Dear APPL Players,

Most of the emails you receive from us come from Team APPL. This one is a little different because I wanted to write to you personally. My name is Alexa Erjavic, and I serve as the Presiding Director of APPL’s Board of Directors. Like many of you, I’m also an APPL player. And there is one problem I’ve watched for several years that has bothered me enough that I decided to try to do something about it.

Several years ago, the single biggest concern we heard from players was sandbagging and unfair competition. We implemented the APPL Index to address it, and today our flights are much more competitive, with players generally competing at the skill level where they belong. But solving that problem created another one.

Every season, players’ ratings change. That’s exactly what a rating system is supposed to do. But when someone’s APPL Index moves above—or sometimes below—the level of their current team, they can suddenly find themselves looking for a new place to play. For players who already know lots of people in APPL, that may not be a big hurdle. For others, it can be incredibly difficult. And every year, we lose hundreds of players because they simply can’t find another team. That bothers me deeply.

These are people who want to play. They may be the right age, skill and gender for a team that needs another player just a few miles away—but neither knows the other exists. So, this summer, I set out to see if we could change that.

Introducing APPL Free Agents

I spent much of this summer working on a new, free app called APPL Free Agents, designed specifically to help APPL players find one another. The idea is simple: instead of putting your name on a list and hoping the right captain happens to see it, the app lets you find and connect directly with other players based on the things that actually matter when forming an APPL team—skill level, age division, gender, region, availability and even the local courts where you like to play.

Players looking for teams can find other compatible players. Existing teams can find players to fill open roster spots. And several Free Agents who discover one another may decide to form an entirely new team. That’s what I hope happens.

But for APPL Free Agents to really solve this problem, we need your help reaching the players who aren’t part of APPL yet. Over the next month, when you’re out playing pickleball, I hope you’ll ask some of the people you meet a simple question: “Have you heard of APPL, and would you be interested in playing team pickleball?”

If the answer is yes, point them to ArizonaPickleballPlayersLeague.org and Get Started > Welcome. It explains how APPL works and what they need to know to get started. If they already know about APPL, and are simply looking for a team, they can search “APPL Free Agents” in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, or find the download links at Get Started > Free Agent Marketplace.

Think about how many new players we could introduce to APPL if each of us had just a few of those conversations. And if your own team needs another player—or you find yourself looking for a new team someday—the Free Agents community will be there for you too.

APPL has grown because thousands of players have built connections with one another. My hope is that APPL Free Agents makes it a little easier to create the next one. I put a lot of my summer—and a lot of myself—into building this because I believe we shouldn’t lose people who still want to play simply because they don’t know the right people yet.

I hope you’ll help us make it work.

See you on the courts,

Alexa Erjavic
Presiding Director
Arizona Pickleball Players League (APPL)