Deaf Pickleball USA

Hello. My name is Farley Warshaw, and I am the DPUSA National Tournament Director.  Welcome!  I am excited to share updates with you this coming Fall’s tournament (October 8 to 11, 2026) in Fresno, California.

I have a list of items to discuss, which will be posted on www.deafpickleballusa.com.  I plan to explain in depth on that website.  The list of  summarized items I will discuss there are: 

1. The location and its attractions nearby
2. Hotel options
3. Where the event will be hosted and what it offers/looks like
4. The tentative schedule for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
5. The committees set up and their roles/functions
6. Registration and what is up with registration
7. Airport information (Many people ask about airport information. All this will be available on the website).

Updates will be posted on our Social Media platforms, but details about the updates will always be posted on the website for easier access.

We are making a lot of progress.  I am looking forward to seeing you all next Fall! It should be a fun tournament. We will have many new events. Information about those events will also be available on the website.

Hello. I am here to talk about the pickleball courts at the Sierra  Sports and Racquet Club (SSRC). I visited the club last October to play in a pickleball tournament and to view the location. I am very impressed with the facilities. SSRC has up to 40 courts, but not all are permanent courts.   The central location has an impressive tennis arena with a large capacity for 500 people to sit comfortably.   The SSRC has a restaurant, a swimming pool, a small area for kids to play at, plenty of space for vendors,  

This location is very deaf friendly. As you know, deaf folks like to socialize and mingle in open spaces.   This is a first-class facility in an upscale neighborhood with beautiful homes surrounding it. It is not far from anywhere.   It is 7 miles from hotels, 18 18-minute drive from the airport, plenty of restaurants close to the hotels nearby. 

People thought that Fresno does not offer much, but that is incorrect. It is the 5th largest city in California, so it offers a lot.

I want to share with you what is new for this Fall.  DPUSA is excited to add some new events.

First, we will add “entry-level” players who are 2.0 to 2.9 players. This is a non-medal event.  This event is for players who have never played in a tournament or just started playing pickleball and are learning the rules and basic plays, so they can enjoy playing and have fun.  This is an opportunity for new players to learn about the various things in a tournament before they actually play in a real tournament.  I want to be able to serve all different levels of players.

Major League Pickleball (MLP) is a very popular format in the US now.   Two men and two women teams challenge the other two men and two women teams. Each team will play in a round robin format against other teams. This is new to the DPUSA Tournament. It will be called the “demo event,” which means we are trying it out at this tournament.  If it is popular or successful, we will expand it more for the future DPUSA tournaments. 

Another new event is the Cash Prize. This will be available for three events: singles, doubles for both men and women teams, and mixed doubles. This will be available in open divisions, which means higher-level players. These players can play for cash prizes. This is also new, and we will see if this is successful.  If it goes well, we will offer it again and expand it more in next year’s DPUSA tournament.

The last new addition is what is called a “showcase” event. Fresno has a pro player who plays in PPA events (woman). She will team with a male  5.5 player.   They will play against our best DPUSA players (men’s and women’s teams or mixed teams), and we can watch to see if we can beat them. It will be fun to watch on Friday night at the arena there. 

These are the new events. DPUSA is very excited to give you more experiences with pickleball tournaments.

Hello all. Now I will talk about the schedule for the tournament from Thursday to Sunday. 

Thursday, we will start with the 2.0 to 2.9 players new to tournaments. We will have clinics for them at 8 am. We will also have the scramble event, which will start at 8 am. 

At 10 am, after the clinics for the new players, they will start playing in their own recreational tournament. 

At 11 am, we will have the MLP event start. The reason why we are starting the MLP at 11 am is so that they can play each other, and then at 2 pm, the playoffs will begin for this event.  The other event players from the recreational tournament and scramble events can watch the MLP playoffs and get an idea of what MLP events look like. It will probably end between 4:00 pm and 5:00 pm. 

After that, dinner is on your own, then a reception will be held before the general DPUSA meeting takes place at 7 pm.

Friday, we have our check-ins at 7 am. At 8 am, the opening ceremony will take place, and we will take our group picture. At 8:30, we will start our singles and doubles events. The men’s singles will happen at the same time as the women’s doubles. During the women’s singles events, the men’s doubles events will take place. The reason for this is to make good use of the courts.  These events will start at 8:30 am. The first group of events will be all morning, then the second group of events will follow. The new players (2.0 to 2.9) will play recreationally from 10 am to 12 pm.    Everything should conclude between 4 pm and 5 pm. Dinner will be on your own, then maybe at 6 pm or 7 pm (not sure yet), we will have showcases.

For Saturday morning, at 8 am, we will have skinny singles, singles, and doubles events, switching with Friday’s schedule. I forgot to mention the skinny’s singles, which also happens on Friday.  From 10 am to 12 pm,  for the new players (2.0 to 2.9), they can play recreationally. We should be finished before 5 pm. We plan to have a program on Saturday night. Details are not final yet.

For Sunday, only mixed doubles events will occur all day, starting at 8 am until 3 pm or before. We should be done by then so that people can go home. 

This is our tentative schedule for the DPUSA tournament event.

Hello. I want to take the time to explain about airports. People have been asking, “Does Fresno have an airport? Where are the airports?”  Yes!  I want to show this video showing what the airport looks like.  I went there myself to check it out. It is a large airport and has several airline carriers. It offers many car rental options. It is a large international airport, and people do not realize it is there.  Fresno is the 5th largest city in California. Unfortunately, the most populous cities are in the corridor of San Diego, LA, SF, and Sacramento because they are on or close to the coast. Fresno is a big city with over 500 thousand people living there. I assure you, wherever you fly in from, you can get to Fresno.

Hello. I want to explain about hotels. In that area, there are many hotels in that area. You can drive directly and easily to the pickleball courts from there. There are 5 popular hotels (there are many more), including Holiday Inn Express, Hampton Inn, Fairfield Inn, Home Suites by Wyndham Hotels, and  Comfort Inn. I already got one of these hotels on the other side for a good rate, and I am working with other hotels to try to get better rates and discounts for the players.  That area has many restaurants and even has a Costco there. Everything is very close to each other. I tried to secure a hotel but could not. Most hotels only allow for a certain number of blocked rooms for discounts, so I will work on getting a few hotels to give players discounts. Of course, some of you may prefer renting an Airbnb, which is fine,  but I wanted to give you options.

Hello.  I want to explain about communication with you. So far, we have about 500 members who paid membership fees when they signed up for last year’s tournament.  Our secretary, Barbara White, will email to the members any updates that are being shared.  We will also post on Social Media and our Website, but will always email to you directly if you are a member. 

Regarding Social Media, including Facebook and Instagram, we will post there on our pages, but will provide summaries there. It will provide summaries of what I will explain in detail on the DPUSA website. There, postings can be longer and more detailed with more specific information.  On Instagram and Facebook, we will make announcements that a new update is being posted on our website about the tournament. We will send emails to the members to keep you in the loop.