The National Collegiate Pickleball Association kicked off its inaugural national championship competition over the weekend of March 15-17.
The Hub in Spring Valley, California, hosted the event, which allowed the Aztec Pickleball Club to get a taste of high-level competition right in its backyard.
The event is the biggest the club has participated in since its founding in 2022. The national championship is the first of its kind, as the NCPA looked to give out a total of $30,000 in prize money by the end of the weekend – a large reward for the big leap in the sport of pickleball.
Club founder Kellen Brown oversees the logistics and marketing of Aztec Pickleball and played an active role in the club’s support group at this weekend’s national championship.
“We’ve met a lot of amazing people here,” Brown said. “We have transcended cultures and really came together as one, as Bob Marley would say.”
Pickleball is arguably the fastest-growing sport in the world at the moment. People are spending more time and investing their money into equipment, courts and clubs.
“I always tell people that pickleball is about being social and having an enjoyable time while being able to get a workout because you can talk to your buddy across the net while you’re warming up and playing,” Brown said. “That’s something you can’t do while you play tennis, and you can still get just as good of a workout while playing pickleball compared to tennis.”
Aztec Pickleball president Zach Tone was lucky enough to step out on the court and play this weekend, representing SDSU loud and proud.
“There is some great competition here… people coming from across the country and all of them are just really good pickleball players,” Tone said. “I’ve unfortunately lost most of my games, but you know what? We’re keeping a good attitude and I love being out here.”
At the end of day one of the competition, the Aztecs sat at 19th place out of 30 teams with 30 total points. The end of day two brought SDSU up a spot to 18th with 60 total points in the tournament.
Day three started to look up for the Aztec Pickleball Club. The DI mixed doubles group made it to the quarterfinals, composed of Shane Graff, Matthew Francis, Emily Miller and Natsune Tokumi, but fell short of the win.
However, the result is far greater than anything the club could have imagined. The spring 2024 semester was a big one for the Aztec pickleballers, seeing exponential growth on and off the court from last year.
“We didn’t have too many active members (first semester), but now I feel like we’ve almost doubled our active members and everyone’s having a good time – win or lose, and we’ve actually won a few games too,” Tone said.
After a long weekend at the NCPA’s first national tournament, the Aztec Pickleball Club is back at it holding practices every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 6 p.m. in the Aztec Recreation Center.
For more information on the club, visit their LinkTree.