At its annual 2025 gala attended by more than 200 members and their guests, Pickleball Club President Carol Cerioni announced that Danny Wong was named as our club’s  2024 Volunteer of the Year Award. 

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Almost all of Rossmoor Pickleball Club members have come in contact with Danny Wong and, as a result, become a little more skilled pickleball player whether it be during level play, early morning drilling, clinics, mentoring or in a volunteer role.  Danny was born in Hong Kong and came to San Francisco when he was 10 and began public school at the Newcomer School.  His passion in his youth was Volleyball and this carried over into adulthood.  It provided him an opportunity to excel athletically as demonstrated by his traveling throughout the US and Canada participating in annual 9 man Chinese-American volleyball tournaments.  Volleyball also provided him an activity that kept him out of trouble and an opportunity to meet adults who became role models and who encouraged him to obtain a college education.  It also enabled him to develop confidence in himself as a person. As an older adult he was rated an AA player (the highest non-professional level) and participated in three Gay games (modeled after the Olympics), winning a Silver medal in Amsterdam.  I might add that his niece did the same for the US Women’s Volleyball team in the recent Paris Olympics.  After high school, he enrolled at San Francisco State where he received a BA and a teaching credential.  Part of his motivation to become a teacher was his desire to work with immigrant children and provide them a better and more fulfilling experience than he and his siblings experienced as new immigrants.  He spent the next 30 years in San Francisco Unified School District as a teacher, instructional coach, and principal.  He and his partner moved to Rossmoor in 2017.  Because of injuries, he could no longer play tennis but fortunately for all of us was introduced to Pickleball by the late Albert Chu shortly before the pandemic.  It was “love at first sight” and he became as passionate about it as he had volleyball and tennis.  As a member of the RPC, he has been an integral part of the club’s Community Outreach Committee where he spearheaded the effort to teach pickleball for 18 weeks to 6-8 graders at El Dorado Middle School and will lead the same program at Riverview MS in the spring.  He also organized teaching Pickleball to the Youth Homes foster kids and has helped out at the Family Fun Days.  For the benefit of club members, he established, headed and taught all of the Intermediate, Advanced Intermediate, and Advanced drilling sessions on both warm, chilly and downright cold mornings.  Finally, if you have ever played with or against him, he is always positive and encouraging and offering positive suggestions when asked.This year our Danny joined the Board and has already made his presence felt. Thanks to him, we are now on Facebook so you can follow us and have another way of keeping up to date on club events.He is also heading the Training Committee that is coordinating all of our club training activities.