On October 31st at 12:00 PM, the Student Athlete Leadership Organization Club (SALO) hosted a pickleball tournament on the Marriotts Ridge tennis courts.
The SALO club caters to student athletes who are looking to make a difference in their community through leadership and charity opportunities. The club’s mission is to provide event opportunities for athletes to have fun competing while supporting a good cause. With pickleball being the fastest growing sport in America, it caught the eye of SALO’s president, senior Rachel Harper.
The club quickly organized a tournament with eighteen teams of two signing up to play. In order to raise money, every player signing up was required to pay a ten dollar fee, in which all of the money would be donated to charity.
“The proceeds are going to the National Foundation for Cancer Research,” said Harper.
With eighteen teams signing up, the board members of SALO had to figure out how to set up a tournament that would allow all teams to play multiple times, despite possibly losing games and being eliminated from playoff contention.
Solving this dilemma, each team was placed into one of four different pools consisting of four or five teams. Every team faced off against the other teams of their respective pool, and were ranked based on their record. In order to make sure that every team had a chance to continue playing, the top teams of each pool were placed into a winners bracket while the bottom teams were placed into a losers bracket. In the playoffs, the games got heated. Teams were evenly matched so rallies were long and points hard to come by. Rounds of eliminations in the top bracket lead to a semi final between team BSL and team Brody and Boden. Team BSL snuck away with the win advancing to the championship game.
“I thought Boden and I had great chemistry but Bryce and Quinn’s was just unmatched,” said sophomore Brody Jackson
In the other semi-final teams 2 Man Killas and the Gotham Gobblers faced off hoping to advance. 2 Man Killas won the game winning 11-5 thus facing team BSL in the championship game.
In a back and forth game between the two teams, a major upset occurred as the 2 Man Killas finished off team BSL with a score of 11-9.
“Ryan and I had a talk and realized we could win if we got serious and eventually took down the favorites to win,” stated senior Kaedin Jones, a dynamic player on the 2 Man Kilas.
While seniors Bryce Pistorio and Quinn Jenkins (Team BSL) were disappointed about their poor performance in the finals, they still had a good time competing against friends.
“I think we were a little too cocky and had too much confidence, we were undefeated up until the championship and went in thinking we would easily win. Still though, we had a lot of fun,” said Pistorio.
Although not every team came out with a win, the participants of the SALO pickleball tournament enjoyed competing against one another and supporting a good cause. Many players who were new to pickleball had the chance to learn about a popular sport while those who were experienced were able to show off their skills.
The SALO club looks to put together more events throughout the school year in order to provide a good time for athletes and support the local community around Marriotts Ridge.