After ‘challenging year,’ Boca Raton Picklers place third in nation
Boca Raton’s Carl Foster said his Boca Raton Picklers National Pickleball League squad never gave up the faith and grinded to a third-place finish in the recent championships at the Chicken N Pickle in Glendale, Arizona.
Foster, who along with Rick Retamar owns the Boca Raton Picklers, entered the tournament with a 5-15 record, which put them sixth in the recent tournament that took place Oct. 13 to 15.
The Picklers drew eventual league champion in the first round match, Indy Drivers, and then slipped into the consolation bracket where they upset Naples JBB United in a 9-8 tiebreaker and the Denver Iconics 9-7 to bring home the bronze in the Champions Division (50+).
The Picklers fought through injuries all season, including losing its No. 1 pick, Fort Lauderdale’s Steve Kennedy, a few weeks before the season was scheduled to start. The playoffs were no different as Scott Johnson sprained his ankle during the first round playoff loss to Indy. He was able to return.
“Steve went down after we drafted him with the No. 1 pick in April,” said Foster, who is also the CEO of The World Pickleball Group. “The doctor said he had to get Achilles surgery after he played the US Open.
“We immediately had to start to look for a top tier player that wasn’t drafted and we had approval from NPL to look at weekly subs and we were fortunate to get Paul Olin for a few weeks to fill in,” Foster added, “and then actually ended up with some other top players for rest of season. We jelled in the championship with Scott and Saed Ibsais. One of our other players, Daniel Gold, also went down with a knee injury, which needed surgery prior to the last regular season match.”
Foster called the season “a challenging year” yet they were able to stay competitive and lost several three-set matches en route to the sixth-place league finish.
“We became the Cinderella story in the NPL Championships,” Foster said.
Michael Chen, former corporate CEO and co-founder of the NPL, also played a role in the playoffs.
“The Picklers showed amazing resilience and a never-say-die will to win in capturing third place and the bronze trophy to complete our first National Pickleball League season,” said Chen, who was also a member of the Picklers team. “Boca Raton didn’t fare as well during the regular season, and they suffered a lot of close third-set losses that could have gone either way. Amazingly, during the playoffs they were able to turn it around and won those closer three-setters.”
A couple of must-see matches included Boca’s Scott Johnson and Chen playing against Denver’s Matt Endera and Arlo Abbott. After Endera and Abbott won the first set 11-7, after a freak accident in which Johnson stepped in a crevice causing him to sprain his ankle before the start of the second set.
After calling for a medical timeout, it looked like Boca would have to forfeit the match before Johnson told the physical trainer to tape him up as he was not going to quit. With Johnson hobbling on one leg, he and Chen won the next two sets, 11-9 and 11-7.
In addition, in the final match of the day, Scott Isbais, who lost earlier with partner Stefan Andren to Scott Moore and Scott Fliegelman in the Men’s Doubles match, came storming back in the mixed doubles match with Leslie Bernard to pull off an upset as well over Moore and Kelly Ojeda by the score of 11-9, 11-2 to clinch third place for Boca Raton Picklers.
The Indy Drivers captured the league’s first NPL Championship in dramatic fashion as they reeled off seven of eight matches to defeat regular-season winner Austin Ignite and victoriously lift the NPL Championship Cup.
A total of $100,000 in prize money was handed out to the players during the three-day extravaganza.
“The Championship Weekend was an amazing and thrilling experience for all that were fortunate enough to witness it,” Chen said. “The Championship match between the No. 1 Austin Ignite and the No. 3 Indy Drivers was a battle for the ages! I can’t wait to see what 2024 will bring, as the future is bright for NPL and all the Champions Pros (Age 50+).”
The NPL is considering expanding to 10 or more teams and taking its matches to new cities.
“Rick Retamar and I were proud owners in Arizona after a challenging first season dealing with key injuries starting with our top pick, Fort Lauderdale’s Steve Kennedy, going down with knee surgery,” Foster said. “Our players rallied with some key additions to play their best pickleball when it counted the most.
“Our local Boca players that performed great all season included Lee Rosenthal, Daniel Gold, Pam Wilkinson and Colleen McMillan,” he said. “We will be presenting the Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer with an honorary bronze NPL medal for Picklers first season at the 2024 Boca Masters in January on Championship Sunday (Jan. 21).”