My name is Tom Green. I started playing Pickleball several years ago after the repeated attempts from a friend to give it a try. My initial thoughts were “Pickleball? Kind of a weird name for anything I might like” but because I promised I would, I tried it.

I’m not sure if I was hooked after the first time or if it took a few sessions but I know it didn’t take long. Before I knew it I was researching the origin of the game, paddles, balls, nets, rules and strategies. I tend to be a researcher, Google and I spend a lot of time together when I get interested in something. I’ve learned a lot about Pickleball along the way and I’m sure I’ll learn much more going forward.

My wife Cindy said to me one day “you are pretty captivated by that game, have you ever thought about starting a blog about Pickleball?”. So began Pickleball Tom.

I probably fit smack dab in the middle of the typical Pickleball player demographic. I am at the time of writing this 61 years old. I have always enjoyed playing just about any kind of sport. I raced motorcycles from 13 to 19 years old. As I got a little older I gravitated to sports that were a little less hazardous like Tennis, Golf and city league Softball and Basketball. I still play Golf but I gave up Tennis many years ago because I developed a shoulder issue that really only bothered me when I served or hit an overhead in Tennis and when I tried to throw something hard. Since I rarely had occasion to throw anything hard (I had already given up Softball and Basketball by then) I decided not to take the time needed get my shoulder fixed and gave up Tennis. I figured Golf would be the only sport I would take seriously from then on. That was until I was introduced to Pickleball by my buddy Dave Lewis (more on him and some of my Pickleball buddies later). We would play golf together and when everyone else was lounging at the 19th hole Dave would stand up to leave saying he had a Pickleball game to get to. That went on for at least 6 months before I got around to trying it (in hindsight I wish I hadn’t wasted that 6 months…).

Starting Pickleball coincided with me selling my business that I had owned for 37 years (I started when I was 22) while I have no plans to ever completely retire my schedule is much more flexible now so fitting in Pickleball is much easier. I write this during the Covid-19 shelter in place orders in California. At this point I have played for 2 years and look forward to playing until my body completely gives up, hopefully many years from now.

About my Pickleball buddies. In some ways that is the best thing about Pickleball, the friends you make along the way. As most Pickleball players do, I play with many players with many skill levels. It is always fun pretty much no matter who you play with. However there is a group of players that I gravitated to early on for several reasons. Their availability, skill level, personality and desire to try to get better were similar to my own. It started out with Dave Lewis (66) (he had been playing for a few years at that point) Rich (Doc) O’Malley (66) and Tim Geerts (61) (Doc and Tim both started playing when I did). Dave is a retired farmer, Doc is retired Agronomist for Seed Production and Tim sold his earth moving company at 56 and retired (lucky guy!). We started putting games together with each other 1 or 2 mornings a week, quite often starting at 7am. We all played “pick up” games a few evenings a week also but the hard core “I wanna beat my buddy” games took place in the mornings. Jokingly we called ourselves the morning glories. Over time people caught on to the name and before you knew it we were referred to as the Morning Glories by most people we played with. Doc’s wife Cathy does commercial embroidery so she designed a logo for us and made some hats and shirts, again as sort of a joke but they are actually very nice and we all enjoy wearing them. We now have a board of directors and a nominating committee for potential new members, all very tongue in cheek of course. We did however add a 5th Morning Glory in 2019 (kind of like the 5th Beetle only we brought him in rather than kicking him out…). Dave Rominger (61) joined our ranks and was presented with an official Morning Glory hat and shirt in a fittingly regal ceremony, he has been a great addition to the group. Dave is currently working as a sales representative but he joins us whenever he can (which is quite often, I’m not sure how much actual work he gets done?). Anyway that is the crew, all of us will continue to play “pick up” games also when the corona virus is under control but we really enjoy the spirited games and the friendship of the Morning Glories.