Winners Crowned, Charity Money Raised At Second Annual Chatham Pickleball Tournament

CHATHAM – Nearly 50 pickleballers dinked and slammed their way to glory Saturday during a competition for charity held by the game’s local sporting body.

 In the end, four teams were crowned winners of their respective brackets in the second annual Picklefest Tournament, organized by Friends of Chatham Pickleball, which raised money for the Chatham Children’s Fund. 

The event was split into women’s and men’s intermediate and advanced doubles groups. Pairings were randomly drawn before all the matches at the deep blue courts off Stepping Stones Road (by Monomoy Regional Middle School) began. Competitors had to be registered to play pickleball through the Chatham Recreation Department in order to be able to sign up for the tournament.

Amy Morros and Mary Dailey won the women’s intermediate bracket. Mav Russo and Sandy Kelly, a Friends of Chatham Pickleball board member, won the women’s advanced group. Kelly, who first started playing pickleball in 2021, said she got lucky drawing Russo as a partner — a common sentiment expressed by the day’s winning pairs. 

“It’s just such great fun,” Kelly said.

Still, neither Kelly nor Russo expected they would emerge as the group’s victors. A solid group of spectators lined the near fence and filled the courts’ low-slung bleachers as the women’s advanced final played out. Despite the relaxed, friendly environment and charity focus, the nerves nonetheless remained for the tournament’s competitors.

“I told myself ‘be calm,’ and I was very calm,” said Russo, who’s been playing pickleball for three years.

The event also generated proceeds via a raffle of various prizes. The Chatham Children’s Fund — part of local nonprofit Monomoy Community Services — provides local families with clothing and access to food, fuel and medical help, in addition to assistance with other challenges and emergencies. The first iteration of Picklefest last year raised $1,500, according to Kelly.

So, the tournament is, first of all, for fun and a fundraiser, Russo said, and that’s what the players were there for.

“Of course, it’s a competition and you want to win,” Russo said.

Kenny Softness and Scott Caldwell, another Friends of Chatham Pickleball board member, won the men’s intermediate bracket. Caldwell has been playing pickleball for four years.

“We have a great community here,” he said.

Softness, a Needham resident, was clearly the youngest player among the overall event’s few dozen participants. He’s played pickleball for two and a half years, though this was his first entry in a competition, rather than open play. His father, David, also played as part of another pairing — the father-son duo facing off in one match midway through the tournament.

“For me, it’s nice to see younger people and older people playing,” Kelly said.

Just as some of Picklefest’s other winners did, Softness felt the nerves — the “jitters and butterflies in the basket,” as he put it. But the event was a lot of fun, he said, and there was very good competition.

“I had high hopes, but there were some pretty close games,” Softness said.

Rounding out the action on the courts was the men’s advanced group, won by Joe Creonte and Ian Anderson. Anderson has played for two years; Creonte nearly just as long. Like fellow bracket victors, the two both thought part of the key to winning was the luck of the draw that put the duo together. 

They had played together before. Creonte specifically enjoyed being on the same side as Anderson’s “seven-foot wingspan,” he said, and Anderson had felt their chances were good at the outset once he drew Creonte as a playing partner.

The two also felt that they had played legit pickleball — rallies full of dinks, smashes, volleys, slams — against great competition.

The plan is to keep Picklefest — still really in its infancy as a competition — going as an annual event. 

“It gets bigger every year,” said Brad Allen, president of Friends of Chatham Pickleball.