Ten years ago, Melissa McCurley remembers the world of pickleball.
The best players in the world were in their 60s. There were two companies manufacturing paddles and PickleballTournaments.com was home to about 100 tournaments per year.
Now, as McCurley just finished her last day on the job as CEO for PickleballTournaments, com, pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the country for another year, there are hundreds of paddle companies, pro pickleball is consumed on every platform including the Big 5 TV networks, and the best female player in the world isn’t even 17.
And PickleballTournaments.com is the landing spot for more than 1,000 tournaments and tens of thousands of players.
It’s been quite the run for McCurley, who can take responsibility for a large part of the growth of pickleball over the past decade.
“I am not sure anyone could’ve foreseen that kind of explosion,” she said. “All I know is, I was being called to leave my corporate information technology career at Ross Perot’s EDS and American Express after almost 20 years to go serve the pickleball competition community.”
McCurley was approached by the owners of PickleballTournaments.com to come take over, which she did, and helped lead a transition from a small-time operation with just herself and…
