, and now it has somewhere between 900 and a thousand. It’s really cool. Good club…good people.

Anna: Why did it… what happened… why did it grow?

Jane: Oh people started to get to know about it, it’s so fun, it changes your life It’s like… we do it ‘cuz we can. And here we are old people, and, it’s just cool. (Laughter)

Anna: And tell me, how does it change your life?

Bill: When we started to play, first of all it’s like being a little kid again at recess. We were just hittin’ the paddle, and we’re old people…we, we didn’t lose our reflexes…
Jane: We used to sit on the couch and do nothing..(laughter)
Bill: We want to be active, and I was walking down this alley-way, just between these pickleball courts and I hear laughter. All the courts were full, and I hear laughter…here…and there…it was a fun crowd…and it was like, ok, this works, this is a keeper! If you’re going to do something, and you don’t like exercising, pickleball is a way to play. The heck with all that exercising stuff. So it’s really fun, yeah!

Anna: And you’re here today at the National Tournament as a referee…

Bill: Yes… yeah.

Anna: And tell me about that…

Bill: I GET TO REFEREE AT THE NATIONALS…COOL…who gets to do that? (laughter) I ref’d a medal match last night, whoa! See, I’ve been ref’in’ for about 4 years, and we have tournaments at…the Sun City West Pickleball Club and so they train referees to run that, to help with the tournament. So that’s where I was trained and I got to do it.

Anna: Do you feel any kind of…especially at that level…the Nationals Gold level, you know, a match like that, do you feel a lot of pressure, or stress from the calls that you make? Have you ever had a tough call?

Bill: No, I’ve ref’d long enough [to know] that you enlist the players to help. So, if you want to go in and be the ref and domineer, uh, Its’ not the idea. The idea is to have a fair game. It’s about the players, it’s not about the ref, and once they get that, then they’re on board and they really want the same thing. So it’s again, a win-win deal.

Anna: Well, thank you so much. We really appreciate your taking the time to talk with us.