The biggest pickleball tournament in the history of the sport is now in the record books… USAPA Nationals VI has ended and there is lots to talk about. Seven action-packed days of competition which started at 8am and included a day that went to 10pm…
For the sixth year in a row, the setting was again Buckeye, AZ at a Del Webb community – Sun City Festival.
- The lay of the land included one huge vendor tent and 28 courts, accommodating about 730 players (2,000+ matches).
- The players were aged 8 to over 80 years old! That is amazing in itself…
- Players came from all over the US and Canada to compete for a Nationals medal.
- Each player could play up to 6 events (Age Doubles, Age Mixed Doubles, Age Singles, Open Doubles, Open Mixed Doubles, Open Singles and/or Open/Senior Doubles, Open/Senior Mixed Doubles, Open/Senior Singles). Senior is a player 50 years or older within the same calendar year as the event.
- The Open and Open Senior Open divisions offered cash prize money: $500/$250/$125 per player, per event.
- In 2015, Nationals will be moved to Casa Grande, AZ which is about 45 minutes south of the Phoenix airport.
My personal highlight was winning Gold for the FOURTH YEAR IN A ROW in Open Doubles with one of my best friends – Alex Hamner.
I do want to share with you the following from another fellow passionate, pickleball player and friend – Doug Koch aka “The Pickleball Pimp”. He has created the following award and put together this year’s medal count.
Newcomer of the Year Award (1st Time Nationals Participants that made the Biggest Splash):
2012: Matthew Blom, Adina Jones
2013: Wesley Gabrielsen, Jessica LeMire
2014: Daniel Moore, Joy Leising
2014 USAPA Pickleball Nationals VI Medal Count
Congratulations to the following 179 Nationals medal winners:
Thanks to Doug Koch for compiling the list. My only quibble might be that an achievement like Matt Staub’s–beating his own dad and Phil Bagley (!) and then winning silver playing against Enrique Ruiz and Wes Grabrielsen, plus earning another silver (with Mona Barrett, I believe)–is an achievement that transcends mere medal number count.
Oh well, I do wish the press covered this wonderful sport more intensely to contextualize the stories. If they did, you and Alex would be on the cover of every Wheaties box in America!
hi guys.. cannot agree with ranking like this… eg Joy had 4 medals and way down on list .. others got one point for any medal… just saying…
Hello Peter, great observation and yes Joy rocked it with 4 medals! The author of the chart organized the listing with Gold count first, then Silver and ended with Bronze. This data could be arranged in a variety of ways. I am glad to even have a chart to display for the purpose was to be able to list ALL the names of those that achieved a Nationals Medal.