FAMILY PROFILE
A Family That Plays Together,
STAYS TOGETHER
I
t would be hard to miss the Mathison
family playing in a tournament. The
first giveaway would be the matching
shirts, which they all wear to show
their solidarity. The second giveaway
would be the number of those shirts
you’d see – 18 in all.
But their enthusiasm for the game
just goes to show how viral pickleball
can be.
“It started with my older brother,
Dayson, about two years ago,”
explained Cami Mathison. “He
introduced pickleball to us—we’re all tennis players. We
played for about a year and thought, ‘Why not get the
whole family involved?’ So, we went up to the church gym
and introduced everybody to pickleball.”
With keys to the gym, and the church being just a five-
minute drive away, in the heart of Kalispell, Montana, the
Mathisons’ practice routine is comprised of a few group
texts and then meeting to set up the nets.
“More often than not, we’ll get half of us, if not more,”
Mathison said. “Some of us play every day. We have
everybody about three times a week.”
“Everybody” includes Cami, her siblings, their spouses
and children, and her parents. The family started
competing in tournaments in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho,
just over the state line and has made that an annual
family tournament because of its easy logistics for 18
90
people. Other tournaments, like the Indoor National
Championships in Centralia, Washington, require a little
more planning.
“For Centralia, we have to plan a few months in advance.
Everybody has jobs and obligations, so we put the word
out and if they want to come, they sign up too,” Cami
explained. “My brother has an RV, so he’ll drive around
in that. And, for anything near Spokane, we can stay at
my sister’s home. Everywhere else, we need to arrange for
hotel rooms. But we like to support Selkirk, so we make the
effort to go to events they have a hand in.”
The allegiance to Selkirk, which is based in Idaho, stems
from the company’s community outreach, which had an
impact on Cami personally.
“I’m a physical education teacher and when I did my
internship in Rexburg, I taught pickleball in the classes
at different schools and followed it up with a 10-week
pickleball clinic over the summer,” she
said. “The clinic was for kids from 5 to
12 years old and we had about 16 kids.
Selkirk provided us with the paddles.”
Not only were the clinics a hit, but
the enthusiasm for the game that
Cami brought to Rexford spilled over
the community at large. The town is
currently in the process of building
four pickleball courts for community
play, which were approved earlier this
year. •
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