The Hatfield Rally House hosted National Women’s Tennis Organization (NWTO) Ambassador Davida Dinerman for an event to announce a partnership between the two organizations on Sunday, Sept. 20. The NWTO recently created the NWTO-Club Partnership Initiative and chose the Rally House as one of two pilot clubs.
The initiative is designed to help build connections between local tennis groups with the national women’s tennis organization. The hope is to create more opportunities and strengthen the community for competitive women’s tennis.
Activities in the partnership include: women’s doubles mixers and social events, ambassador-led club gatherings, introduction presentations about age-level tennis, special NWTO member opportunities, and building relationships with other NWTO partnered clubs.
The Rally House was founded/owned by Ashley Schaffer. The NWTO is a national non-profit organization founded by and for women to ensure playing opportunities with age-level tennis.
Northampton Parks & Rec
Northampton Parks and Recreation is offering fall Pickleball clinics at the Ellerbrook Pickleball courts. The clinics will take place on Monday evenings, October 12 & 19.
Each week’s instruction will focus on a different set of pickleball skills. The first clinic will focus on consistent deep serves, safe returns and gaining kitchen dominance and the second clinic will focus on kitchen line patience, paddle placement and high-ball management. Individuals can register for one or both clinics.
The clinics are led by Matthew Smith, a Level One Professional Pickleball Registry (PPR) Certified Coach. Clinics will be a maximum of eight participants for focused and personalized instruction.
Pre-registration is required for each clinic. For more information, contact the Parks and Recreation Department at 413-587-1040 or visit their website at www.northamptonma.gov/recreation.
Racing
Monadnock Speedway awarded six divisional championship titles for the 2026 last Saturday, Sept. 19.
Among the champions was Hatfield’s Tyler Leary. His second place finish in the race gave him enough points to win the All States Materials Group 604 Modified season title by a mere two points. It is his third Monadnock championship. He missed out on the groups triple crown title by 15 points.
Similarly, Jimmy Zellman of Greenfield also took home a title in a close race. Entering the night with a two-point lead for first in the Pure Stock series, Zellman avoided a multi-car dustup for his first championship. He also finished second in the Pure Stock triple crown standings.
Bernardston’s JD Stockwell capped of a fantastic season by taking home the Limited Late Model championship title. Though he finished second in the final race, his season included 10 wins.
Maya Bell of Bell Rocks Racing in Hatfield took part in the Pure Stocks series, grabbing 19th overall.
Volleyball Hall of Fame
The Volleyball Hall of Fame as added multiple new exhibits to it museum this year. Back in July, volleyball community celebrated the opening of the Puerto Rico Volleyball Exhibit. The event brought multiple guests from the Puerto Rico Volleyball Hall of Fame. The exhibit will present the history and culture of the sport in Puerto Rico.
As part of the event players from Holyoke and Salinas, Puerto Rico faced-off Sister City Match with the hosts taking the 3-1 victory.
Earlier in September, the Hall of Fame welcomed a traveling exhibit to honor 50 years since the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games. That year saw multiple historic moments for the sport.
Poland won its first-ever gold medal for men’s volleyball. It’s journey to victory included a five-set win in the “Match of the Century” over the Soviet Union. Cuba also won its first medal on the men’s side with a bronze.
That year in women’s volleyball, Japan had possibly the most dominate run on the Olympic stage. The reigning 1974 world champions did not drop a single set on their way to winning the gold medal.
The exhibit will remain on display through mid-2027.
