8 Photos
World-ranked Pickleball doubles pair Eden Lica and Andrei Daescu lead clinics at Tennis At The Barn in Westhampton. DANA SHAW
Andrei Daescu works with students at a Pickleball clinic at Tennis At The Barn in Westhampton on Thursday afternoon. DANA SHAW
Andrei Daescu works with students at a Pickleball clinic at Tennis At The Barn in Westhampton on Thursday afternoon. DANA SHAW
Eden Lica works with students at the Pickleball clinic at Tennis At The Barn in Westhampton on Thursday afternoon. DANA SHAW
Eden Lica works with students at the Pickleball clinic at Tennis At The Barn in Westhampton on Thursday afternoon. DANA SHAW
Andrei Daescu works with students at a Pickleball clinic at Tennis At The Barn in Westhampton on Thursday afternoon. DANA SHAW
Eden Lica works with students at the Pickleball clinic at Tennis At The Barn in Westhampton on Thursday afternoon. DANA SHAW
Eden Lica works with students at the Pickleball clinic at Tennis At The Barn in Westhampton on Thursday afternoon. DANA SHAW
Pickleball, pickleball, pickleball.
Over the past year or so, the ever-growing sport has been just about the only thing on the mind of Scott Green, owner and operator of Around The Post Pickleball, a company he created that helps put together various clinics and tournaments throughout the region.
And he was certainly busy over the past few weeks, starting last Thursday, May 26, when he had a world-ranked doubles pair Eden Lica and Andrei Daescu lead clinics at Tennis At The Barn in Westhampton.
Lica, who Around The Post Pickleball sponsors, then teamed with Daescu to compete in one of the largest pickleball tournaments in the world over the weekend — the Franklin NYC Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens. The pair fought hard to earn a silver medal.
“What they gave on Thursday was absolutely fantastic,” Green said of the clinics. “They were so personable, fun, knowledgeable, and this is for advanced players.
“Then they go into one of the biggest tournaments, and these two guys played so hard. By the end, they really were the talk of the tournament — and to be associated with them in any way is really great.”
While speaking on Monday on his return trip to his home in Hampton Bays from New York City, Green passed a tennis center that was filled to capacity, but not with tennis players, pickleballers. He had received a phone call earlier Monday morning that there were at least 50 people at Red Creek Park playing the sport.
For someone who played baseball the first half of his life and is now an avid pickleballer himself, Green is convinced that pickleball is the sport of the future, and he’s ready to jump on board.
The first-ever Hamptons Pickleball Classic, hosted by Around The Post, is this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, at Hampton Bays High School — something that Green gave a lot of credit to Hampton Bays Athletic Director John Foster for, turning what were unused badminton courts at the high school into pickleball courts.
Green is expecting around 80 people to compete in that tournament, and it would have been more, he said, had it not conflicted with another tournament up-island.
Green and Around The Post are also hosting the Hamptons Summer Series next month, also at Hampton Bays High School, and is also in the works of hosting a big tournament in Albany for this upcoming January.
For more information, go to aroundthepostpickleball.com.
