{"id":133355,"date":"2024-08-01T22:47:27","date_gmt":"2024-08-02T02:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=133355"},"modified":"2024-08-01T22:47:27","modified_gmt":"2024-08-02T02:47:27","slug":"pickleball-lehigh-valley-plv-to-host-united-pickleball-association-pa-state-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=133355","title":{"rendered":"Pickleball Lehigh Valley (PLV) to host United Pickleball Association PA State Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nPickleball Lehigh Valley (PLV) to host United Pickleball Association PA State Championships<\/strong><\/p>\n

The\u00a0United Pickleball Association<\/a><\/u>\u00a0(UPA) has announced it will host the Pennsylvania United Pickleball State Championship Series at Pickleball Lehigh Valley from Sept. 13-15. The event will take place at Pickleball Lehigh Valley in the new St. Luke\u2019s SportsPlex.<\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania UPA State Championships will identify the top amateur pickleball players in the country, with\u00a0a portion of the proceeds benefitting the St. Luke\u2019s Rising Stars Fund, which benefits children and families from underserved communities.<\/p>\n

Pickleball Lehigh Valley (PLV) is a community that focuses on fun, competition and connecting with others while playing the game we love. Housed within six 8,000-square-foot bays, there are 12 hardcourt pickleball courts, 12 hardwood courts and an Event Center which is also lined for pickleball, bringing the total indoor courts to 25. PLV is also home to a 22-court, 3-acre outdoor pickleball venue that offers ample parking on and off site for large local, regional and national tournaments. St. Luke\u2019s SportsPlex is one of the largest pickleball and indoor\/outdoor sports facilities on the East Coast.<\/p>\n

\u201cPickleball Lehigh Valley is proud to host such a high-profile tournament of this caliber at our brand new facility,\u201d says John Hauth,\u00a0Senior Network Administrator, Sports Medicine Relationships. \u201cNever before has a championship pickleball series of this magnitude been held in the Lehigh Valley or anywhere else in the region for that matter, and we are thrilled to welcome players from across the state here to Pickleball Lehigh Valley and the St. Luke\u2019s SportsPlex.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skill Levels include: 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0. Age groups are 18U, 19+, 35+, 50+, 60+, 70+ and playing divisions include MS, WS, MD, WD, MXD. Each state championship medalist will qualify for the elite Champions Division brackets, earning the potential to move on to the UPA World Championships at the Brookhaven Country Club in Dallas, Texas, on Nov. 4-10, 2024.\u00a0State champions receive free registration into the UPA World Championships and will compete in the exclusive Champions Division brackets to determine the best amateurs in the country. Second place finishers will receive a 50% off their registration fee, and third place finishers will receive 33% off.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a tournament we are thrilled to have at our facility,\u201d says Deb Schlosser, Tournament Director, Pickleball Lehigh Valley. \u201cFor a few days, PLV and St. Luke\u2019s SportsPlex will be pickleball central because the UPA World Championships is the ultimate pickleball party. It\u2019s the fastest growing sport in the country and we are at the forefront of that popularity here in the Lehigh Valley.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To register for the Pennsylvania UPA State Championship Series, visit\u00a0PickleballBrackets.com<\/a><\/u>. PLV and St. Luke\u2019s SportsPlex are located at 3646 Crackersport Road. Space is limited. For more information, or interest in sponsorship opportunities, contact\u00a0PLVinquiry@gmail.com<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About St. Luke\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

Founded in 1872,\u00a0St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network<\/a><\/u><\/strong>\u00a0(SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 350+ outpatient sites.\u00a0 With annual net revenue of $3.4 billion, the Network\u2019s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke\u2019s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke\u2019s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.\u00a0 In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school campus.\u00a0 It also operates the nation\u2019s oldest School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 52 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with more than 500 residents and fellows. In 2022, St. Luke\u2019s, a member of the Children\u2019s Hospital Association, opened the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.<\/p>\n

SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare\u2019s\u00a0five-star<\/em>\u00a0ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.\u00a0 It is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades\u00a0Top Hospital<\/em>\u00a0and a Newsweek World\u2019s\u00a0Best Hospital<\/em>.\u00a0 The Network\u2019s flagship University Hospital has earned the\u00a0100 Top Major Teaching Hospital<\/em>\u00a0designation from Fortune\/PINC AI 10 years in a row, including in 2023 when it was identified as THE #4 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY.\u00a0 In 2021, St. Luke\u2019s was identified as one of the\u00a015 Top Health Systems<\/em>\u00a0nationally.\u00a0 Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the\u00a0Most Wired<\/em>\u00a0award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN\u2019s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. \u00a0The Network is also recognized as one of the state\u2019s lowest-cost providers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nGary\u00a0 Blockus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pickleball Lehigh Valley (PLV) to host United Pickleball Association PA State Championships The\u00a0United Pickleball Association\u00a0(UPA) has announced it will host the Pennsylvania United Pickleball State Championship Series at Pickleball Lehigh … Continue reading Pickleball Lehigh Valley (PLV) to host United Pickleball Association PA State Championships<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/pickleball.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133355"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=133355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/133356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=133355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=133355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=133355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}