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National Pickleball League: A New League For Champions Division Pros
Feb 22, 2023
Pickleball Union sat down with National Pickleball League co-founders Beth Herr Bellamy, Michael Chen, and Rick Witsken to learn about the format of the Champions Level league, response from the community, growth plans, and more. For more feature stories, trending news, and tips that keep you pickling, subscribe to the channel or visit pickleballunion.com
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foreign
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there was a desperate need for Champions
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level players to have team play in a
0:19
league format many of us talked about it
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and we're very excited about that kind
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of format and in addition to that it was
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becoming apparent that for the
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visibility of Champions level players we
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needed to have an independent
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production to properly
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showcase the skills and talents both on
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and off the court of our players
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I think people are feeling more and more
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positive about it but in general we
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received such unbelievable support from
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our group of fellow top Champions Pros
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that we needed to sign on to sort of get
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this thing going
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um I mean we had
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five out of the top five ranked women in
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the world and probably
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I would say maybe eight out of the top
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ten sign on immediately really without
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knowing much about it other than what we
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told them same thing with the men
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um Rick can speak to that but
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again I think everybody was just we
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weren't saying we were gonna you know
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change their lives we were gonna we were
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offering this as we want to get
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something fun another alternative to
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tournaments another opportunity for you
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guys out there and so I don't think it
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was that hard for them to
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um take a chance on us but like I said I
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think the trust is building and the more
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we the more information that's coming
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out about it um people are even more
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excited to get Naples Naples Pitbull
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Center which is the pigball capital
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world to say I'm on board 100 I think
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builds a lot of credibility that they
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believe in pickleball they have the
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everyone goes in Naples could pick a
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ball that's why I'm here in Naples as
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well and to see Bob strowman be so
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passionate not only about the game he
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wants to be part of league but he wants
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to be a league not because he wants to
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win championship of course everyone
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wants to win Champion but he says I want
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to build a team of people that have
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chemistry that will have fun that
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creates community that loves the game
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and I want to build a legacy and that's
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why he was interested in our league
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because he goes a lot Legacy of the game
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where all these Champion Pros that
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create the game you know starting back
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in the 60s till now and those are the
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ones that made it successful all the
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young pickleball players today and he
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his name he has called jbb Naples jbb
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United is a recognition to the old stars
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that built the game
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when you have a league and we're
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requiring every team to have the base in
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the city you can rally the city around
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the team which is a very important
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versus rallying you know
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uh people around just two players and
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and and and Champion Pros people 51
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communities so we're making the team a
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lot larger than MLB as well we're gonna
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have 12 to 20 players on team because 12
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to 20 players commit creates Community
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around the team two to four players
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doesn't really create a community so we
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feel that by having much more of an
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exclusive
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uh number of people on a team or create
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a pickleball community and like Rick
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said this is much more about just
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winning a championship in the league
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it's about creating a community for the
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champion pearls for recognizing the
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legacy of the players that start of the
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game and rally hopefully many cities
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Across the Nation around pickleball and
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Champion Pros as well
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I really do believe that
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um cities will rally around the team to
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see for me just kind of like formulating
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people wearing not only what I'm wearing
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npl merchantment as a texture but even
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to theirs they have to have their City
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on their chest with npl and you know
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what it's doing for these
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um
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Pros let me just like long term thinking
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about playing home in a way like they do
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in the NFL or Major League Baseball I
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think it'd be really cool walking into a
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stadium because everywhere is being is
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building new and new facilities left and
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right and they're going to be doing it
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nicer and nicer so you know I just see
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long-term nice venues music crowds and I
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really believe that that's going to
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happen and we don't need it to happen
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you know but and the chicken tickles are
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a really nice facilities we're gonna
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have a great time there but I just
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believe that the expansion of teams and
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cities and models and Home and Away
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merchandise like to me it's just um just
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we're just a Discerning point in my
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Minds
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