Compo Pickleball Courts Dedication Ceremony In Honor Of Tom Lowrie To Be Held On Saturday
Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com
Westporters have been loving the pickleball courts at Compo Beach for some time now and on Saturday, August 23rd there will be a ceremony naming the courts officially after Tom Lowrie, who is 97 years young. Tom, along with Charlie Haberstroh was the driving force behind the pickle ball courts being built at Compo Beach and both would love to see an expansion to offer more courts to pickleball enthusiasts.Andrew Colabella, RTM member from District 4 was joined by Chris Tait, RTM District One member in selecting Tom to be honored. Per the town charter, two RTM members can petition in the naming of a town property. The pair petitioned the board of selectwomen and Parks & Recreation commission for the honor, where it passed unanimously. Andrew has worked to have some of Westport’s important venues dedicated to notable figures in town, such as Staples Laddie Lawrence track and Paul Lane football field.
Andrew told WestportLocal he decided to proactively pursue naming the pickleball courts after Lowrie as “Tom has been a pivotal individual in Westport’s development since the 1960s as a resident and architect. He graduated Princeton, served in the navy, raised two children, and has always been a peaceful and thoughtful collaborator and a selfless leader..”
Colabella continued, “Tom puts in the research and hard work and even goes beyond to make sure his work ends up in your hands personally. When Tom talks about an idea, he not only conveys his thoughts in written words, but visuals too.” Tom was also the former USA ambassador of Pickelball to Westport.
Pickleball has grown tremendously in recent years. the USA Pickleball website details the genesis of the game:
After playing golf one Saturday during the summer, Joel Pritchard, congressman from Washington State and Bill Bell, successful businessman, returned to Pritchard’s home on Bainbridge Island, WA (near Seattle) to find their families sitting around with nothing to do. The property had an old badminton court so Pritchard and Bell looked for some badminton equipment and could not find a full set of rackets. They improvised and started playing with ping-pong paddles and a perforated plastic ball. At first they placed the net at badminton height of 60 inches and volleyed the ball over the net.As the weekend progressed, the players found that the ball bounced well on the asphalt surface and soon the net was lowered to 36 inches. The following weekend, Barney McCallum was introduced to the game at Pritchard’s home. Soon, the three men created rules, relying heavily on badminton. They kept in mind the original purpose, which was to provide a game that the whole family could play together.