Welcome to the 2025 Virginia Amateur State Championships, powered by the Carvana PPA Tour and Southern Pickleball!
We’re live from Performance Pickleball RVA in Henrico, Virginia, where top-tier talent from across the region has gathered to battle for more than just gold medals, they’re chasing championship dreams.
Today’s feature match showcases amazing Mixed Doubles 3.5 action as Karen Waring and Jonathan Goshea face off Marty Prusinkowski and Joan Jolly in a competitive clash of skill, strategy, and grit.
But there’s more on the line than state bragging rights… all medalists from this tournament earn a coveted spot at both the 2025 World Pickleball Championships in Dallas, Texas and the Southern Pickleball Championships in Macon, Georgia. The stakes are high, and the competition is fierce.
Calling the action: Paul Midkiff and Mark Spackman
Venue: Performance Pickleball RVA
Date: July 20, 2025
Don’t miss a moment — hit subscribe to stay up to date with more championship match play, player stories, and behind-the-scenes action from across the amateur pickleball world!
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Hey, hey, hey. Potential is a dirty word. It’s a limit, a ceiling, an end. Because if you reach your potential, there’s nothing left to do. So, whatever you do, don’t reach your potential, reach beyond. All right, welcome back pickle ball fans. We are here at the Virginia Amateur State Championships powered by the Carvana PPA Tour hosted by Southern Pickle Ball at Performance Pickle Ball in Hen Reicho, Virginia. My name is Mark Spackman and alongside me, co-founder of Southern Pickleball, Paul McKiff. Paul, you ready for another gold medal match? We are Mark. We’ve seen some great action here today. We’re about to see 35 gold medal match here on our stadium court here at beautiful performance pickle ball. It’s going to be Go for it, Mark. Yeah, we’ll have Marty Kruzinowski and Joan Jolly playing against John Gocha and Karen Wearing. Uh controlling all the action on the court will be our referee Mike Spooner. Looks like we’re going to have a couple more minutes of warm-ups here before we get started. Yeah, speaking of Mike over there, in case uh in case we do have any kind of uh controversial line call today, we do have the we would have the instant replay. We’ve had it earlier this this month, this uh weekend. We’ll see if we can get it back today. Uh these refs have been able to go use that instant replay this week to to help settle some disputes on the court. It’s pretty nice. Yeah, it was interesting. And I was thinking about it, Paul, you know, the the refs have been uh real uh open to the instant replay and everything here that we’ve had this weekend. And I was thinking about how different it is to other sports because uh you know, you’ve heard in baseball and football how maybe they don’t like uh that the instant replay, right? But I think what I realized was, you know, here the players are calling the line, so the replay is not secondguing the referee. Correct. Correct. Yeah, good point. So, good point. But it has been a nice thing, you know, that performance pickle ball productions are the ones that created the instant replay. So, it’s really neat that they’re able to bring that technology, but I think we’re going to do it old school here for this game. And all right, looks like Marty’s going to start off start us off here at 002. Yeah. Coming all the way from South, New York. Retired from the police department now starting us off with some pickle ball. there. Found a way to sneak that down ball down the middle. I don’t know if that middle is going to be I don’t know if that middle will be open a lot or not. Marty is a lefty over there, so they’re going to have both forehands in the middle, I imagine. Now we’ll go to Joan to serve. I’m sorry that was Karen. off the TV screen. Lot of TVs in this place, Paul. Lots of lots of screens. Lots of screens. Got a nice sports bar set up right to the side of the court where everybody can get their favorite beverage and some great food. Is that a miss on the serve there? Yeah, John’s shaking off shaking off some nerves there. early jitters being on set of pickle ball TV for sure. Nice bob there, but a better overhead. So, as this is a gold medal match, it will be best two out of three games to 11 by two. The players will start in their current side. They will switch sides for the second game. And if we are lucky enough to have a third game, they would switch back for the third final game to where they played this first game and we would switch at six points in the third. Good dink action here. There goes that lob again. Oh, unlucky. Good point there. Who’s going to score the first point here, Mark? Hopefully somebody will. I do have a flight to get out of here a little later today, Paul. So, uh, yeah, we should be able to get you there. Pick up there. Oh, unlucky. All right. And we’ve got a point on the board. We just needed a little help from you. So now we’re going to be serving Karen serving at one 01 that pro for Perseus from Yola. I don’t know what the call was. Was it in? Was it out? She said out. John shakes off his last serve. Got that one in and caught Marty by surprise. You do notice the players pausing to serve to wait for the referee to call the score. We saw that yesterday in action a little bit where the players would try to serve prematurely. Yeah, cuz we’re just not, as amateur players, Mark, we’re not used to having a referee out there and you kind of got a cadence to everything that goes on on the court and um it’s a little different when you have the official out there. That is one of the things I’ve been really impressed with here. Evidently, referees that performance pickle ball for amateur tournaments is kind of a regular thing here. That’s not something you see everywhere in the country. No. Huh. and they’re very fortunate to have so many really good ones close by. That ball went a little wide, so that will give us a side out. Marty will be getting ready to serve to see if they can get on the scoreboard here. And I know his grandkids are rooting for him as they are watching on Southern Pickle Ball TV right now. I’m sure he’s got almost a handful. Yeah, he’s got four of them. Oh, there’s that lob. Oh, Marty. Elena and Lindsay, the twins. They’re going to love that shot right there. 11 years old. And then Riley and Tyler, nine and six. Marty wanted to make sure that they all knew that he loves him. Nothing like a grandkid, Mark. Let me tell you, you have a new one on board here recently, dude. He’s going to be turning one next month. Looking forward to that party. Oh, we already to one. That’s what best The body bag. Will you listen? The body bag is the term we affectionately use when you hit your opponent with the ball. Jones notches that first one for the game and then the net gets her back. As we say many times, Mark, the net never loses. That’s the first opponent. You got to get that ball over the net. Good. John does a nice job of chasing those logs down. Hook shot overhead he’s got there. He is doing a good job of chasing it down. I’ll give you that. But the other thing, the lob is being very effective in moving them to the back part of the court, which is where we want to push our opponents back to right here. If I am Karen and John, I’m really thinking about the fact that my opponents have their back ends in the middle here. So, I’m going to hit a lot of balls to the middle. Not only do they have the back hands in the middle, the net is two inches lower in the middle, too. Paul, that middle ball you’re talking about, but now Marty’s playing right-handed, so I am just confused. I don’t know what hand he’s going to use. Ambidextrious Marty. Good ball there. Were down. 632. Good lead. Jones going to be serving here. Mark Jones says she’s been retired. When I asked her what she was retired from, she said she was a m K-9 massage therapist in her occupation, which you don’t see many of those, I don’t believe. That’s very specific. Y sure my pups would love that. Start looking in your area. See if you’ve got one. Take the dogs, too. So, I do see that Marty and Joan are stacking on the serve. So, I guess maybe Marty prefers to play left-handed, but wonder grandkids if they’re lefty or righty because or maybe both. Grandad seems to be able to use both equally well. got the ball back here at 631. Net takes care of that rally. 632. Going to stay along there. tip off the paddle there. So, a side out. We’re back at 361 there. Jones backand by Karen. 62. Oh, John rolls that one back like that. Got a little bit of a pop up. Try to speed it up off the back end. One thing I have noticed so far is we’re most all the third shots are or something form of a drop. We have not had a lot of drives on the third shot so far. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Think I might would want to mix it up a little bit. Maybe use that third shot drive to set up a fifth shot drop where I could get in the corner a little more. That one got over. I thought John was going to be able to chase it down again, but another great lob. Lobs have been very effective. I think that’s one of the changes we’ve seen lately, too, Paul, is that more and more we’re seeing the lobs. I think when I first started playing back in 2021, lob was almost a no no. frowned upon. Good little rally there. Excitement from the crowd for sure over there. So, these players are playing for a chance to go to the UPA World Championships in Dallas, Texas in early November. And also they not only qualify for the UPA World Championships. That was a little mix up there in the middle there. I think we I don’t know if we count that as a body bag or not though, Mark. We can count it. But uh they also get Paul to go to the Southern Championships in Mon Georgia, the world’s largest indoor pickle ball facility. Rhythm and Rally. 32 courts, 16 upstairs, 16 downstairs. That’ll be held December 31st through January 4th. So, we’re looking forward to seeing a lot of the me medalist from this tournament make the trip down to Mon, Georgia. Yeah, we’ve heard a lot of people u answer a lot of questions about that tournament. People seem really excited about it. Building on last year’s success. We, you know, hope to go from 1300 to to even more this year. It was the largest amateuronly tournament in the state for sure. Yeah. just say I’m impressed with the consistency of these players. They seem to be playing well within theirelves, keeping the ball in play. Yeah. And then they’ve hit some good dinks to Marty over there and stretched him, but every time they do, he seems to be able to throw up that nice that nice lob to get him out of trouble. Nice angle right there. Marty going to try to tie it up here. That’s a side out. John and Karen get the ball back. Very nice. Game super tight right now. It could go either way. So, we had 265 players join us for the Virginia Amateur State Championships. Six players in this division. So, they started today with a round robin. Great get by Marty. Oh, unlucky. A lot of athleticism on that part from John running around for the overhead to Marty tracking it down. But as I say, they started with six players in this bracket. Karen and John went five and0 in the round. Robin Then Joan and Marty went four and one. So that set up this gold medal match later. A rematch of the earlier match. Looks like it was equally as close earlier as Karen and John pulled out a 1513 win. So we might be for a long afternoon here. That’s right. What time’s your flight? 7:00. It’s all right. We can we can always postpone it to Lamar to enjoy some good pickle ball. Little deep. Inching back in it. Here we go. They tie it up here at nine. John says mayday. They got a chance to tie here. I’d really like to see Marty and Joan now. They’ve been real effective with the lob early. They have them backing up. I’d like to see it now mixed up with the drive because since the other players are backing up, it’s a chance to open up those speed if they just do not even a hard drive, just some Well, Mark, we’re at a timeout. So, you could go over and coach because that is allowed during the timeout. Go coach them up on that. Yep. Well, we’re going to stay here during this break and talk a little more. I guess I could coach, but um but our timeouts are 60 seconds. This a little chance to talk about I mean, Southern Pickle Ball TV is back. So, uh, love for people to tune in to Southern Pickleball TV. If you’re there, if you could do us a favor, hit that subscribe button and subscribe. Um, also we have our weekly Southern Pickle Ball podcast, so we’d love for you to check that out. Let us know in the comments what you like about it. But as we have a few more minutes here in this first game, is there anything that you would recommend to the players right now, Paul? Man, I don’t have I I don’t I’ve been sitting here uh thinking about our other tournaments this weekend that I wanted to when you started talking about how many players we had here, I started thinking about how many players we had playing in other states this this weekend. Um very nice. I think it’s about 820 players total. Yeah, we got in Virginia, Augusta, Georgia, North Carolina. North Carolina. Couple of places in North Carolina. Big weekend for Southern Pickle Ball. Yeah, great. And players from all those different venues will be qualifying to go to Mon Georgia for the Southern Championships. Back in action now. All right. Here we had that problem again, Mark. But out of the timeout. So it is now. Notice referee Mike Spooner is having him replay. That is a fairly new rule change. It used to be if you serve prematurely, you’d lose a point. But now you get a warning and they do a replay. Good D again. Make her way back up here. Oh, you saw it coming, Mark. But this time it’s going a little long. It’s a hard strategy to execute over the whole match. The margin for error on that shot is not much. It’s tough. But as a lobber myself, sometimes when I’ve had success with it early, I go to it maybe a little too often. That’s what that’s the worst thing for me. I always hate it when I make that first lob because now I’m going to try it five more times when I should. I just rather go ahead and miss it and get it out of the way. Try to tie it up again. Little wide and we have a tie ball game here at 991. It is win by two. So, the flight is still in jeopardy. Yeah, Marty didn’t hit the sweet spot on that one. All right, Jones takes it to 10. I think that point was set up by a nice deep serve to started off opponent’s back. We got a game point here, Mark. It’s a game of inches, Mark. It’s a game of inches. That’s going to put us at 9101. The deep return got a paddle on it. I think I would have just stood there. 192. Nice step around the kitchen there to stay out of the nonvali zone. Mike was looking. He was looking right there in front of Mike Spinner. So, it was all good. Ties it up at 10. Another nice return. All right. So, Mike here at 10 101. goes a little wide. We are at another game point. So 11 101 Marty Deserve. There’s that lob he’s famous for. And he works again. That does it. 1210. Marty and Joan take game one here in the mixed doubles 35 50 and above gold medal match. We’ll be right back for game two after some messages from our sponsors. I don’t want it. You wouldn’t play pingpong with an egg. Practicing that game-winning moment with anything but a soccer ball proves painful. That’s why we’ve meticulously crafted the perfect ball for the game, not this game. The official pickle ball is made by DAM. Durbly designed to hit the ball where you want it to go. For every dink, drop, and drive, no matter where you are in your game, play with the official pickle ball by Daido. All right, we are back live at the Virginia Amateur State Championships powered by the Carvana PPA Tour hosted by Southern Pickle Ball being played at Performance Pickle Ball in Porco, Virginia. So this is our 35 mixed doubles 50 plus gold medal match. First game was tight going 1210 to Marty and June. What do you think’s going to happen here? Well, we will see who I think whoever wins this second game is going to win the match. Mark, I’m going to go ahead and say that right now. This is going to be the one. Whoever wins it. Super tight. that we talked earlier. These two teams played in round robin play. That one went 1513 in the first game the other way 1210 here. So this has definitely been a feeling out process. So So one thing Paul I noticed when I walked in the facility this morning I saw some Southern pickle ball banners that had some things that said 2024 player of the years and had a list of names of all ages and skill sets. Tell me about how that works. Well, like we are in a gold medal match right now. So, winner of this match, winners and losers since they are medal are going to receive ranking points. Of course, the gold medalist will get more points than the silver medalist, but receive those ranking points. We keep track of those. Our Southern Pickle Ball team does. So, like the four tournaments we’re running this weekend, we’ve got players from all over the Southeast earning ranking points. keep up with those. At the end of the year, we’ll have a 25, a 3 0, a 35, all the way up to the 4.5 plus champions and they will receive a very nice, very nice award. Find more details on how the points work and how they’re distributed. See your name if you’re in updated our southern pickleball.com website. So happy to have everybody here on southern pickleballtv.com. If you just happen to be stopping by for a minute, we really appreciate it if you take a minute to subscribe to the channel. That would help this. That ball seemed to roll along the net there for a couple of almost a foot or two before it fell over. For a winner. For a winner. Karen says, “You don’t hit that shot unless you practice it. Good ball by Marty. Nice little angle. Got a lot of options. It’s hard to play defense on that. That was a right hand and put it away. I challenged somebody to hit it into Marty’s back hand. Both those forehands seem to be working right now, though. Yeah, they’re working on both sides. Making the grandkids proud. That’s right. Really cool how we’ve had players travel from all around the Northeast for this tournament here in Virginia. That’s one thing I think about the Amateur State Championship Series that players may not realize. Sometimes they think that you have to be from the state that it’s being held in to play, but you can actually go play at any of them. This particular match, we have players from New York, Virginia, and Massachusetts. So, it’s pretty cool. Yeah. Had a player earlier asking me about the Tennessee State Championship. They were planning to head over to Johnson City to play in that one as well. That’s another great town over there in Johnson City. One of our early partners have invited us up there. really appreciate all that Johnson City does for Southern Pickle Ball. What a great place to hang out. And for those local folks, we’re going to be back in the area in Burlington, North Carolina to hold the North Carolina Championship later in the year. That’s a brand new facility. Oh man, I stopped by on the way up here and it’s a beauty. It’s a beauty. How many courts do they have there? 17 courts. Nice center court that’s covered. Beautiful park it’s in. And Burton is a cool town. I’m looking forward to spending more time there. One of the things Paul I’ve enjoyed the most about southern pickle ball is sort of getting out and seeing all these different communities of people around the southeast experiencing all the different revitalized towns breweries and bars and just all the places that you can go hang out with some friends. Talk some pickle ball. Karen and John have taken the lead here. 322 Jones puts an end to that. Really been impressed with how these players are all played within themselves. They’re all really good players, but they’re just really consistent. The unforced errors have really been minimal. They’re not happening until late in the rally every time. They’re just getting the ball back over, making their opponent play. I guess that’s why they’re in the gold medal game. There you go. I would have already gotten frustrated and banged a few balls off the baseline by now taking back there. No, Marty was tying. Oh, okay. Blocked by our monitor here. I just noticed him down on one knee. It’s a good ball there. Nice job. been picking on car’s little backhand dink gotten a few points off of that. I do think that may be one of the keys. I don’t want to oversimplify it, but I think whichever team can find the other team’s backand probably going to have the advantage here. The one thing you don’t want to do is keep giving these short logs to them. Hard to get out of that pattern sometimes though. Barely just trying to get a paddle on it. Everybody looking eagerly at Mike Spooner for some advice on where to stand. 331. That was one of the other recent changes and now it’s all the players and the referees responsibility to get everybody in the right place. It used to be if you’re in the wrong place you lose a point. I never understood why the referees couldn’t tell players before. I like the fact all the good spirit of good sportsmanship. Makes a lot of sense. USA pickle ball is getting there with those rules making it a better game year after year. probably not too far behind with their own set as well. You would think another one of these games that we’re grinding it out. Mark played It’s nice to see a good number of fans here and watching the match and cheering these people on. Good community of players here that performance pickle ball. Wow. Good rally. Good play. Well, we love doing the Southern Pickle Ball TV. I think one of the things we are an amateur only organization and steal a line from our good buddy Steve Lau that runs the jamming for joy tournament. It’s going to be held down in Georgia with over 500 players for his charity. I mean uh when you come to our tournaments you’re not going to play with the pros but we are going to treat you like a pro. This is part of the experience. Here we go. Another good point here was that backhand. There’s the lob. Nice. See, now that’s one thing I love about pick right there. So, there was a little discrepancy over here on this side. Joe thought that ball might have been a little bit long. Marty was quick to say that was it. Yeah. Immediately gave the good sign. We got a side out. John’s going to be serving at 351. Using that cell lux paddle. That one did sell a little bit longer. I think it’s interesting with all the talk about the new power and the paddles and trying to control the power. I think uh these players all just need some control paddles. They’ve been all about the control. I just really impressed the consistency. Car and John draw a point closer. that drop serve finding the top of the net which wins again. Well, just always win. You know, we’re now this is the third game these teams have played against each other today and I think we add them all together only one point separate. Wow. It’s about as evenly matched as we’re going to find. That one got away. It did. I like the idea. I think Karen was trying to see if she could redirect that ball into the back end of gentle there. So, I like the thought. Now, it’s 64. put away. We might might have a little bit of an injury here. All right, we’re going to have a timeout as Marty checks himself out. Hopefully everything will be okay here. We’re going to take a break and go to our sponsors. Thanks for tuning in to Southern Pickleball TV. Heat. Heat. We’re the birthplace of the Almond Brothers band, Southern Rock, and the soulful sounds of Otis Reading and Little Richard. Our musical heritage wrote the soundtrack of our nation, and it’s home to today’s rising stars. Making Georgia is where soul lives. Plan your visit today at visitmakon.org. The official pickle ball is made by Diana. Durably designed to hit the ball where you want it to go. For every dink, drop, and drive. No matter where you are in your game, play with the official pickle ball by Dino. Historic rail lines and scenic drives meander through live oaks, dogwoods, and aelas, leading you to a spirited destination called Auburn Opaikica, Alabama. A distinctive place defined by warm hospitality and a surprising mix of experiences. Made for travelers seeking something authentic. It’s America’s coolest college town and his hip older sister. Auburn Opaikica. It gets into your soul. All right, we’re back at the Virginia Amateur State Championships. This is our 35 mixed doubles 50 plus gold medal match. Marty Brusenowski and Joan Jolly versus John Gocha and Karen Wearing. Our referee is Mike Spooner. My name is Mark Spackman alongside me Paul Nick and we have Marley Lamers working the board for us over here handling our production. Appreciate y’all joining in. It’s getting tight. It’s 64 game two. Coming off that injury time out there for Marty. Seems to be okay. Looks like he’s moving around pretty good now. eye on him. Nice deep ball. Don’t want the grandkids to worry about Marty though. He’s got a big smile on his face, so he’s not hurting. It doesn’t look like. I think a common theme we’ve had as we’ve been broadcasting games this weekend, Paul, is that whichever team seems to get up to that nonval zone line seems to get the advantage. John John got up there in a hurry, but he sailed that one a little long. I think we are now at 562. It’s going to be a side out with Marty Server. 651 has been hard to come by in this in this match, Mark. You had to earn them. Again, as we mentioned earlier, they’ve now played three games and only one point separates them. Again, amazing facility here. We’re in a converted Macy’s department store inside a former mall area. 12 indoor courts, cameras, and video capability on all the courts. A full pro shop over here with every paddle imaginable. Full kitchen and bar. This is a pickle ball players paradise. Man, I tell you what, I had I got a nice bowl for brunch this morning. Delicious. What was in that bowl? It had uh eggs and cheese and potatoes and black beans and avocados. And I was going to split it with you, Mark, but found myself eating the whole thing. Yeah, I was a little late to that party. It was delicious. I heard players were here until the wee hours of the morning last night after play. I don’t think this place cleared out till a little after 2:00 a.m. Yeah. And some of them were back early this morning to play and they didn’t perform their best. And uh don’t be concerned if you really can play did end up around 8. It was just the party was fun afterwards. I hear I was sound asleep in the hotel room. Let’s see if John can draw a little closer to close this gap. Times we got getting into a little bit of a hurry there. But to your point earlier, he was trying to mix it up a little bit, I believe. He’s got a nice drive. All right, side out here. 861. Three points away from the gold medal. It’s going to be a tough three points. Who makes most of those wants that one back to get one off her paddle here on her surf. Everything has been so tight and close in this. I think it’s tough from there making a decision if you do switch strategy or not. You want to think that you can pull it out. Let’s just see if you just make a couple more balls here and there. Do you switch and go to something different? Hard to leave that comfort zone at this point, too. Point for Karen and John. Yeah, I’m already talking to Jones saying that he thought that ball was going wrong. From my vantage point, I have to agree with him. That’s one of the hardest things to do is to lead that. It’s a whole lot more fun to hit it than it is to let it go long to that back hand again. Battles right back. A good shot there. going for the back hand but sails it wide and we have a tie score mark here in game number two. Don’t know why we would expect anything different. Paul Marty wants that one back. Sail that long. 98 as Jared and John are going to try to force game three and make me have to get out the Fly Delta app to see if I get a free change of flight plans if necessary. Dig there. Good point. Little high there. Joan and Marty have the ball back. Down a point here in game number two. What a shot. It landed right there in the corner. So I know we talked this weekend we have four tournaments going on in three different states with eight over 800 players. We’ve been growing so fast Paul thanks to you and all the grow how many states southern pickle ball in now? We are now in 10 states. Remember those days when we were just sitting there in Georgia running tournaments? Only two parts of Georgia really. Yeah. Yeah. And now we’re going to 10 different states. sort of started as a back and forth between Cobb County, Georgia and Mon Georgia and now it’s grown to 10 states. I think we’re quickly with some of our partners. Uh let’s expand it out even further. More to come on that. That’s a good ball there. Nice ball deep. Definitely more to come, but I really would encourage players if you want to look for a format with a lot of play and a lot of fun to check out power play pickle ball. Yeah, power play. They started in Texas and have uh ball there and now they’re branching out to some other states as well. We’re honored to count them as one of our partners. Hey Mark, we got a match point here or no side out. Sorry. I think we’re now at 910. backhand side. They keep head keep hitting Karen’s backhand side for chisel away and get some win some rallies that way. Oh, good lob by Marty. Set up the forehand putaway. And now we have a match point. 1091 Marty Kruzinowski to serve for the mixed doubles 35 gold. All right, that does it. Hey. All right. All right. Some excitement there as Kruzenowski, Joan Jolly win the mixed doubles 35 gold medal here in the Virginia Amateur State Championships powered by the Carvana PBA Tour hosted by Southern Pickle Ball at Performance Pickle Ball in Henrio Henriiko, Virginia. I’m Mark Spackman alongside Paul Mikiff. We appreciate you tuning in.
