About Us
Pickleball Enthusiasts. Team Event Wizards.
Meet The Team
Greg Mather
Greg Mather, the brainchild of the NTPL, is the founder and President of the Arizona Pickleball Players League (APPL). Greg has considerable USTA League experience as a player. In 2019, he created APPL to bring a similar team-based league format to the rapidly growing pickleball community throughout Arizona, drawing inspiration from the success of his East Valley Interclub League, aka EVIL Pickleball, which he crafted in 2012.
APPL, a nonprofit organization run entirely by volunteers, now has over 5000 players participating on more than 450 teams throughout five regions in Arizona. Greg has been instrumental in facilitating league standardization and rapid league start-up, sharing the unique and exciting APPL team-based format and scoring with other leagues throughout the country who embrace a similar vision of a national team-based league infrastructure. This infrastructure is now the NTPL.
Arizona Pickleball Players League (APPL)
Our Story
In 2020, Laurie Lambert, Executive Director of Utah Tennis Association (UTA), saw how tennis players in her community developed a passion for pickleball. These players loved competing in pickleball play but missed the team aspect that USTA tennis leagues offered.
Utah Tennis Association welcomed Jeremy Horner as their Pickleball Manager to create the team product for adult competition. During the format experimentation phase, UTA discovered the Arizona Pickleball Players League (APPL) in Phoenix, AZ had mastered a highly successful team format with over 3000 participants in their state. Greg Mather, the founder and manager of APPL, envisioned a national championship. UTA was inspired to take it further.
Utah Tennis Association, with Jeremy and Laurie as the National Program Managers, partnered with several other USTA offices around the country to begin a co-ed version of team play. USTA program managers know the mechanics of team league play and the passion of players eager for a National Championship title. This makes a great network for getting the pickleball vision into reality.
In October 2023, 18 teams from across the country converged in Las Vegas, NV for the first National Team Pickleball Championship tournament for co-ed divisions. The participant's consensus was “Yes, more please.” With the success of the co-ed tournament, came the addition of the APPL formats for same gender teams.
Today, the NTPL offers 16 divisions of play with 8 or 16 teams in each division from across the country. Men’s and Women’s teams compete all year with a national championship finale in Hilton Head, SC in September. The co-ed division national championship is held in Las Vegas, NV in October.
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National Team Pickleball League
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