Utah pickleball players dominate in first national collegiate championship

Aubree B. Jennings
·3 min read

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Pickleball experts say Utah is a “hotbed” for the growth of the game, and this week local players made a national statement as Utah Tech University won the first U.S. Collegiate Championships.

“I think what we’re going to start seeing is some real stars of the game coming out of the state of Utah,” said Tom Webb, the chief marketing officer for the Association of Pickleball Players (APP).

The organization held the inaugural collegiate championship tournament in Indiana on Thursday, inviting 26 teams from colleges and universities across the nation to participate. Utah Tech players Averee Beck, Kami Bliss, Jared Brungard, and Logan Rosenbach beat the University of Florida in the finals, taking home $12,000 in scholarship funding, according to the APP.

Averee Beck, a member of the winning Utah Tech team, plays pickleball. She also received gold for the Women’s Singles and Women’s Doubles divisions at the U.S. Collegiate Championship. (Courtesy of Utah Tech University)
Averee Beck, a member of the winning Utah Tech team, plays pickleball. She also received gold for the Women’s Singles and Women’s Doubles divisions at the U.S. Collegiate Championship. (Courtesy of Utah Tech University)

In addition to the Utah Tech team victory, four out of five gold medals were awarded to Utah players as part of the individual competitions, three of which were from Utah Tech and the other from Utah Valley University.

While APP officials say they didn’t necessarily expect Utah to dominate the way they did, they said they weren’t surprised with the turnout.

Utah has been a “hotbed for the growth of the game,” Webb said.

“It’s not just that there’s a lot of people playing, there’s a lot of people who are very talented, very good at the sport who are playing in Utah,” he added. “There are an awful lot of people playing to a very high level in Utah, both up in the mountains around Salt Lake and further south in the state as well.”

Webb said the pickleball’s boom in popularity is fueled by the ease at which people can learn the game, the time at which it emerged, and the sociable atmosphere on the courts.

“I think the reason pickleball has exploded in popularity is because it’s a game you can be quite good at quite quickly. Someone described it to me as a game that it’s easy to pick up but it’s hard to master,” Webb said.

He said the friendly nature of the game also aided the growth of the sport as it emerged following the pandemic and continues to provide an “antidote” of fun in today’s world which can often appear to be increasingly divided.

This fun environment of pickleball is something the collegiate victors echoed in their sentiments after the championship games. Both Rosenbach and Beck from the winning team commented on the positive atmosphere during the championship.

“It was such a fun atmosphere, different than any other tournament I’ve played in,” Rosenbach said. “I loved having the crowd out there cheering us on. It made it more fun, especially with people from Utah there.”

Webb said it’s becoming inevitable that colleges begin to adopt the sport and provide scholarships and facilities. In the fall, Utah Tech became one of the few schools to offer scholarships for pickleball, scholarships that were given to four students, including Rosenbach and Beck.

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