Celebrating a Century: Pickleball, Friends, and 100 Years of Club Atwater 🏓

Celebrating a Century: Pickleball, Friends, and 100 Years of Club Atwater 🏓

What a weekend! Club Atwater is officially celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, and what better way to honour a century of history than with an awesome pickleball tournament?

For me, this milestone feels incredibly personal. I’ve been a member of this amazing club for about 20 years now. Most of those years were spent sweating it out on the squash courts, But let's be real—at 51 years old, my body won't let me hit the squash court every single day anymore! So, for the last five years, I've been happily alternating my time on the squash court with some pickleball action.  To top it off, our company, Sports Virtuoso, has the privilege of running the pro shop inside the club.

The Centennial Tournament kicked off on April 11th with the Men’s and Women’s doubles, followed by the Mixed doubles on April 12th. I teamed up with my friend Sergei under the "Team Sports Virtuoso" banner for the Men's doubles, and we managed to battle our way to a very respectable 2nd place! 

On Sunday, I partnered up with Myriam for the Mixed doubles, and everything just clicked—we ended up taking home 1st place!

But honestly, the prizes are just a bonus. This weekend was really all about the beautiful pickleball community we have here. The sportsmanship, the laughs, and the sense of belonging to this historic place are what made the event so special. It was great sharing a few cold beers and good food with everyone after the matches.

To give a little back to the community, Sports Virtuoso provided grips for all the players. If you needed a fresh grip over the weekend, you probably ran into my daughter Veronica who was working hard to get everyone's paddles wrapped and match-ready.

Here’s to Club Atwater, the amazing friends we’ve made along the way, and many more decades of great racquet sports! 🥂

See you on the courts,

Tim Burganov,

Founder - Sports Virtuoso