BAPA held an unusual pickleball tournament in early September. It was designed to encourage players from different age groups to partner-up. In fact, teams with the biggest spread in age had a distinct advantage in winning the tournament.
Eight teams had great fun and competition playing each other during the Round Robin portion. Ray Wolverton and Janessa Pope won all their games and earned 77 points, BUT their score was reduced by their age gap of a mere 37 years and thus finished the Round Robin in 2nd place. Finishing 1st in the Round Robin, with an age differential of 50 years, were Darwin Pugmire and his granddaughter Randi Wilson. Also making the playoffs were Jonathan Carroll and Ethan Carroll (33 year difference) and Rodger Shaver & Levi Iverson (a whopping 57 year difference in age).
Our top four teams then played a single-elimination bracket with a consolation game for 3rd place. They had 15 points to see if their skills were good enough beat the ‘dreaded spread’ of their opponents’ age gap.
Congratulations to Ray and Janessa who beat the 50-year spread of Darwin and Randi in the Gold medal match. In the Bronze medal match, Jonathon and Ethan won the game 15-9. But Rodger and Levi’s age differential of 57 years gave them the edge, and they won the Bronze medal with an adjusted game score of 4.95-5.13
Thanks to all of our teams for making the day so fun. And thanks to Nancy Christensen for tallying the scores and helping with the tournament.