New Pickleball Facility, PickleCon, Annual Meeting ...
- pickleballep
- Sep 8
- 3 min read
New indoor facility coming to west El Paso
An indoor facility offering eight pickleball courts along with two golf simulator bays is scheduled to open this fall in Canutillo. Located at 480 Talbot (the street in front of the Outlet Mall), Pickle and Par will offer open play, leagues, lessons, tournaments and other amenities. (Thank you Suzette and John for the lead on this story.)
Scott Canada was not even a pickleball player when he decided to make this investment. After coaching softball in California for 10 years, his vision lay in that direction. "My partner (Anthony Chavez) and I were looking to invest in an indoor softball facility, but we just kept running into hurdles. Then some people from the softball community suggested we look into pickleball."
Following his daughter to El Paso, Scott started looking at sites in the Canutillo area, and everything easily fell into place. The surface for the courts is scheduled to be put down the week of September 22, with opening of the courts expected the first week of October. The golf aspect will be available at a later date. He decided to pair pickleball with golf because it was a good fit for the demographic.
The venue will offer beer, wine, and snacks. People are welcome to bring their own food and non-alcoholic beverages. Open play will be offered in either two or three hour increments (to be decided) for $15, with courts separated by level.
There will be three membership levels: $65, $100, and $150. Each level will offer increasing levels of free open play hours, discounts to leagues and other events, and discounts in the pro shop, recovery room, and fitness room.
PickleCon
PEPA Vice President Ben Avalos recently attended PickleCon at the Kansas City Convention Center, Kansas City Missouri, as a guest of Brooke Underwood and Omar Ramirez of Visit El Paso. This bureau is charged with attracting groups to El Paso to use our convention facilities and increase hotel occupancy, a huge economic driver for our community.
While at PickleCon, Ben was able to play pick-up games on the 70-plus courts with other attendees, watch pro-level and pro-am games, and meet with numerous professional baseball, basketball and football players. There were many vendors in attendance as well so Ben was able to engage with them and spread the word about Pickleball in El Paso.
The hope is that at some point in the future El Paso will be considered for the annual PickleCon event.
PEPA annual meeting
Our annual meeting and election of directors will take place at 1:00PM at Galatzan Recreation Center on October 15. A report of accomplishments for the Association and financials for the year will be available. On another note ... Galatzan management has been VERY supportive of our pickleball community from the beginning four years ago, when our voice was not so loud, and our allotted hours in gyms were not nearly as numerous. As a show of appreciation we are encouraging PEPA members to bring a bag of candy on October 15 for their Halloween Carnival.
Around town ...
UTEP CHAARG Beginner clinic looking for volunteers
PEPA Vice President Ben Avalos was contacted by Maddie McGuire, event coordinator for UTEP’s CHAARG group. CHAARG stands for Changing Health, Attitudes, +Actions to Recreate Girls. They are an all-girl organization with 110 chapters across the country whose mission is to change the attitudes that girls have about fitness.
Ben and PEPA will be holding a beginner clinic and open play for their club at Skyline Youth Optimist Park, 5050 Yvette on Tuesday, September 23rd, at 6:30 pm.
Ben would like to have about 10 PEPA volunteers to help with the clinic. Please text or call him (915-873-7817) if you are interested.
As always, play happy,
Jamie Fisher
President, Pickleball El Paso Association
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