A Pickleball Life: Connestee Falls Scholarship Fund Tournament

The 5th Annual Connestee Falls Scholarship Fund Tournament was held September 25-26.

The Mountain Picklers website representing the pickleball group at Connestee Falls had an article on the tournament as copied below:

The 5th Annual Connestee Falls Scholarship Fund Tournament was limited to Men's and Women's Doubles because the Mixed Doubles were washed out by the weekend rain and there were no indoor venues available, but the competition was fierce and everyone who participated reported that they enjoyed the tournament even though conditions were far from ideal. Most importantly, the tournament raised over $9000.00 for the scholarship fund. A majority of the 94 entrants, about 60% of whom live outside Connestee, played on Thursday or Friday, but those who had only signed up for mixed doubles stayed home.

The most unfortunate situation beset a couple who had traveled a long distance to camp out for the weekend and play Mixed Doubles. Needless to say, their tent got uncomfortable pretty quickly and they spent most of their time hanging out at Quotations.

Thursday's 3.0 Men's & Women's Doubles were played on our Connestee courts and were completed before the rain arrived late in the afternoon. As the weather forecast became more and more convincing about rain on Friday, the 3.5 Men's, 4.0 Men's, and 3.5/4.0 Women's matches were moved to the Brevard Health and Racquet Club and the Brevard Rec Center. If you know anyone affiliated with either of these facilities then please be sure to thank them for their generosity.

Following is a list of the tournament medal winners:

	*Gold*	*Silver*	*Bronze*
*Men’s 3.0*	Kent McKinney Gary Mohr	Rich Ferragina Paul Fischer	Jim Symington Keith Mast
*Women’s 3.0*	Pam Devorkin Ilene Wilon	Linda Morgan Nancy Hand	Wanda Barrett Pulette Wilder
*Men’s 3.5*	Fred Siegel Reuben Oder	Cenzig Kurkcu Greg Lewis	Paul Aaron Sandro Francioni
*Men’s 4.0*	Less Massengale Russ Eleterion	Rick Ezrol Ed Bailey	Bea Baila Scott Shurman
*Women’s 3.5/4.0*	Susan Flynt Jenny Kemp	Deb Richter Rene Wilson	Renee Bailey Dee Ezrol

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Photos of the medal winners are shown below. While players came from far and wide, the local area was well represented among the medalists. Names of those local players I can identify are included.