Earl Hill had been playing Pickleball in Washington State since the mid 1980's and played with friends at Happy Trails.  In 2000 he organized a group to begin play at AZT after getting permission from our Activities Director to use Tennis court #4.  Earl was elected the first President and Jesse Tuggle was Vice President. Agnes Webber was one of the first to join and was a great ambassador of the game.  Anyone who showed up was handed a paddle and taught the basic rules of the game. The club played on the Tennis court with masking tape lines and nets and posts anchored by sand in paint buckets and rapidly grew to over 50 members. 

Some sales office people showed up one day to watch about 20 players enjoying themselves and were struck by the fun they were having.  That provided the momentum to ask Continental Homes for help.  In the fall of 2001 Earl HIll, Dave Cormany, Ed Hamer and Norm Davis approached John Lockett of Continental Homes about having some courts built for the club.  John was impressed by the clubs growth and the fun the players were having.  He agreed to do it.  He said there was an area near the softball field that could be used.  Earl, Ed and Norm Davis spent the next several weeks working out the details for the courts.  Plans were reworked several times before arriving at the final drawings.  They did the best they could do in the area available. John accepted most of their suggestions which included post-tension surfaces to prevent cracks from spreading, high quality Tennis type nets and posts, gates on each court, etc. He declined to include lighting because it would cost $13,000.  Earl, Ed and Norm agreed to forego wind screens, lights, some shrubbery and to leave the fences and posts unpainted to help save money and pay for the post-tension cement surface. (Actually, they felt that the fences would look better over time because the green paint would fade and chip.)

In May, 2003 Ed and Dave got John Lockett to commit to having the courts finished before the Arizona Senior Olympics in February, 2004. They were finished in the fall of 2003.  Several members headed by Tom Glomski immediately donated money to help pay for the wind screens and solicited residents to donate the rest.  The screens were installed quickly.  Ed Hamer managed to locate some surplus Tennis Lights and posts in Phoenix.  He and Earl put up $200 each to buy them and asked the club to consider funding the lights. The club agreed to finance the project by increasing yearly dues from $10 to $25 temporarily to pay for it.  John Lockett approved the project.  Many club members, led by Ed Hamer, volunteered to refurbish and paint the lamps and posts.  When they were finished the HOA worked with the club to install them.  Ed, with some help from Norm, made court numbers, ball holders for each court and a bulletin board. 

Earl Hill (friends call him Mr. Pickleball) managed to get Pickleball into the Arizona Senior Olympics in 2001.  The first Olympics were held at Happy Trails RV Park and Earl ran the games.  Several Traditions club members helped out.  After three years the Happy Trails people were burned out and decided to give up the Tournament.  Earl, Dave, Ed and Norm decided it might be good for Arizona Traditions to host the games.  At first they intended to form a separate club to handle it.  After discussions they thought it best let the Pickleball club host the Tournament in their name but run it as a separate organization. 

The first order of business was to form an Olympics staff to get the job done.  Earl and Norm agreed that Earl would assume responsibility for all activity on the courts and Norm would handle everything else.  Earl formed his staff of Directors, Referees, Clerks, etc. to handle the games and they have varied from year to year.  Norm formed a staff to handle all the other projects.