Pickleball tourney slated for weekend
Pickleball players from across the country will make their way to Hot Springs this weekend to compete in the sport’s largest regional tournament.
The Mid-America Indoor Pickleball Championships, sponsored by Pro-Lite Sports, will be held from Friday to Sunday in the Bank of the Ozarks Arena and Hall D of the Hot Springs Convention Center. The event will be the largest pickleball tournament held in the six-state region of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Mississippi.
“Already in the first year, we’ve set a record,” said Jim McPherson, a Hot Springs Village resident who organized the tournament with his wife, Sandy.
Pickleball is played with a paddle and a plastic ball on a badminton-sized court and incorporates elements of tennis, badminton and Ping-Pong. According to a tournament news release, pickleball is “a great spectator sport” and “a fun-filled way to get exercise,” with matches that feature nonstop action that lasts longer than other paddle sports.
McPherson said that he and his wife have been organizing indoor sport tournaments for decades, back to racquetball tournaments in the early 1970s. He said that his dream of holding a regional pickleball tournament in the arena is not a new one.
“We’ve just always had a passion for doing tournaments, and the dream started several years ago, actually, in regard to the arena, the Bank of the Ozarks arena, and we’ve been kicking it around for a long time,” McPherson said. “We just wanted to bring a big national-type tournament to this area, and felt like that was an excellent venue to be able to do it from.”
According to the news release, the tournament will be held from noon to 5 p.m. Friday and 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. It will feature a total of 275 players, ages 19-80, from 23 states, and more than 600 matches that will be held on 19 different courts in the facilities.
Though the tournament mostly features age-specific teams, McPherson said it will include 10 “open member” teams comprised of players of all ages. Those teams, he said, are at the 5.0 level, which is the highest skill level in pickleball.
McPherson said he hopes that this year’s tournament will “put Arkansas on the national map” and draw the attention of the USA Pickleball Association. He said that the name of the tournament was picked to promote the idea that Arkansas is an ideal location for such an event.
“By the name ‘Mid-America,’ we’re trying to emphasize that, geographically, this is a good place to have a tournament, because we are kind of in the center of the United States,” McPherson said.
McPherson also said he expects to make the tournament an annual event, drawing an increasing number of participants each year. The goal, he said, is not only for the sake of the game, but for Garland County, as well.
“My expectation for next year is to have over 500 players here, and eventually 1,000,” McPherson said. “We want to take over the whole convention center and arena, fill it all with pickleball players so that we can get all the courts in there and accommodate 1,000 players from all over the nation. That will make a huge economic impact on this community.”
As for this year’s tournament, McPherson is excited to see his efforts yield a final product.
“It’s been a long, hard road, but it’s been rewarding,” McPherson said. “We’re really looking forward to a great tourney.”