The Naperville Neighborhood Pickleball Championship started its inaugural eight-week tournament and wrapped up the stretch with its first championship on Friday, December 20th, at The Picklr in Naperville.
“NNPC is an acronym for Naperville Neighborhood Pickleball Championship. The whole plan is to get people who love to play pickleball or would like to try out a new sport together,” said Naperville Neighborhood Pickleball Championship organizer Sid Harshavat.
Teaming up with the Picklr
The thirty-two-team tournament featured over one hundred participants from twelve Naperville neighborhoods playing the game while socializing with other competitors. Interest from the community grew rapidly from the early stages of the NNPC.
“Many of the people kind of know each other through their kids in swimming. So we had eight parts. Having eight different, neighborhoods playing against each other for eight weeks. So the top four of each league, and each board are playing the championship today,” said Harshavat.
“We made a deal with the Picklr facility thinking we would have 12-14 people but it turns out we did something good and now we have over 100 people,” said Harshavat.
Connecting neighbors of all experience levels
Many players were new or familiar with the sport, as pickleball continues to expand at a rapid pace in the Naperville area and across the country.
“I also play tennis, and so my tennis coach, Meredith, told us about this pickleball league, and I was really interested. So I signed up soon after I found out about it.” said Pickleball participant Mandy Loh.
“I just love getting to meet different people from different walks of life and get to meet them, know them, play, and have fun. Everyone was nice and friendly and it was fun,” said Loh.
Bright future for the Naperville Neighborhood Pickleball Championship
Naperville City Councilman Benny White was on hand to award the finalists for their efforts. Prashant and Anish Basety won this year’s tournament championship, but this is only the beginning of an exciting future for NNPC with a new tournament starting on January 4th.
“We are going to expand into three groups. The first group will remain the same, the community. The second one is in conjunction with Neuqua Valley High School, and middle schools, students versus teachers. The third will be families so three individual leagues will be happening that will combine into one final,” said Harshavat.
