SaddleBrooke Table Tennis Club hosts open house with pick-up play Sunday

SaddleBrooke Table Tennis Club hosted an open house Sunday, February 15, 2026, running from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Rincon Room of the MountainView Building next to the swimming pool, not inside the large MountainView Clubhouse. The event offered pick-up play and an introduction to club activities for attendees who wanted to reconnect with the sport.

The club’s event announcement encouraged participation with the line, "It’s an opportunity to come and play a few games and get reacquainted with a game you may have played years ago! Table tennis is great exercise and it can help keep your reflexes sharp." Organizers reported that paddles and balls were available for use and that players of all skill and experience levels were welcome. For follow-up information the club listed Scottie Johnson as contact at (541) 408-4807 and directed interested people to the club website at sbttc.wordpress.com.

The open house continues a pattern of outreach the club has run at SaddleBrooke. Club posts from February 2023 document an open house that "was well attended with 17 enthusiastic guests participating," and those posts credited volunteers Greg Hlushko, Jeff Laub, Janice Motley, Susan Schwartz and new member Craig Cholvin for hosting visitors; two guests joined the club that day. SaddleBrooke Table Tennis Club also staffs a table at the community Activities Fair, where Scottie Johnson and Kent Simpson have invited residents to learn about the club and where volunteers such as Rick Murray and new member Lon Federwitz have handed out information.

Historical community messaging from club leadership traces the outreach back further. A SaddleBrooke Progress column by then-President Bob Rubenstein in January 2017 urged residents to "mark your calendar for our Open House" and noted past Open Houses offered features such as a table tennis robot. Rubenstein’s post also cited a group of British medical researchers who reported that tennis could have positive effects on prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, a line the club has used in past outreach to emphasize health benefits.

Regional coaching and workshop activity has intersected with SaddleBrooke events in earlier years. Archived Southern Arizona Table Tennis Association materials list a workshop and demonstration at the Saddlebrook TT Club led by Coach R. Bryant Jr., a USATT Certified Coach, and SATTA’s mission statement identifies promotion of table tennis in Tucson and Southern Arizona as a core goal; regional contacts include sattaonline@gmail.com and phone 520-461-8656.

The February open house is the latest in a sequence of club events designed to attract players back to the table; organizers left contact details for anyone seeking more information at (541) 408-4807 or on sbttc.wordpress.com.