Canada's Best Pickleball Club of 2023 is ..

The day is finally here to announce the winner of Canada's Best Pickleball Club of 2023.
Throughout this contest:

• We conducted a very thorough nomination phase in early summer. Over 140 different clubs were nominated and they spanned the country, from coast to coast to coast.
• In that phase East Coast Rock of St. John's NL came out on top.
• We had an article submission and publishing phase where the nominees submitted articles about their clubs. All articles will remain on our site.
• We had a phase where we had submissions of other clubs that were smaller or hadn't caught on to the nomination phase early enough sent us articles, and we selected one of those clubs as a worthy finalist. 
• Of those submissions, Pickleball Hamilton was selected to be included in the FINALS.
• And lastly, over a period of 1 month, we allowed anyone in Canada to vote for the club they thought most worthy, allowing 1 vote per person.

And now, we can reveal Canada's Best Pickleball Club of 2023 is:

Vernon Pickleball Association in Vernon, BC

Second place in Canada's Best Pickleball Club 2023 goes to:

St.-Isidore Pickleball Club in Saint-Isidore, NB

Third Place in Canada's Best Pickleball Club 2023 is awarded to:

Pickleball Hamilton of Hamilton, Ontario

First off, let's all congratulate the Vernon Pickleball Association.

You folks have created a club that could be a template for all of us to follow. Your achievements, enthusiasm,tournament hosting, fund raising, and local community relations are quite amazing.
People can read about the Vernon Pickleball Association here.

Next, we should also congratulate and thank St.-Isidore Pickleball Club.

Here is the St.-Isidore article en francais.

You also have achieved great things in your community, and although I haven't been there (yet) I expect St.-Isidore and the surrounding area to be much richer because of the contributions of your club. Well done everyone!

And finally, congratulations to Pickleball Hamilton.
Even though you found out about the nomination phase a bit late, you submitted a wonderful article and video, that our panel decided we MUST include you in the finals for 2023. Your achievements are many, and you should be quite proud of them.

Notable mentions. when I look at the voting totals vs. the sizes of the communities, I have to mention Saugeen Shores Pickleball Club. You did tremendous in voting, and I could see all the sharing and work you put into the vote as well as into your club in general.

Who are the Real Winners of this?

We are participating in a fun, social, and healthy sport.
We are participating in a sport that can be played amongst a number of generations. (My own club has participants from 18 to 81, and we're all having fun.)

We are playing a sport that's easy to start, but challenging to master. It always leaves room for improvement for those that are interested. in doing so.

We hope to do this again next year and will apply a number of lessons learned this year to the process.
I hope you've enjoyed the process.

Patrick Batty
Pickleball Today