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In this episode, I talk with Mike Hoxie from Pickleball Is Great, which is a company running Pickleball tournaments all over the United States. Mike discusses how he started running tournaments and his journey to having a company with multiple tournament directors. He is also partnering with the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) by hosting a series of tournaments called the road to the AAU junior Olympics.
Show Notes
In this episode we discuss:
- How Mike first started running Pickle tournaments
- The challenges involved when he started running the Pickleball tournament for the state games of Oregon
- Who recommended that Mike start his own company to run tournaments in the Northwest
- When Mike decided to leave his day job to run Pickleball tournaments full time
- How COVID-19 impacted tournaments in 2020 and expectations for 2021
- Why Mike is partnering with the AAU
- How Mike and his other tournament directors make the events player friendly
- What it takes to run multiple tournaments in different locations on the same weekend
- How Mike’s previous experience in retail management helps him to run quality events
- His future plans for running tournaments beyond 2021
