March-April Sports Director’s Report

CCPC Sports Director’s report for March-April 2022

We have had an AMAZING month!   Things have been incredibly busy for CCPC, and we can be so very proud of what we’ve accomplished!  Below is a synopsis of the major items that fall under the job description of the Sports Director – in other words, not everything we did as a club.

In more or less chronological order:

  • First strings on our terrain – with the many, many volunteer hours to get us to that point
  • March 26 – 1st Annual Diane’s Spring Panache.   Gail did a spectacular job as Tournament Director in 20+ mph winds.  About half the club was able to participate.
  • Michelle, Marilyn, Heidi, and Pat went to Austin, TX (same weekend as the panache) for a Women’s Petanque Retreat and trained with about 50 other women players from around the country under the tutelage of a French professional petanque coach.   They will soon schedule a time to share what they learned.
  • April 10th – FPUSA Regional Triples in Amelia.   Gail and Al teamed up with AIBC’s Frosty Sabo as a team.   They qualified 10th in Concours.   Honor teamed up with the Loribeth and Larry Creasy to qualify 8th in Concours.    Heidi accompanied us and spent the tournament day working with the Tournament Directors to learn the scoring system and other logistics associated with staging a successful FPUSA tournament.
  • Heidi, in her role as a member of the FPUSA Sport Committee, compiled and published the FPUSA Umpire Registry – many, many hours spent “herding cats” around the entire country to get it all updated.
  • Work continued in small and large groups on our terrain including additional grooming, putting down the final string lines, repairing damage done by vandals, experimenting, discussing, designing, building, and hanging the new scoreboards.   I don’t actually know how many people worked on completing the scoreboards and the strings, but I must thank Steve, Ray, Bob, Allen, and Rob for all their work!   (I don’t doubt that I missed somebody in that list.)  Our volunteers are just amazing!
  • April 14th – we hosted the Athens Academy French Club.   While Michelle did most of the heavy lifting on this, the Sporting Committee and the aforementioned terrain crews did a fabulous job of getting the terrains in top shape and making sure that we had boules, rings, jacks, etc. for an outstanding event.  
  • April 30th – the BIG DAY that we’ve been prepping for and working so hard to make happen – we hosted the Atlanta Petanque League for a great day of playing, eating, drinking, meeting, greeting, and all-round fun!    Heidi served as Tournament Director, but we had a great crew of volunteers!   Honestly, I don’t think anything could have gone any better – everybody had a blast!  The Lay Park staff was wonderful and very helpful.   We had about 45 players compete in the friendly panache tournament – proving that our “home-grown” and “simple-as-a-rock” formula is a great model for future panache tournaments.   We were able to add in players that only played part of the day with ease so that no one who wanted to participate was left out of the fun.   The whole club – even those who couldn’t be there – should be very proud of this event!
  • Discussions about the upcoming change in times for club play days have begun.   As always, when the weather gets hot, we try to switch to times that have a bit cooler temperature.   There is also discussion about adding times that fit better for our folks who are working and possibly adding another play day opportunity.
  • The FPUSA National Tournaments hosted by our friends at APL is coming up on  May 21 and 22nd.    CCPC will be well-represented at least 8 of our club members.  This tournament sold out very quickly so we were fortunate to get a few of us entered.  Some of us will be working with our tournament partners in preparation so we ask for your support in assisting our teams as they get themselves ready to represent CCPC on a bigger stage.
  • On-going other stuff that’s not all directly in the Sports Director’s wheelhouse:
    • Al continues to build and maintain communications and relationships with clubs in Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, and beyond.   Al regularly speaks with FPUSA officials, club presidents, sports directors, and tournament directors to share information about terrains, club play, local government relations, training opportunities, tournament opportunities, etc.
    • Allen has built a reputation for generously providing study guides for umpire candidates around the country.   At least 3 new umpires have benefited from Allen’s outstanding study guides.   Expect more to come.
    • Rob’s spectacular videos shared on social media are getting notice from clubs and players all over the world!   Many of you are more famous than you ever realized!    But not only is this entertaining for thousands of viewers, it is expected to benefit other clubs by providing them with the same kind of photo/video references that we used ourselves in getting our public facilities built.  Rob is truly helping to promote and build the sport in more ways than any of us realize.
    • Heidi and Steve attended the Boom! Expo at the country club to raise awareness and recruit members.
    • CCPC is going to have a booth and demonstration area at the Winterville Marigold Festival.
    • Several of us are involved in trying to help Winterville get a real petanque terrain built there.   We continue to build our relationships with Winterville.
    • We have added several new members – I have lost count how many but, our membership is now over 40 members.   I think we can get to 50+ by the end of this year.

Whew!   I told you that we had a lot going on and I’m sure I haven’t listed everything.

Bottom line:  This is a GREAT club!

Allez CCPC!

Al