Image credit: CFJC Today/Anthony Corea

By Marty Hastings

ON THE COURT

Record-setting number of participants expected at Kamloops Open Pickleball Tournament

May 26, 2025 | 4:50 PM

KAMLOOPS — Some of the players serving, dinking, volleying and smashing on Monday (May 26) morning were polishing their games ahead of the Comazzetto Group Kamloops Open Pickleball Tournament, which is scheduled to run this Friday to Sunday at Riverside Park.

The 2025 iteration of the tourney – hosted by the Kamloops Pickleball Club (KPC) — is expected to feature a record-setting 400 participants, with entrants from B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Montana, according to an event press release.

“Pickleball is exploding,” tournament director Wilma Steinke said after her game wrapped up on Monday.

“It’s a very social game and it’s easy to pick up. You can come down to the courts and find people to play. You don’t have to have pre-arranged games. It’s easy on the body physically.”

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Tournament founder Ross Perkin offered ‘Coles Notes’ on Kamloops Open history, noting 60 players took part in the inaugural event inside a school gymnasium.

“I’ve just been really happy to see the growth of this sport since the beginning,” Perkin said.

“It is such an easy sport to play, so people come in that have played racket sports and they generally are pretty good right from the beginning. But even people that have never played any racket sport before… my wife is over there right now. She had never done the sport in her life. She plays three or four days a week and absolutely loves it.”

The tournament moved to McDonald Park before finding its home at Riverside Park, which includes 10 dedicated pickleball courts.

Six makeshift courts on nearby tennis courts will also be used this weekend.

“We’ve been working with the city for quite a while to get more courts and they’ve been in talks with us,” said Steinke, noting the KPC has about 600 paid members. “We would like to have 25 courts in one spot so we can hold provincial tournaments. Right now, we can’t. It’s too small. Sixteen is not enough courts.”

The most competitive players in the Kamloops Open — those toiling in the 5.0-skill-level divisions – will be playing for money this year, with the tournament adding a prize purse for the first time.

“It started off as maybe a lot of 60-year-olds,” Steinke said. “We’d all retired and started playing. Now it’s changing very rapidly. It’s a much younger demographic. Under-30s are are just exploding in the tournament, as well as just coming down in the evenings to play.”

Athletes ranging in age from 13 to 79 have signed up to play this year, according to the release.

Women’s doubles and men’s singles are scheduled for Friday, mixed doubles for Saturday and men’s doubles and women’s singles for Sunday.

“Come down and watch and see what pickleball is all about and catch the excitement,” Steinke said. “We’ve got lots of vendors that are going to be here. We have lots of sponsors and you can watch some really good pickleball.”