More about CTPA Memberships

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img.Overhead view of 13 courts 2020

Cranberry Township Pickleball Association (CTPA)  News Release:

Starting May 15,  CTPA will open up membership and will allow our association to grow by 500 members due to a six court  expansion that is nearly completed  allowing us to go from 13 outdoor courts to 19 outdoor courts.  

 Procedures to get your membership beginning May 15 to Dec 31. (There is no rush to arrive exactly May 15!)

  1. You must appear in person to Parks & Rec in order to pay for your membership fee plus get a photo taken to  get your membership card and to give us the email address that you want to have connected to your CTPA membership.   Please know two people cannot share the same email, so if there are two of you joining you both must give Parks & Rec two separate emails addresses.  You must get your photo taken for a membership card which they will print out for you at the office.   
  2. If you are getting a membership for another person besides yourself you are going to need to have the following information.
    • A electronic “Head shot” photo on your phone that you can email, so we can print a membership card.  (You must have a membership card on display in order to play on our courts)
    • Address
    • Phone number
    • Date of Birth
    • Email address ( CTPA requires each person to have  their own email address for our scheduling software. There is no way to share the same email)
      Without the above we cannot issue a membership to someone not present.

      Address/hours/phone of Parks & Rec:   2525 Rochester Road, Cranberry Township PA   Hours: Monday-Thursday 8:30am-8:30pm, Friday, 8:30am-5pm, Saturday, 9am-4pm (closed weekends Memorial Day-Labor Day)  724-779-4386, option 1.

The cost for a membership is $125 for a Cranberry resident and $138 for a non-resident and this membership is good for the calendar year.   If you want to learn more about CTPA , go to the web site and then to “Member Section” .   There is also a tab on the left “Introduction to New Members” that we encourage our members to review everything on that page and all the tabs on that page.

You must get your photo taken and  get your membership card and zip tie.   Place the card on the outside of your bag when you go to the court or you will be asked to leave if you do not have it on display.

After you registered with the township, paid and get your card, you can expect to get an email directly from our scheduling software titled Cranberry Township Pickleball Association.   This email will contain a lot of information and the most important one is to get you registered on the scheduling software so you can then start to sign up for events.   There is a lot of information on the email and we highly encourage that you take the time necessary to read it in details.   If you have questions regarding CTPA, please contact brucemazzoni@zoominternet.net.   If you have questions regarding signing up for a membership, please contact. Cranberry Twp Parks & Rec Customer Service at 724- 779-4386    Option 1.  

Why are we growing so quickly?  Because we make pickleball fun for the type of player you are! 

For Social players who want to play for Fun

  • We match people by their skill level/interest so you are playing with other people who want to play  for fun and have the same rights to the court  as the most skilled players.  Everyone is equal in CTPA.
  • We specifically have games gear to fun & enjoyment
  • You can schedule your play and be assured a court.
  • Better players are there volunteering to help improve your game if you want to do so.

For experienced and serious players

  • Level play assures  that when you play you always have good competition
  • With ladders, multi-level play  and shootouts you always have opportunities to compete against better players
  • Opportunities to play who you want to play with, without hassle.
  • The ability to schedule your play and assure you have enough play in that session.
  • The Academy programs  & ball machine can help further improve your game.

For those in between;  who want to have fun but also want to improve their game

  • Yes, you can have the best of both worlds and pick and choose the type of games you want to register for.   We get as close as possible to eliminating the negatives of playing on unorganized municipal courts making pickleball that much more fun.
  • All the above for a small membership fee in which all money raised by CTPA  goes back to building/improving our courts.   
  • CTPA is an all-volunteer organization that is led by fellow members .Over 200 members volunteer to make CTPA a great experience to play pickleball.
  • .You are playing on the best courts in the area and part of one of the largest club in the nation.
  • We have 19 dedicated PB courts and in the winter will cover six of those courts with an air dome allowing for 7 day a week, 16 hours/day of pickleball in the winter months.   For tournaments we can expand to nearly 40 courts.

Why pickleball is popular

We hear stories all the time about why people love pickleball and how so many people have found a new lease on life because of it – people who thought they were not athletes but now play pickleball several times a week, people who have lost weight, overcome depression and developed a much healthier lifestyle from playing pickleball, people who have built many new social connections and developed lifelong friendships because of pickleball.   This is what CTPA offers.



Benefits of Membership

  • FITNESS, FUN & FRIENDS: CTPA is all about enjoying pickleball with similar people with the same interests to play.
  • EXCLUSIVE HOURS:  CTPA Members will have exclusive court hours and access via their membership cards. We ask all members to display their cards during CTPA times.
  • LEVEL PLAY/CLUB RATING: To assure enjoyable pickleball our members have club rating to assure fun-level play.   All members have the option to be evaluated for a higher level when they are ready.
  • COMPETITIVE PLAY ASSURED: Because of ratings, you are assured of playing against players of a similar skill level. 
  • MULTI-LEVEL GAMES: We have a lot of games that are pure fun and are multi-level so friends of different levels can play together or a chance for you to play against better players.
  • CTPA ACADEMY/PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:   CTPA offers our Pickleball Academy that is composed of over 30 different clinics.  A great way to improve. Take a clinic and practice the drills they teach you to improve.  A proven success to be a better player.
  • EARLY PLAYER DEVELOPMENT: Starting out can be intimidating and this program are for our PB-1/FT beginners to make them comfortable in playing the game and a chance to improve.  It is done in a fun environment with a CTPA volunteer who helps you understand and play the game better.
  • EXPANDING PICKLEBALL:  As a member, you are helping to pay off the debt for building our facility bigger. with your membership and other fees. There is a feeling of ownership because our organization is run by volunteers.
  • LARGEST PB CLUB: CTPA  is  the largest pickleball association in the state. There are few PB organization that provide a wide range of organized play to satisfy players of all skill ranges in the nation. CTPA does this and more.  We are an all-volunteer organization. We program our own schedule and rules....so if there is something specific you like, you can help us make it a reality.
  • INDOOR PLAY: CTPA will try to have indoor play at the Cranberry Township Municipal Center and other facilities that we can rent.  Each year we try to make more sessions available but we are very limited in space and facilities are not always available. Therefore we cannot make any guarantees that all days and times will be available. There is a small charge to play indoors. Our ultimate goal is to build our own indoor facility.
  • All this for less than $8 /month.: One of the lowest price  offered in Cranberry Township Parks & Recreation for a sports membership. Click here for the fastest way to learn Pickleball...

New CTPA PB-1/Fast Track Clinic & Early Player Development Program

Anyone who is new to pickleball should start with this 2 hr clinic and then up to 6 additional hours in our Early Player Development  program.  With up to 8 hours of training you are learning the game the correct way.    If you are not an experienced player and try to join CTPA as a new member with little or no understanding of pickleball  you will struggle to establish  a good foundation to learn the game.  Most new members who join without the training of PB-1 & Early Learners end up unhappy with pickleball.  This is why we developed this program as it transition beginners  to properly play the game and build a good foundation to learn additional skills to improve your game further. Our trained instructors have taught over 1000 people the game of pickleball including some local celebrities.   

Click here for more information on PB-1/Fast Track Clinic & Early Learners Program

We taught over 1000 people how to play pickleball including the KDKA News Staff

KDKA-Pickleball

When I join, what happens next?

When you purchase a membership online or at Cranberry Customer Service, your email address will be sent to CTPA volunteers who will send you an Welcome email from" Cranberry Township Pickleball Association to register on Court Reserve and answers your questions.  Depending when you join, when the township notifies us and our volunteers sends this email it could be from 1-4 days.  If you do not receive a letter after 5 days please email us: Contact@CTPApickleball.com  

"This email coming to you to register with Court Reserve will include a link to a  video that we recommend watching before registering. Once registered, please update your profile on Court Reserve. The default Club Rating for all new players is 2.5. If you are an experienced player and would like to be evaluated for a level higher than 2.5, the request should be emailed to: Contact@CTPApicklball.com within 30 days of joining CTPA."

We have a New Member page on our web site that you can access here for more detail information  New Member Introduction and Procedures

If you sign up online, stop by the Parks & Recreation Customer Service desk to get your  membership card so we can get you playing as quickly as possible.  

You cannot play without a membership card.  With your card, you will receive our  "Welcome to CTPA" document to answer some of your questions.  You can preview the document here, Welcome to CTPA

If you have question, please email Contact@CTPApickleball.com  

Pickleball CTPA membership cardCTPA Membership

Order CTPA Membership here       MEMBERSHIPS NOT AVAILABLE ONLINE AT THIS TIME

NOTE: When Online Registration is not working,   Call or visit in person. 


You can also order your membership in person at Cranberry Township Parks & Recreation desk. 
Call 724-779-4 FUN (4386) x 1129 to verify their open hours.

Membership




Cranberry ResidentNon-Resident
 Membership

Valid: Jan 1, 2023 - Dec. 31, 2023
This membership will allow you to select one event 7-days in advance and then unlimited events 3 days in advance.		$125.

$138.


Pickleball the way you want it.  
ONE MEMBERSHIP but many ways to play

How we schedule play and the many programs & events we offer!  
What makes us unique from a typical municipal court with no organization is how we schedule play and organize events.  As a member you can actually schedule play to meet your own  calendar and be assured that there will be people there to play and no long waits. And guarantee the quality of play during that session is meeting to your objectives....fun or competitive. You will have your own personal means to reserve your spot for events.

A typical weekly calendar for using our scheduling software is below.
Based on the events use, you can use your phone app or computer to reserve a spot under your name and also know who else signed up for that event. We allow members to schedule up to 6 days in advance and have a wait list function in case someone cancels, that spot can be filled again.

This is an example of a weekly schedule (click image to enlarge)

img_PB sample weekly schedule Opens in new window


New Members Classes and Assist Program 
We encourage people new to pickleball to start with our PB-1 class to learn the correct way to play pickleball.  We have taught hundreds of people how to play the game and the class includes a paddle and ball to get you started. When you join CTPA  we offer a new member assist program staffed by experienced CTPA volunteers to help introduce you to the courts, in how to sign up for sessions and will have their own court times available for you to get playing quickly in a no pressure environment.  

Many people ask who are new to pickleball  if they can join CTPA without taking PB-1 and the answer is YES, But you must own a paddle, know the rules and be able to play the game.  Consider that PB-1 includes a paddle, a ball and 2 hour of lessons PLUS a three 2-hr sessions of Early Learners  you are getting much more than what you are paying for the course.  But we also understand that classes fill up fast and some people do not want to wait until the next class. More information, PB-1/FastTrack

Early Player Development Program
Early Player Development  is not a beginner’s class, its purpose is to help knowledgeable players develop better playing skills by emphasizing forehand, backhand, serving and all basic pickleball strokes. Game play is part of each session. All players attending receive individual attention. A ratio of 1 to 6-8  students to a coordinator is the norm.  This program helps players gain more confidence in their pickleball skills. Players can continue to develop their pickleball skillset by attending the Academy Classes offered through CTPA. This program is free for members.

Variety of  Play - Fun Play 
We have expanded to wide variety of games that are played with fun fitness and friends. Games like UP/DOWN Split, Winners stays on and split, round robins and other games allow for a fun experience and the ability to play with friends of different skill level.

More Serious Play 
We are one of the few PB clubs in nation that rank our members for better play.   See rating procedures on the left hand tab of this page for more details of our club rating system.  But, what it does is assures you quality level play against opponents for equal skills and many opportunities to play against players better than you in match or ladder play.   

We have members who live several hours away because they can be assured to be able to play against for equal level vetted through our rating system. Our club evaluation procedure for rating has been very well received by members.

IMPROVE YOUR LEVEL OF PLAY!   Pickleball Academy

Our Pickleball Academy consists of over 30 different level specific clinics. If you consider the many 2 and 3 day camps the cost of these are about $35 to $50/hour squeezed into a small timeframe. and you forget all you learned. Most of our clinics are 4/1 ratio and just $25 in which we will teach you drills to continue your improvement on your own or with a friend in the next weeks. Once you perfect it, come back and take another clinic and then practice the drills to improve that shill-shot. This is a more logical way to learn and a lot less to do so.

While many of our members do not care about ratings, they still want to play a better game.  Its a fact that the better you are the more you enjoy the game. The Pickleball Academy will make a better player out of our members.

Don’t be turned off with all this Rating talk...... We have many enjoyable and fun games.
If you are a casual or social players you do not need to get a higher rating,  Don’t be turned off by ratings....there are many games out there that rating is not even an issue. Many members never even play level play. So if you just want to play and have fun there are a lot of options for you.   See "CTPA games" on the left hand tab of this page for all the games we play.   

WHO ARE OUR MEMBERS?
About 15% just want to play for fun. They have no interest to be rated or even care if they win or lose. They are there with Friends, having Fun And Getting Exercise.     

Another 15% of our members are very serious about the game. Pickleball is a passion and they want to play very competitive matches, focused on improving and a lot interested in tournament play.

And, about 70% of our member want  the opportunity to test their skills in match & ladder play and want to improve to get to the next higher "Club rating".  But, they also want to at times  have fun and play in a no-pressure environment in games like UP/Down-Split, Round Robins, and Challenge Courts.   .

ONE MEMBERSHIP but many ways to play. 
PICKLEBALL the way YOU want to play.

Memberships are not refundable for any reason.   CTPA membership is good for excellent outdoor play from mid-April to mid-October.    Memberships is for outdoor play from mid-April to mid-October.    Winter Play is pay as you go for all indoor play.   Outdoor courts may be available for use from mid-October to mid-April but is not guaranteed and there may be a small fee to play them.   Being a current CTPA member will give you better booking opportunities for winter play than nonmembers.

New memberships includes one event 7-days in  and unlimited 3-day selections of events.

 Membership are based on a calendar year.

Types of Play for CTPA Members