CAMDEN, S.C. — Camden is getting ready to welcome hundreds visitors and it's first pickleball tournament this week.
What is pickleball, you ask? It's a paddleball sport that combines elements of badminton, table tennis, and tennis.
The Tennis Center of Camden will host the 2022 South Carolina Cup, a pickleball tournament sanctioned by the Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP), which selected Camden as the host city.
Hundreds of fans are expected to be in attendance at the APP South Carolina Open Pickleball Tournament Thursday, April 14 - Sunday, April 17 in Camden.
Rick Martin, Director of Tennis and Pickleball at the Tennis Center of Camden, says they have been preparing for the tournament for quite some time.
"We've been working for weeks now, you know, just beautifying the facility, getting the facility ready we've painted courts," Martin said.
There will be seventeen pickleball courts ready for play.
"We're gonna be lining courts, taping things off, we have portable nets coming in," Martin said.
His crews are also making sure the parking lot will be prepared for the abundance of people coming to the event.
"The parking lot is going to be very very full this weekend," Martin said. "We're also going to be using the Camden High School parking, as well. We have 415 players playing this weekend, and we're expecting 400-500 people daily."
Martin says they are expecting the number of volunteers to grow over the coming days, but they still need assistance.
"We really need to have 150 volunteers, and presently we have about 100, maybe just a little over a hundred, so we're really looking for some volunteers this weekend," Martin said. Volunteers will be doing anything from court monitoring to just helping people find their way around the facility.
Play starts Thursday at 8 a.m. and will run until 5 p.m. daily, ending on Sunday.
To volunteer or get more information, contact the Tennis Center of Camden at (803) 432-0252 or tennispickleball@camdensc.org.