Larry Emerson is one of 36 Pickleball enthusiasts who routinely wake up at the crack of dawn and play the game for two hours every day at the Decou courts in Cherry Hill. As of the first week of August, he’s also the organizer of a tournament and a benefactor of the community.
With an unofficial start on Aug. 3, and an official commencement at the crack of dawn on Aug. 5, the Decou Cup was contested. It featured two teams of 14 players each in a Ryder Cup style event.
Each participant paid an entry fee that would support a local charity and a local restaurant, with the winners receiving the Double D Cup — so named with permission from Denise Donald, one of the driving forces giving Pickleball a profile in the township.
“Last year I started the group, and we play before work, which is hard to do,” Emerson explained during an Aug. 3 conversation with the Sun. “There’s only a limited time to do it. Last year (the tournament) was 12 people, and this year we had 36 to 38 people who signed up. We’re only doing 28 players, because there’s only six courts. We can only play six people per day.”
“We did the draft a week ago at my house, and today we did court assignments,” He added. “Every player must play at least two matches. You win one game, half point, you win both games, you get a full point. In this format, the top players aren’t as important as the lesser skilled players.”
For Emerson, it’s the culmination of a game he’s played for four years.
In order to keep competition as level as possible, Emerson used an idea hatched at a previous tournament in May, matching up anyone who was interested by ability: pairing the best players to the lesser-skilled players and those with abilities closer to each other. Besides that, there was no divine spark that drove the new venture.
“This one, it just came to me,” Emerson recalled. “It was my brainchild, but there’s a small bunch of guys who are players that came along. Lance Stopek is a co-captain for my team. The other team captain is Marty Einhorn. The other person who helped was David Eisen, and we made him the secretary.”
Even the threat of Tropical Storm Isaias did little to dampen enthusiasm for the competition. Emerson and his group decided to extend the tournament by one day because of expected lashing rains and wind. Practice day was originally scheduled for Monday, with games taking place from 6 a.m. to roughly 7:45 a.m., Tuesday through Friday, with the cup awarded at the end of the week.
Instead, the storm necessitated pushing back the tournament opener until Wednesday morning. Emerson said the plan was to slot makeup games on both Thursday and Friday, and still finish playing on Friday morning.
The decision was an easy one, according to Emerson, on how and why the community should benefit from the tournament’s proceeds.
“Everybody is hurting now because of coronavirus,” he said. “A lot of eateries and small businesses and families are having it rough. We wanted to have a bar-type atmosphere to go and celebrate the success of the tourney and the winning team, so that’s why we picked P.J. Whelihan’s.
“We’re also making a donation to the Jewish Family Services Food Pantry to help families in need, and that $350 first-prize gift certificate is expected to go to PJ’s.”
Though he couldn’t say whether the tournament would continue next year or beyond, there’s definitely a broad population base and large pool of players from which to draw.
“We have more than 2,000 people across South Jersey who play the sport. You should see the courts, they’re so crowded, you can’t get on them on Saturday and Sunday,” Emerson added.
“It’s just exploded.”
