Pickleballers Play Competitive Fun In Daylong Harwich Tournament

HARWICH – More than 100 players competed in 260 pickleball matches Saturday during the 12th edition of what is the largest and longest-running tournament of its kind on Cape Cod. 

In the end (after several hours, a full day’s worth of pickleball), the Harwich Funfest crowned winners in six divisions (all doubles) — women’s, men’s and mixed split by ability in intermediate and advanced pools — in an event where the skill seems to keep rising each tournament, according to Tom Bryant, president of the hosting Harwich Pickleball Association.

“They call it a funfest, and it was fun,” said John Boyle, who won the men’s intermediate division with Brian Devaney.

Bryant said that this year’s intermediate players had caught up to last year’s advanced level. The tournament is open to players above 50 years old, and the advanced level brings in some of the elite players on the Cape to Brooks Park.

“The level of play goes up every year,” Bryant said.

The women’s intermediate winners were Kristen Zukowski and Amy Rice. The women’s advanced winners were SoonAe Bushing and Amy Hotchkiss.

Matches were competitive, and multiple players were pickleball coaches and pros. Even so, several participants underscored the fun nature of the Harwich Funfest.

Corey Sprague, a Cape-area coach who won the men’s advanced bronze with Stephen Maurer, said he was “just here to have fun.”

“No one’s taking it too seriously,” he said. “If they are, they are at the wrong tournament.”

A majority of the funds from the event are donated by the Harwich Pickleball Association to various charities, like the Harwich Children’s Fund and the Cape Cod Foster Closet. The non-profit organization also provides a scholarship of $1,000 to a local high school student. 

More than 30 volunteers organized and operated the tournament. Games for the approximately 130 players started at 8 a.m. in a round-robin format and continued past 6 p.m. That made for a better pace than last year’s tournament, which had matches going until sunset. 

Todd Zukowski and Nat Boughton, pros at Ocean Edge Resort and Golf Club in Brewster, won the men’s advanced pool. The win for the duo acted as a little bit of redemption, Zukowski said, after they lost in the finals last year. As a top-ranked team playing on their home courts (Zukowski said they knew probably three-quarters of the other players), the pair felt the pressure. The wind at Brooks Park also made for a challenging day, according to Boughton.

“You’ve really got to concentrate to adjust to the wind,” he said.

The pickleball marathon concluded with mixed doubles. Lisa Sherman of Harwich and Joe Cancelarich of Wellfleet took gold in the intermediate bracket. It was their first tournament, so they were “psyched,” Sherman said.

“The games were all excellent,” she said. “Every single game we played was great.” 

And like others, Sherman said that the event was, first and foremost, a funfest. It really was fun, she said.

“This little tournament is run so well,” Sherman said.

Nat and Nancy Boughton of Chatham won the mixed advanced pool. Nancy had won silver in the women’s advanced bracket while Nat won the men’s advanced group, so the pair took home four medals total on the day. 

The tournament was “good, clean fun” with competitive play, according to Nancy, who said it was also “nice to see some new faces out there.”

“We can win, and then we’re going to play with the same people next week,” Nat said.