Kitchen Sink Newsletter September 2025 Edition
Pictures of our BC Provincial Team (left and center), and David Snell President of Pickleball BC (right) accepting the Trophy with Team Captains Robin D’Abreo and Kaila Chekosky. On the right in that photo is Dustin Flatt, Representative, CanadaLife, Presenting Partner, Provincial Team Competition. (Top to bottom on mobile.)
Pickleball BC (“PBC”) President’s Introduction
Welcome to the September edition of our Kitchen Sink Newsletter! Where did the Summer go – however, September is still beckoning for outside play! There are still some nice weather coming our way. Speaking of September, in this Kitchen Sink Newsletter issue we wanted to highlight our BC Provincial Team victory over the other provincial teams included in the Interprovincial Competition at the recent Canadian Nationals in Winnipeg.
Also, given that our viaSport BC Youth development grant has been approved for our AYPBC (Activating Youth Pickleball in BC) Phase 2 project, we are requesting further formal expressions of interest from BC Clubs wishing to participate in our AYPBC Phase 2 program, now that schools are back in session. Please send details of why you would like apply to be one of our new 4 Regions (Phase 1 included 3 BC Regions which will continue in Phase 2) to President@PickleballBC.ca. Further info below in my Report.
Also in this Edition: Our PBC Strategic Planning Committee request for feedback from our Clubs; AYPBC Phase 2 details; a request for Expressions of Interest from Clubs who wish to host our 2026 Provincial Championships; a “News From Our Clubs” story from Abbotsford Pickleball Association; Rick Folk our BC Head Referee’s report on the 55+ Games in Nanaimo; our PBC YouTube channel and more uploads; and, other updates regarding News, Policy reports and our continuing PBC 2025 initiatives in our Director’s Kitchen Corners section here.
Enjoy all the new news and updates in our September Kitchen Sink Newsletter and see you on the outside courts for a little longer – with your eyewear protection!
David Snell
President Pickleball BC
President@PickleballBC.ca
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News From Our Clubs
Abbotsford Pickleball Association Summer 2025 Sports Zone
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Hiring: Pickleball Coaches
Steve Deakin Pickleball (SP) is seeking enthusiastic and dedicated full-time and part-time coaches to join our team at a brand-new state of the art facility in Tsawwassen B.C. If you are passionate about a pickleball career and eager to help players of all levels improve their game, we’d love to hear from you. Please send your resume to SteverRDeakin@gmail.com.
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President’s Report
PBC Request for Feedback – 2026/2027 Strategic Planning
I have sent a request for feedback to our Affiliated and Associated Club Presidents of record for feedback to assist with our 2026/2027 strategic planning process. If you are a Club President or designate and did not get this request (we need to update our mailing list as executive rosters often change each year), please respond to President@PickleballBC.ca as soon as possible for our questionnaire. This is for consideration of your feedback in our planning session coming up soon. Same reminder notice for any Presidents who have yet to return their response.
The BC Provincial Team pictured at the medals ceremony.
2025 BC Provincial Team Triumphs in the Interprovincial Competition at the Nationals
The 2025 Myoflex National Championship in Winnipeg took place the week of August 19th – 24th where our BC Provincial Team competed against other provincial teams on Thursday, August 21st 2025. Please refer to attached BC Team Roster who had a first place finish and were chosen by our PBC Tournament Committee – includes the “Open” and “Masters” Divisions’ Captains, and Singles, Mixed and Gender-based Teams in each Division. There were six provinces competing: BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec — with Ontario coming in second and Manitoba third.
Congratulations again to our BC Provincial Team members who not only won Gold in the Interprovincial competition but also went one to capture 38 additional medals at the Nationals themselves – truly a spectacular performance highlighting 24 of the best players we have in BC! Read the full Story on our PBC website here. Please watch our YouTube video highlighting our winning team players and the Trophy celebration.
Activating Youth Pickleball in BC (“AYPBC”) Phase 2: viaSport Grant and Request For Expressions of Interest:
We are now funded to kick off our AYPBC Phase 2 project thanks to viaSport, a PBC further investment and other donations from Phase 1 participants, and we are gearing up for Phase 2.
In summary, Phase 1 accomplishments included 11,000 introductions to pickleball K-7 youth, we provided our 20+ Elementary schools in the program with equipment for the students (nets, paddles, balls and bags) and trained 33 coaches 23 of whom obtained NCCP Level 1 certification. As reported in our last Newsletter, pickleball introductions were made through intramural activities, PD days, and part of the program included hosting “Slamborees” that were designed to involve multiple schools, various coaches at the school and district level to provide sustainability and the adoption of pickleball as part of the regular school curriculum.
So to ask: we are looking for Expressions of interest from up to 3 additional Regions for Phase 2 (one additional is under discussion now which would make a total of 7 Regions) supported by our Affiliated or Associated Clubs in those Regions. Each Region will have a responsible Club and a Regional Coordinator to oversee the Regional team – typically someone who has been coaching youth, perhaps a (retired) teacher with PE experience and someone with a high level of enthusiasm for getting youth involved in sports at an early age (5 – 13 years old).
We have a Teacher’s Guide being finalized for Phase 2 curriculums particularly for Elementary students and including Coaching Unit Guides, FAQ’s, PBC website pages dedicated to supporting documentation and a lot of guidance to share with our participating Regions.
Please send your expressions of interest to President@PickleballBC.ca outlining your level of interest in participating in AYPBC Phase 2, potential Regional team members and their background and other information that you feel may be of interest given the description above and the many posts on our PBC website “AYPBC” pages here.
2026 PBC Provincial Championships Expressions of Interest
Our PBC Tournament Committee with Rick Folk as the Chair, is reaching out for further Expressions of Interest from our Clubs who may be considering hosting the 2026 Provincials. We have a “Bid Book” for those who are interested so this is merely a request for those Clubs or affiliated organizations who may wish to consider hosting our 2026 provincial event. Please contact TournamentCommittee@PickleballBC.ca and let’s start a conversation!
Kitchen Corners Reports. Updates on Memberships, Refereeing and Grants as noted above.
Finally, please send your Club stories and pics for consideration in our monthly “News From Our Clubs” segment, or if you can share some of your Club event pics for possible inclusion on our PBC website or Instagram, we would really appreciate it – for consideration please send them to Marcom@PickleballBC.ca.
This Newsletter contains plenty of new news, which I hope you enjoy. All comments and contributions are very welcome!
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David Snell, President
PICKLEBALL BC ASSOCIATION
President@PickleballBC.ca
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Kitchen Corners: Grants
PBCA Grants Program
Pickleball BC Community Grant Recipient Story
Williams Lake Pickleball Club
August 18, 2025
Dear Ms. MacDonald:
Again, allow me to express our gratitude from the Williams Lake Pickleball Club (“WLPC”) to Pickleball BC for granting us the funds to allow us to buy supplies (balls, paddles, safety glasses) for the children who took part in the Canadian National Pickleball Day. It was a wonderful opportunity to introduce the sport of Pickleball to the community of Williams Lake.
As a result of Pickleball BC’s Youth Grant, Williams Lake youths were able to fully experience the joys of Canadian National Pickleball Day through the use of their new pickleball equipment.
Once we heard the acceptance of our proposal, we added it our next meeting’s agenda, and at that meeting we discussed marketing strategies that would allow us to get the word out to as many people as possible. One of our directors designed a fantastic colourful poster that became the focal point of our advertising. The City graciously printed multiple copies out for physical distribution in town and in outlying communities, which had the WLPC Executive posting these on community bulletin boards and dropping off copies to local organizations, (Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Boys and Girls Club, Foundry, Kids Day Camps, etc.). In addition to our “old school” methods of advertising, the City had radio ads for National Pickleball Day, inviting everyone to participate. Emails were sent to all members of the club with the request to have them forward to as many people they felt would be interested in the event.
I posted a running Event Update under Williams Lake Events on Facebook. First post had the poster and the “save the date” notice. Once I had ordered the paddles and they arrived, I was able to add the picture of the Amazon Boxes piled high on my table and then weekly. I would slowly unpack these boxes showing more and more of the goods that would be available for the day. This generated questions and interest.
I was out of town during the event, but there were three WLPC Executives there with all the paddles, glasses, balls, etc., ready and waiting for the lucky children that would be able to take them home.
Waiting in Anticipation
Executive arrived early and setup for the busy day. Paddles, balls, safety glasses were all on display for easy access and one member was equipped with permanent marker so little ones could have their names put on their supplies as soon as they arrived.
We had 19 youths take part on National Pickleball Day 2025. This was a 46% increase from last year and I’m expecting even more next year as the sport keeps growing. The remaining paddles will be delivered to our local Big Brothers and Big Sisters organization. Our Executive Secretary made a speech prior to the start of the day, thanking Pickleball BC for the generous donation of paddles, balls and safety glasses. This was met with applause and appreciation.
Extra paddles were supplied by the city for all ages that weren’t eligible for the paddle give away and there were eighteen adults that showed up to learn the sport in addition to the youth. This was a fantastic turnout and the rink was filled with activity.
Pickleball BC’s support of this initiative was instrumental in the overall success of the event. Thank you so much for your support. If there are any questions about this report, please contact me (through the above Club link that has my email) and I will do my best to answer.
Thank you so much.
Julie Bowser
Vice President
Williams Lake Pickleball Club (Society)
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Apply For Your Grant Funding Today
If you have a need and feel that your club qualifies for either our expanded Youth or Community Grants, please apply here, or if you have any questions contact …
Sharon MacDonald
Vice President & Grant Administrator
Grants@PickleballBC.ca
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Kitchen Corners: By The Numbers
September 2025 Membership Report
As of September 8th 2025, there are 20,309 active members in BC, up slightly from last month. There were 357 memberships processed in August 2025. This is down from last month by 275 memberships. Eighty-five renewals and 272 new memberships were processed. With Summer technically over, I believe we have peaked for the Summer season. With the renewal season starting on September 1st, I expect these numbers to increase next month.
Pickleball Canada (“PCO”) has published National statistics for the month of July 2025. Here are the highlights:
• PCO’s membership represents 0.19% of the total population.
• Prince Edward Island’s membership represents the largest number of members compared to the total population at 0.59%.
• PCO’s membership grew 13% from the same period in 2025.
• Yukon saw the most significant growth at 73% from 2024 to 2025. Newfoundland and Manitoba saw some significant growth in the same period in 2024 as well with Newfoundland having 36% growth and Yukon with 54% growth.
• BC’s membership grew 6% from July 2024 to July 2025 and remained with the second most provincial members in Canada at 24.4%.
See you on the courts – with protective eyewear!
Blair Morton
PBC Registrar
Registrar@PickleballBC.ca
Thinking of Joining—Follow The Link!
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Kitchen Corners: Head Referee Corners
Pickleball Referees At The 55+ BC Games, Nanaimo
Pickleball had the second most participants of all of the 21 sports played at the 2025 55+ BC Games in Nanaimo, second only to hockey. From September 10th to 13th, pickleball players from all over British Columbia played their matches at the Beban Park venue. For the first time, Pickleball BC became directly involved by providing the Head Referee for the event as well as support from accredited referees to attend. Although the total numbers are not finalized yet, it looks like about 610 of the matches were officiated! My estimate would be that 90% of the matches played were officiated. In total, we had 15 referee games at one time or another during the four days. Eight of these referees did the majority of the matches, and were at Beban Park from 8AM until closing on all four days. These 8 referees officiated an average of 15 to 16 matches per day. In my October report, I will have the exact numbers for you.
I had numerous players say how much they appreciated being refereed in almost every match they played. For some, it was the first time they had a referee conduct their match. For many others, they enjoyed (for the most part 🙂) having a referee call the score, give warnings or faults for illegal serves, call non-volley zone (kitchen) faults, make sure players were in the correct position, and generally enforce the rules of pickleball. With this in mind, if you were a participant at the 55+ BC Games, would you please let me know if you would like your matches refereed, or not? Please send your opinion to headreferee@pickleballbc.ca. At Pickleball BC, we are working to attract more referees, make sure our referees stay current with the rules and best practices of pickleball, and provide the expertise of our referees at tournaments across our province. Your opinion matters!
In closing, I would like to congratulate the many Nanaimo volunteers that made the pickleball event at the 55+ BC Games such a resounding success! From the first serve in the morning until the last rally of the day, the smiling volunteers provided a positive, competitive, enjoyable and well run experience for the players and referees from all over BC! Well done, and thank you!!!!
Rick Folk
Head Referee
HeadReferee@PickleballBC.ca
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Sponsorships
We urge you to support and thank all our sponsors at every opportunity—they are listed throughout our website and in this newsletter. Sponsorships can help to defray the cost of hosting our website, sending this newsletter and also of supporting the running and promoting of tournaments and clinics.
Opportunities exist for businesses and individuals, starting at $25.00 to sponsor and support pickleball in British Columbia—details on our Sponsor Program page or contact Marcom@PickleballBC.ca.
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Website or Newsletter
As always we are delighted to receive suggestions and/or contributions of content for the website and future newsletters. Send to Marcom@PickleballBC.ca.
David Snell
President, Pickleball BC (Association)
President@PickleballBC.ca
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