Tallahassee Pickleball Association

TPA News

July 2024 Member Spotlight: Melissa Powell

TPA would like to give a huge shoutout to our website manager and fellow pickleball player, Melissa Powell! Melissa has volunteered for a year and a half to keep TPA's website updated and looking professional. And it's no wonder she is so good at it -- it's her daytime job as a Communications Manager at the Florida State University College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences.

Melissa grew up in Ohio playing a variety of sports including basketball, soccer, and tennis. Around eight years ago, she moved to Tallahassee and began playing tennis here. She soon started transitioning to pickleball in 2018 and got hooked, frequenting Thursday-night open play at Walker Ford Community Center. She still plays tennis and enjoys both sports as she feels they complement each other well. She can often be found on the pickleball courts at Tom Brown or Four Oaks Parks.

Melissa shared many reasons she enjoys pickleball, including, "I've made so many good friends and met new people; it keeps me in good physical shape since it involves so much endurance and agility and requires you to be light on your feet. It also involves a high level of strategizing, and I enjoy the mental game." She also enjoys that pickleball is a game of runs, she explained. "You can be down 0-7 and still win." She shared a great analogy for beginners: "In pickleball, you sometimes need to remember what Ted Lasso says and 'be a goldfish' (because goldfish are said to have a 10-second memory). Move on from mistakes and focus on the next point."

When Melissa is not working or playing sports, she enjoys reading, visiting local parks, going to the beach, and painting landscape portraits and paint-by-numbers. She recently completed a custom paint-by-numbers portrait of her dogs, Kiki and Kona, by working with a company that can turn photos into paint-by-numbers templates. She is also busy planning her wedding as she will be married in February. When asked if her fiancé plays pickleball, she responded, "Not yet, but I and many of my friends are working to persuade him."

Melissa praises the organizers of the PB&Yay! tournaments for making the events fun and well-organized. In fact, she won a silver medal in mixed doubles at her very first tournament! Melissa is looking to gain more tournament experience and travel to play. Her advice to beginners is to not be shy about introducing themselves to players, connecting on Facebook and social media, going to round robins, and taking advantage of local events. She commented on how welcoming the pickleball community is and how much she enjoys playing with Tallahassee's diverse community of players.

If you see Melissa on the courts, please thank her for volunteering as TPA's website manager, and offer a big congratulations on "tying the knot!"