Calvert pickle ball players in full swing

Cool and overcast conditions and an occasional drizzle at Hallowing Point Park hardly proved for an ideal setting on Saturday for Calvert County Parks and Recreation’s pickle ball tournament that transpired there this weekend, but those elements could hardly dampen the enthusiasm of those tandems that reached their respective finals.

Calvert residents and Northern High School math teachers Rowena Conway and Heather Finamore have developed a genuine chemistry on the court that proved to be a winning formula last weekend amid any and all atmospheric variables. That tandem combined to take the women’s 19-49 bracket 3.5/4.0 skill level women’s doubles tournament on Saturday.

“It really comes down to communicating well with your partner,” said Finamore, who began playing pickle ball three years ago is also the tennis coach at Northern. “A lot of the teachers at Northern are pickle ball players, so they got me interested in playing. This was only our second tournament together, but we have some more lined up in Annapolis and Bowie.”

In the 19-49 men’s doubles tournament final on Saturday, Calvert residents Phillip Phelps and Cortland Rohsler defeated fellow Calvert residents Mark Shields and Mike Naron, although the title match was far more contentious than a sweep would indicate. Phelps and Rohsler rallied from a 10-8 deficit to prevail 12-10 in the second set, preventing a third-set tie-breaker.

“Really the whole key to winning is the drills,” said Phelps, a 2008 Huntingtown High School graduate who still lives in the county and won three gold medals recently in a ladder tournament. “We practice every day. Cort constantly pushes me to get better. We have another tournament coming up in Millersville this month, but we’ll probably end up playing as many as we can.”

Rohsler, who was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Temple University with a business degree, began playing last summer and quickly developed a bond with Phelps and some other local players. In fact, Phelps noted that he, Rohsler, Naron and Shields often play against one another.

“Drills are definitely the key to winning,” Rohsler said. “We work on drilling constantly. I just started playing about nine months ago and I love it.”

While the pickle ball players currently share the tennis courts at Hallowing Point Park, plans are in the works to have eight pickle ball only courts at the park adjacent to the red barn near the baseball and softball fields there. Plans are also under way to have pickle ball and tennis courts added at Dunkirk District Park by the end of the summer.