FROM THE USAPA
summer months. This is the third year in a row that the Senior
Center has hosted a fun pickleball tournament for its members.
The nonprofit Traverse Area Pickleball Association (TAPA),
founded in 2014 to organize players and promote pickleball
in the northern Michigan area, in partnership with the Grand
Traverse Bay YMCA have been the other driving force in the
rapid growth of the sport in the Traverse City area. Through
joint fundraising efforts by the two, the Grand Traverse Bay
YMCA South now offers six beautiful dedicated pickleball
courts plus four courts shared with basketball for a total of
10 indoor pickleball courts for the YMCA’s more than 200
pickleball playing members. This September will mark the
fifth year that TAPA and the Grand Traverse Bay YMCA
have partnered in hosting the Great Lakes Open pickleball
tournament. The tournament has grown into one of the
premier tournaments in the Midwest with this year’s number
of registered players reaching 225. Players are coming from
as far away as Ontario, Canada; Florida; and Kansas to play in
the three-day tournament. As tournament co-director I saw a
threefold increase in the number of players between the ages of
19-39. We have also seen a significant increase in the number
of 3.0 and 3.5 rated players entering this year’s tournament,
with many of them making the Great Lakes Open their first
pickleball tournament. It’s great to see so many young new
players dipping their feet into the pickleball tournament
waters. It’s a testament of how the sport is starting to reach
the next generation of recreational and national championship
players.
So in conclusion it looks like, between the Grand Traverse Bay
YMCA, TAPA, the Traverse City Senior Center and surrounding
small communities, there are well over 500 active pickleball
players in the Traverse City area. It sure looks like pickleball is
alive, well and growing by leaps and bounds in the Traverse City
area, the presumptive home of pickleball in the great state of
Michigan. For more information visit www.tcpickle.com. •
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