Bill McCullough, a pickleball ambassador from the Slippery Rock area, assembled a 14 facility "Golden Ticket" Regional Qualifier event which took place over the past 6 months. Bill asked two Erie venues to participate- Around the Post and Kahkwa Club. Over 330 players competed at all of the 14 different venues (some at several tournaments) to earn a ticket.

The Grand Championships are this Saturday, September 27 at Slippery Rock University. There are twelve teams entered in 4.0 and twelve teams in the 3.5 division. Games will start at 9AM and the top two teams in each bracket will battle it out to be the Grand Champion!

All of these current EPPA members will be playing and we wish them the best of luck! David Ariza, Maria Camila Camacho, Adella Pilliteri, Ryan Bissman, Jessie Sanford, Tim George, Kathy Scibetta, Don Mosher, Marlene Sandberg, Phil Gernovich. Bring the Erie area home some medals!

How many times have you heard a player refer to pickleball as his/her "therapy"? There is some solid research (that I did not do) backing that claim. Many of you know EPPA member and pickleball aficionado, Nuk Oden. Nuk offered a presentation this week all about how Pickleball Can Save Lives and she shared parts of the presentation with me to pass along to our membership.  If you would like the full presentation, please contact Nuk via email oden005@gannon.edu.  

Pensiri Kongkaw-Oden, known by friends and family as Nuk, is a faculty member in the department of Psychology and Counseling at Gannon University. She received her Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision from Regent University, her Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Indiana Wesleyan University, and she received her Bachelor of Arts in Intercultural Studies and TESOL from Houghton University.

Thanks, Nuk for spreading awareness about the mental health benefits of pickleball!

I had to covert the presentation in order to share- I am really hoping it comes through correctly!