Shining Light on the Pickleball Tournament of Champions
From August 21-24 the Pickleball Tournament of Champions shall commence once again in Brigham City, Utah.
What is pickleball?
You’ve probably heard the name mentioned, but, if this is your first time hearing it, pickleball is one of the most popular and fastest growing sports in the nation. According to according to USA Pickleball Association (USAPA), pickleball has grown by an astounding 650% in the past half-dozen years.
Tournament Director Kevin Klein gives IMPACT some insight into the wild world of pickleball:
Tell us about the tournament. What’s the impact of this event on your community in general?
The Tournament of Champions started in 2013 in Ogden, Utah. In 2016 the Brigham City Utah and John Gullo teamed up to expand the tournament; adding more courts and increasing the number of players attending the event. The tournament was created by John Gullo as the first pickleball tournament to have a prize pool. Today, other than the National Championships it is still the largest prize pool with approximately $53,000 to be paid out to the winners this year. The tournament brings the top 100 players from around the country to Brigham City the 3rd week in August – the 21st to the 24th. This year the tournament will host around 600 players and next year with further court expansion the player count will likely be around 800. We expect to have around 2000 spectators attend the event. The event is equal to Wimbledon relative to tennis, the community feels the impact for weeks before and after as many people from outside the area come to the area for the event and to enjoy the outdoor activities found around the area.
Tell us about the people we’ll see at the Pickleball Tournament of Champions.
The tournament will have players as young as 9 and as old as 80. We will have about 600 players. While the sport is traditionally played by the 50+ population in the last 5 years there has been a huge surge in players in the 20’s and 30’s. The local area just hosted a juniors only tournament and 87 youth participated, this tournament will feature around 20 players under 18. Pickleball is unique in that you often see young players playing with older players and you never know who will come out on top. The social nature of the sport is a draw for people from all walks of life.
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So what does pickleball have to do with IMPACT Melanoma?
Well, for one, it’s an outdoor sport, and as such, it’s imperative to be mindful of the sun’s harmful UV rays that your subjected to when you step on to an outdoor court in Utah, or anywhere in the world.
The other interesting piece of the equation here, and why we’ll have some exposure (no pun intended) at this year’s Pickleball Tournament of Champions is because Utah, as it stands, is the #1 State in the country as far as melanoma diagnosis’s go. So, the Utah Recreation and Parks Association (URPA) is helping to create awareness by bringing two IMPACT Melanoma dispensers to the event for athletes and spectators to take advantage of (and we’re also shipping out our famous UV bracelets for everyone to take home – while supplies last, of course!)
How did we connect the dots?
Meet Linda Weeks, Health and Wellness Representative, and City Gym Manager for neighboring town, Farmington, Utah.
Linda, how’d you get involved with IMPACT Melanoma and the initiative to create safe skin practices in Utah, and, in particular, at the Pickleball Tournament of Champions?
I was asked to be part of the Sun Safety Initiative through URPA because of my position as the Health and Wellness representative. We are hoping that URPA can get the word out that Utah State is #1 in Melanoma cancer in the US and we need to start doing some educating. To start off I reached out to my pickleball community with a quick survey. From the results of the poll I came to the realization that a majority of the pickleball community (about 276 answered my survey within those 2 days) did not realize that melanoma skin cancer was such a concern in our state, and further, that most of them had not had a skin screening and were pretty lax on taking precautions overall.
What led you to reach out?
With this information I started my quest to start doing something. Initially I came up with a logo, Love the Outdoors-Love your Skin and reached out to IMPACT Melanoma for the sunscreen dispensers. We hope to be able to encourage our community to go to our URPA site for sun safety facts and options. We would like to see these sunscreen dispensers throughout the state, and we would like to see the recreation departments for each city start to put the Love the Outdoors- Love your Skin emblem on children’s recreation jerseys for soccer, baseball, flag football, etc… We feel this is doable with the encouragement through URPA. Huntsman Cancer has also been helpful in giving us information on sun safety concerns. As different cities go to the URPA site they can get literature on sun safety that can educate coaches, staff and participants.
What’s your personal battle cry when it comes to the usage of sunscreen?
The assistance that I have received from IMPACT thus far plus the product has been extremely helpful. We are at the grassroots here but are pleased with our beginnings.
Do you have any applicable sponsors you’d like to call out with regards to the sunscreen dispensers?
Personally I realize the importance, but it’s slow going for me. Sunscreen usage is up, I wear long sleeve shirts when I play outdoors, and I reapply sunscreen every two hours. Having the dispensers there as a visual reminder is huge in my mind; a constant reminder to reapply and be smart. The sponsor for this whole sunscreen initiative is URPA with the help of Executive Director LeeAnn Powell.
This is a start for us and just having a working visual (dispensers) is extremely helpful!
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We’ll see you all in Brigham City August 21-24. Slather on that sunscreen and don’t forget to stretch!
Curious about our programs and the prospect of bringing IMPACT Melanoma into your community? Contact us today. We’re friendly, and we’d love to hear about how we can make an impact together!
