Spring Rain Delays MSG Pickleball Tournament

By BOBBIE GREEN

The Progress

Spring rain caused a delay for the Mesquite Senior Games (MSG) Pickleball Tournament last week, which was being held at the new outdoor pickleball courts at the Recreation Center.

This was the first year in a cooperation between the Nevada Senior Games and MSG in staging of the Pickleball tournament in Mesquite.  In past years the two entities have collaborated on the MSG Bocce ball and Softball events as well.

This agreement had the Nevada Senior Games Pickleball management team running the event with the MSG. This team was headed by Nevada Senior Games board member John Rosen, who is also a former board member of MSG.

A busy tournament was planned withT a total of 13 individual brackets played among women’s, men’s and mixed doubles. Each age group had a gold/silver and bronze medal winner. Everything was in place for a successful tournament. But then Mother Nature added a wrinkle.
“The weather and technology issues teamed up to make this tournament challenging,” Rosen said.

The three-day tournament started out on Monday with a lovely day of great sunny weather and 121 engaged participants. In use for the first time for MSG was an all-new tournament management software for running the competition. The day went smoothly.

“They do such a great job of organizing the event, and making it fun,” said Mesquite resident Amy Wells.

The following day, however, the new software began revealing a few bugs, with matches being scheduled out of sequence. This causing long delays. The problem was quickly found but it could not be fixed during the tournament, Rosen said.
“It would be like trying to fix a flat tire while still driving down the highway,” he added.

Then rains that were forecasted for Tuesday came earlier than expected. This caused a halt to the last three games of the mixed doubles competition.

“The squall was threatening to blow our tents completely out of the complex,” Rosen said. “Several players, not currently on the courts, quickly jumped into action. Grabbing onto the tents and allowing the team precious time to quickly store and protect our papers and expensive electronics.”

It rained all day on Wednesday, which was to be the final day of the tournament. But there is always a rainbow. The rainy day gave the team time to fix the software.

Then the tournament was completed without a hitch on Thursday with the women’s mixed double.
“We are extremely grateful for the help and generosity of those kind souls that helped hold down the pickleball fort on Tuesday,” Rosen said.

Rosen reported receiving good and appreciative feedback from the participants, of how this year’s challenges were met by the organizing team.
“I love to play in Mesquite,” said May Shu Delbonis, a participant who came from St George. “I meet lots of nice people, its fun and I come every year.