The Annual Oceanside Pickleball Tournament is slated to take place this week on May 24-25.
The two-day tournament hosted by OPC Pickleball Club will be held indoors at Oceanside Arena with games starting at 8:30 a.m. It’s is sponsored and run under the auspices of the Regional District of Nanaimo’s Parks and Recreation.
There will be 36 teams that will be competing each day. The first day will be men’s and women’s doubles and the second day will be the mixed doubles.
Spokesperson for the club Ernie Pallot said that the tournament has become a popular one on Vancouver Island and is always well attended.
“When people were informed about the tournament through the different associations on the Island, the spots quickly filled up,” said Pallot. “There’s teams on the wait list on each of the events.”
The teams will be coming from Victoria all the way up to Campbell River as well as from Port Alberni. The players’ average age for the men is 66 years old, the ladies 63 years old and in the mixed events 63 years old.
“The level of play is intermediate to advance,” said Pallot. “There will be some good matches throughout the tournament.”
The top six teams in each event advance to the A Division and the next six teams will go to the B Division and last six teams will make up the C Division. The playoff format will be a double knockout.
The mixed doubles events will consist of six round robin games with the top 12 teams going to the A Division, the next 12 to the B Division and the remaining dozen teams will go to the C Division.
“The public is invited to come and watch,” said Pallot. “There will be some very interesting players and some good teams. It’s a good spectator sport.”
Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in North America and is very popular here on the Island, said Pallot.
“In Oceanside alone, I think there are over 250 people that play pickleball,” said Pallot. “We are working on a 12 court pickleball complex and we’re hoping it would happen next year.”
Anyone wishing to volunteer at the tournament can contact Tom Staite by e-mail at tdstaite@shaw.ca
