NCPA 2024 National Championships Outshine Always 72' & Sunny San Diego

0:00 hi everybody I'm CC tresa with the 0:02 tundra news and today we at the National 0:03 Collegiate pickle ball Association in 0:05 Sunny San Diego 0:12 [Music] 0:13 California 0:16 [Music] 0:19 woo let's 0:28 go my name is no sumnik I'm the CEO of 0:31 the National Collegiate pickle ball 0:33 Association the 0:34 ncpa and really our goal here is to 0:37 create an environment where uh college 0:39 kids can come play Pickleball and it 0:41 serves as an athletic sport we are 0:43 running a Collegiate tour so that so 0:46 this is our national tournament this uh 0:47 for this year Regional championships are 0:49 going to start September through 0:51 November of this year to qualify for 0:54 next year and we have five of those we 0:55 have a total of 33 colleges um and over 0:58 220 players the University of Arizona College Pickleball 1:00 pickle ball Collegiate team everybody 1:02 say hey woo San Diego State LMU Lions 1:06 the University of Kansas Arizona State 1:09 Seattle universities pepperon 1:10 universities USC USD Duke universities 1:13 Colorado school mines Grand Canyon 1:15 universities uva's Stanford University 1:18 UCF go nights the University of 1:20 Washington Huskies pickle ball 1:23 [Applause] 1:25 teamies the biggest thing with pickle 1:27 ball is your grandmother could play your 1:30 kid could play college kids can play it 1:32 really goes across every age demographic 1:34 so everyone can pick it up at any time 1:37 but it really it provides that Community 1:39 aspect where you can play with your 1:41 family and it not be crazy competitive 1:45 and you can just play a casual game have 1:47 a good time so yeah in the college space 1:49 we haven't really seen structure um and 1:51 there's a huge margin for growth in the 1:53 the college space for pickle ball 1:54 specifically today we got some fun 1:56 sibling rivalry going on hi I'm David 1:58 I'm from UVA I'm 21 and I'm here playing 2:01 pickle ball at the ncpa Nationals uh I'm 2:04 from Utah Tech my name is Logan and I'm 2:06 20 uh Logan hides his speed UPS really 2:09 well so when I'm playing straight up 2:10 from him uh sometimes I'll have my 2:12 paddle where I shouldn't be and then 2:13 just take a pickle ball to the chest 2:15 yeah I think his backend dinks are just 2:17 like pure like he doesn't miss something 2:19 it's like dude just all the time and I'm 2:21 like got to go a little bit different 2:23 inside foot something different he just 2:24 slices super good backhand dinks well uh 2:27 I'm feeling great the weather's great 2:29 it's nice great environment the energy 2:30 is amazing you can really feel the 2:32 competitiveness here so people from all 2:35 schools just sitting there in their free 2:37 time cheering cheering on or just 2:38 spectating it's awesome it's been a 2:40 blast the cheering has probably been one 2:42 of the best parts we got the loudest 2:43 team here I think a lot of is just 2:45 compassion and just how open and 2:47 accepting everyone is especially with 2:49 the sports so new I mean relatively the 2:51 oldest people that you see playing it 2:52 haven't even been playing it for that 2:54 long it's been really great I've really NCPA 2024 2:56 had a good time I mean any excuse to 2:58 come out and play some bck ball I'm I'm 3:00 there this year 2024 is going to be huge 3:03 for the growth of the sport in the 3:04 college space and that's really what 3:06 we're trying to do is not only sell cuz 3:09 the kids are all in on this but we're 3:11 investing into production that's a huge 3:12 thing for people to look in and really 3:14 say hey I love pickle ball because of 3:17 the Collegiate rivalry aspect as well 3:19 which I think is a huge sell not only 3:21 are they going to love to watch it 3:22 they're going to love to play it the 3:24 colleges in turn they're like okay we're 3:26 going to recognize this at our 3:28 University as an athletic Sport and 3:31 that's when the funding comes in that's 3:33 when um these kids are really supported 3:35 and able to you know play and have a 3:37 good time at the sport they love what 3:39 song do you guys play when you're trying 3:40 to get ready for a match you're trying 3:41 to like pump yourselves up you want to 3:43 win that match what song is your go-to 3:45 JS by LMFAO God's plan Can't Hold Us by 3:49 mamore we go classical music some good 3:51 piano relax counting worms by knocked 3:55 loose biggest thing why this is the 3:57 largest Collegiate um pickle ball event 3:59 today 4:00 uh we have heavily invested um our 4:03 funding into helping these kids come out 4:05 so a lot of them they' played in other 4:07 competitions whether that's college or 4:09 just amateur events and they're putting 4:11 up 500 a piece just to go out there and 4:13 me having graduated from point L about 8 4:15 months ago finances are tough and it's a 4:18 burden I've had multiple conversations 4:20 with the kids just how much they 4:22 appreciate it and it's a weight lifted 4:23 off their shoulder so they leave here 4:26 today with no financial burden whether 4:28 their University supported them or not 4:30 that's really what we want is to first 4:32 and foremost have the kids have that 4:34 great experience have them leave wanting 4:37 more wanting to come back out and 4:38 compete and that in turn is going to 4:40 grow the sport substantially more than 4:43 what we've seen just the most amount of 4:45 Pig wall courts that I've ever seen in 4:46 my life I honestly did not think that 4:48 there were this many ever excited to be 4:49 out here traveling playing pickle ball 4:51 yeah it's definitely really cool to see Pickle Scene 4:52 like all the colleges come together like 4:54 people traveling from like everywhere 4:56 and yeah the pickle scene is great it's 4:57 really fun the pickle scene well this is 4:59 my first tournament so the bar has been 5:01 set like super high but it's amazing I 5:05 mean there's so many courts you can just 5:06 go on and play without having to wait in 5:08 the line it's just awesome what we want 5:10 to create cuz we have division one and 5:11 division 2 here so division one that 5:13 just means it's the highest level 5:15 doesn't mean they have to be D1 uh for 5:17 division 2 it's open so because we have 5:20 have provided both of those spaces for 5:22 players the best players can come out 5:25 and the players that aren't you know 5:27 necessarily the best at their University 5:28 but they love pick and want to come out 5:30 and have a good time there are kids that 5:32 aren't doing well in this tournament on 5:34 paper but they are having the most fun 5:36 out of all of these universities and 5:37 that's I think that's the beauty of the 5:39 environment we provide there's that you 5:42 know sanctioned um athletic College side 5:46 but there's also the more like fun 5:49 Community side where it's competitive 5:51 but it's still it's all about the 5:52 experience that we're trying to 5:53 encapsulate with these kids we just yeah Interviews 5:55 we we love playing pickleball for fun so 5:58 that's the main reason we came out here 5:59 like we just started playing not too 6:01 long ago and we've been practicing like 6:03 non-stop every day and we just really 6:04 enjoy playing well we just like um kind 6:07 of the the way the atmosphere has been 6:08 set up with with Noah and we we didn't 6:10 really know much about um his spiritual 6:14 presence but I mean it was great to hear 6:16 him pray before we have we have the 6:18 Bible verse on the tent so it's really 6:20 great to have that I don't consider 6:21 myself a super religious person but of 6:24 course it's really nice to see that this 6:26 came with good intention and everything 6:28 and I feel like it connects a lot of the 6:29 people playing here like uh Michael and 6:31 I were standing at the top of the by the 6:33 Center Court and we thought the we 6:34 thought the director was going to sing 6:35 the national anthem and he just uh he 6:37 started saying a prayer so we thought it 6:39 was a a cool touch to add to a 6:41 tournament so I think it's great when 6:43 people uh practice that and use that for 6:46 themselves but I I enjoyed the community 6:48 environment for this right that's 6:50 something that it's built on is like 6:51 it's nice to be able to meet other 6:54 people that play pickle ball from other 6:55 universities and connect with them and 6:57 like be able to learn and grow off of 6:59 like what they have going on so that's 7:00 that's really what I like for me my 7:02 faith and values are very important to 7:04 me uh that's what the ncpa is built off 7:06 of and with pickle ball the community 7:09 aspect bringing a lot of people together 7:12 faith and that and pickle ball aligns 7:14 perfectly so um like you see here I mean 7:17 we're able to bring people together with 7:19 those faith and Val uh values rooted in 7:21 that so that's really what's special 7:23 about the the alignment between the two 7:24 you know we're all friends first and we 7:26 all started at a point and we all get 7:27 each other to that next point so I think 7:29 that's that's probably the compassion 7:30 the welcomeness the openness is what 7:32 really aligns yeah this undertone of uh 7:34 common Faith really you can just see 7:36 that everyone is happy there's just so 7:38 many people that are just smiling and 7:40 playing and there's not that many people 7:41 that are like getting mad or you know 7:44 not having a great time and that's I 7:45 think that that comes down a lot to the 7:47 spiritual undertone of the event pickle 7:48 ball has become almost like a cult I 7:50 mean it's every the the amount of growth 7:53 that we've seen in the past couple years 7:55 it's you know you look at like I said 7:57 the the young players you look at older 7:59 players and everything in between it's 8:02 it's like a a religious just everyone's 8:05 just they make it their day-to-day thing 8:07 and again that's what's beautiful about 8:08 it it's caught wind um and everyone's 8:11 buying into it the pickle ball train is 8:13 moving whether you like it or not 8:15 especially to the tennis crowd I mean 8:16 pickle ball is the next big thing it has 8:19 been it will be even bigger especially 8:21 in the college space so that's an 8:23 inevitable and I'm looking forward to 8:27 it 8:28