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PICKLEBALL'S
KEYSTONE
The over 700
pickleball tournaments held around the country are indicative
of the exploding growth of pickleball. Many of these tournaments
fill up within minutes. Some now use a lottery for entry. Five
years ago there were 25,000 competitors. Now there are 100,000!
Managing these
events is a monumental job. Pickleball tournaments differ from
tennis tournaments because pickleball uses a double elimination
format. It is a spiderweb of paperwork and someone has to design
it. That someone is Melissa McCurley of Hilton Head, SC.
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Melissa worked
for EDS (Electronic Data Systems) which landed the largest IT
outsourcing agreement in the world at the time (2000). EDS was
responsible for building the Navy and Marine Corps Common Office
Environment. Melissa was an account manager responsible for the
building and implementation of the code for five Echelon II and
Echelon III Commands.
In 2014, Melissa
and her brother bought Pickleballtournaments.com with a vision
to help tournament directors be successful. This is still their
goal. "When a tournament director is successful, we are
successful, players are happy and the foundation for growth is
put into place," she said. Pickleballtournaments.com now
runs 150 tournaments a year.
"Because
of the tremendous growth in pickleball tournaments and the number
of players competing in them, we went through a merger and acquisition
of our business with Pickleball Central in February of 2018.
I remained President of Pickleballtournaments.com as part of
that merger and acquisition," she explained. |
Exactly what
does pt.com (that is how the players refer to the site) do for
tournaments? Melissa outlined the following:
1. We provide online software to tournament directors that provides
them a tool to handle online registrations, brackets, schedule
and on-site management of check-in, score entry and court assignments.
Our tool allows for hundreds of matches to be run and we run
the big ones like the US Open, USAPA Nationals, National Senior
Games, Huntsman World Senior Games, USAPA Regionals, just to
name a few.
2. I consult
with new tournament directors, seasoned tournament directors,
or players on a daily basis.
3. I work with
my colleagues on new initiatives, processes, procedures, and
improvements as it relates to everything pickleballtournamentscom.
4. Tournament
directors can hire our services to manage their registrations,
brackets, schedules and come in site with all of our equipment
to manage their brackets as well as overall flow at a tournament.
This keeps me very busy handling 22+ tournaments a year! I also
have teams of people around the country who provide this kind
of support to tournament directors as well.
5. We are an
"insurance policy" to tournament directors. Tournament
directors should not be tournament operators. Directors have
too many responsibilities. As trained professionals, we manage
the desk operations in a professional manner.
Melissa has now
successfully worked with 150+ tennis directors around the country
helping them learn how to run pickleball tournaments. "They
learn how to use pickleballtournamentscom.com online registration,
bracket, scheduling and on-site running of the tournament through
the software tool very quickly," she said. "We offer
consulting, training, marketing, social media campaigns, clinics,
camps, on-site store and full outsource services to help them."
Melissa has a reach into nearly 200,000 pickleball households
as well as 15 years of experience in the business.
Tennis professionals
may avail themselves of customer support by contacting Melissa
at melissa@pickleballtournaments.com or via phone at 602 284-2678.
What draws Melissa
to pickleball? She states that "pickleball is social, it
is like family and no matter where you go in the world it is
the same." She believes that pickleball changes lives, saves
lives and creates a healthy environment for people. Melissa states,
"It is a sport that fosters inclusiveness and welcomes people
from all walks of life."
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