Clemence Neflas, a USA Pickleball Ambassador, spearheaded the effort.

Award-Winning Float in Covina Christmas Parade Dedicated to Pickleball 2

By Stephen Hunt
Red Line Editorial

Clemence Neflas has a fairly traditional pickleball origin story.

A former tennis player, he was looking for a new activity to lean into after retiring at age 55 in 2021. By the following March he’d discovered pickleball, and now the longtime Boeing manager plays four or five times a week around his home in Covina, California.

Despite his relatively recent conversion, Neflas doesn’t hesitate to share his love of pickleball with others. If he isn’t giving lessons to beginners on the game’s basics, the USA Pickleball Ambassador is encouraging others to continue playing.

It’s that spirit of wanting to grow the game that led him and fellow picklers in Covina — which is just east of Los Angeles — to take that love of the sport to the next level by designing and building a pickleball-themed float for the 73rd Annual Covina Christmas Parade on Dec. 7.

Not only did they design and build the float, which elicited oohs and aahs from the festive crowd at the parade, but they also earned a second-place award in the adult/family category, an impressive achievement for a bunch of first timers.

“It’s an awesome thing because it was our first-ever entry into the parade, and here we are with a second-place award,” Neflas said. “The most amazing thing was during the entire route, we had people saying, ‘Oh, look, it’s pickleball.’ I thought it was a great opportunity to highlight the sport and be able to showcase it in front of the community.”

An additional positive from the float, besides the award, was that Neflas and his fellow picklers continue receiving inquiries from people wanting to join their pickleball group and start playing.

What was his inspiration for the float? Well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

After seeing fellow avid picklers participate in other parades, Neflas decided he wanted to follow suit — but go the extra mile.

“I said let’s take it to the next level,” he said. “Let’s have a float with a net behind the float and have people dinking during the entire route.”

Construction of the float took about three weeks in the driveway of a friend who had a trailer. Several volunteers helped put it together, including several non-picklers such as the daughter of one of Neflas’ fellow players.

“What I try to promote at our courts in Covina, Hollenbeck Park, is that no matter who comes to the court or who is watching, say hello to them. Ask them if they want to try out this court? We’ve got a paddle you can borrow and would be more than glad to help you,” Neflas said. “That’s always been my passion, is to get people to play sports in general and then pickleball, it just took it to the next level. It was just that friendly sport where anybody can play no matter their background. I just enjoy promoting it and getting people to play it.”

About three months ago, he and several of his fellow picklers started giving weekly clinics at their local courts to beginners, a great way to give pickleball newcomers a proper introduction to the sport by showing them the basics.

Neflas and his friends did those clinics, which lasted for about an hour and attracted about a dozen newcomers per clinic, for about six weeks before recently shifting the clinics to once per month.

And as it is for many, pickleball is a family affair for him as his sons, niece, sister, brother-in-law and many people he knows in Covina all play. He is also currently helping someone looking to start a youth sports program in a local school district secure a grant.

“I love it when people play sports and, more than anything else, I love bringing people to a sport,” Neflas said. “It’s a very healthy lifestyle when you’re able to play some sort of activity, whether pickleball, tennis, or something else.

“The difference between tennis and pickleball is that in tennis you have to coordinate with a lot of people to go play, whereas in pickleball you walk onto a court and you’re playing within five to 10 minutes,” he added. “That was the beauty of it. In general terms, the pickleball community is very socially welcoming. That’s what I love about it.”

Stephen Hunt is an accomplished freelance writer and sports statistician who has been blessed to cover a multitude of subjects and sports in his time. He is a freelance contributor to USA Pickleball on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.

<p>The post Award-Winning Float in Covina Christmas Parade Dedicated to Pickleball first appeared on USA Pickleball.</p>