(COLORADO SPRINGS) — In downtown Colorado Springs, around 400 players stepped foot onto the Monument Valley Pickleball Courts for the USA Pickleball Great Plains Regional Tournament.

“So we have the ninth annual Great Plains Diamond Amateur Regional going on,” USA Pickleball Regional Director, Peggine Tellez, said. “This event is one of 12 qualifying events for players to get pre-entry access to the Diamond Amateur championship which will be held in Pictona at Holly Hills, Florida in early December.”

One player holds a pickleball ball in hand ready to serve.

Since this tournament is a qualifier for Nationals, the stakes are high and competition is certainly fierce. For one player, Patrick Quist, he has been playing the sport for the past eight years.

“I love to be competitive,” Quist said. “So this is a sport where you can, like I said, just take it easy and have fun or you can get very serious about it which I do.”

Quist and his wife practiced out on the court on Tuesday morning.

Quist will play with his wife in doubles, and the two had a whole lot of fun practicing on the court.

“It’s just a very fun sport,” Quist said. You can play it all levels if you just want to come out and get exercise and whack… or you can study the sport and learn and learn to strategize and it becomes more of a chess as you learn to, you know, maneuver and then place the ball. So, it’s just a very, very fun sport, easy to get into, difficult to master.”

Players are from all over the country, ranging in age and in skill level.

Linda Goeas and Donna Fouts from Hawaii said “Aloha” out on the courts.

“We have varying different skill levels, all the way from 3.0 to 5.0. We run on what is essentially the tennis ratings schedule,” Tellez said. “The best part about pickleball is that whether you’re a recreational player or a competitive player, this is such a social game, such an easy game to learn in virtually every town in America, and now starting to be abroad.”

The USA Pickleball Great Plains Regional Tournament is taking place in Monument Valley Park in downtown Colorado Springs.

For those not competing, like Byron Brothers, he is making sure that all the rules are being followed.

“Reffing is just fun, I’m glad to do it,” Brothers said. “The ages of the players is anywhere from 10 to 90 and… they can all play at the same time based on their skill levels.”

Byron Brothers could be found on the side of the court reffing one of the games.

For USA Pickleball Assistant Regional Director, Jose Reveteriano, the sport helped his mental health, and he reflected on how grateful he is to play out on the court.

“I’ll tell you what, I picked up pickleball, I was a tennis player and soccer player in college, and I picked up pickleball about the same time that I retired and that, if it wasn’t for pickleball, it is literally something that saved my life,” said Reverteriano.

This group of players were the first to step foot onto the newly resurfaced courts for the big competition.

“So Colorado Springs’ Parks and Recreation Department has taken a year in the works to go ahead and complete the planning for the refurbishment of the Monument Valley Park dedicated Pickleball Courts,” Tellez said. “They completed all of the resurfacing and the brand-new nets this past Friday, tournament started at 8 a.m. on Saturday. So, this tournament and this group of people are the first people stepped foot on these courts.”

All along the courts, players in varying skill levels competed against each other.

With the courts filled with players, the competition will continue for the next several days.

“So the next couple of days we have women’s doubles, we have a men’s doubles, we have a few of the older divisions,” Reveteriano said. “We had a really, really busy weekend, especially yesterday. We had all of our singles players playing… but man, they fought, everyone fought hard.”

A group of players out on the court were eager to begin their match in the tournament.

The passion for the sport is evident all throughout the courts as players cheer each other on and paddles swing.

“I’ve never seen a sport that has brought so many people, groups, age differences together,” Reveteriano said. “And now that it’s getting so big, exponentially, exponentially big, I now see my children are playing with the older folks.”

Brothers ended his interview with the words, “pickle up any chance you get,” a testament to the love the players have for the game.