Chambersburg's Rally in the Valley turns five: chamber-run pickleball pays off

The fifth annual Rally in the Valley Pickleball Tournament is in the books, and the Greater Chambersburg Chamber of Commerce has the medals and one Golden Pickle to show for it. The two-day event ran October 16 and 17 at the Chambersburg Memorial YMCA in Pennsylvania, starting Friday evening and playing through Saturday afternoon across men's, women's and mixed doubles divisions. Medals went to the top three finishers in each bracket, with a special Golden Pickle Award presented to the standout players of the weekend, the chamber's own signature honor.

The winners

Women's doubles under 50 went to Bailey Slusser and Mandi Bittinger, ahead of Elsie Lapp and Sadie Lapp in second and Ana Carla Zierke Yin and Martha Fernanda Salgado Neto in third. In the 50-plus bracket, Deb Norris and Patty Stevens took gold, with Ginny Harriger and Angie Leedy second and Tammy Kolb and Kendra Stains third.

On the men's side, Brad Kuhns and Danley Shank won the under-50 division over Garrett Blubaugh and David Elliott, with Blake Diller and Ryan Diller third. The 50-plus title went to Lee Leonard and Jeff Taylor, followed by Les Hegarty and Doug Reese, with Jeff Bean and Chuck Kiser in third.

Mixed doubles advanced was won by Mandi Bittinger and Jonathan Laughman, giving Bittinger a double-gold weekend across women's and mixed play. Second place went to Ashley Co's pairing per the chamber's results release.

Why a chamber of commerce runs a pickleball tournament

Five years in, Rally in the Valley has become a fixture of Chambersburg's fall calendar, and its organizer is not a club or a tour but the local chamber of commerce. That is a model spreading through small-city America: pickleball tournaments as economic development. A two-day event at the YMCA fills hotel rooms, restaurants and the downtown corridor with players and families, at a fraction of the cost of courting a larger sporting event. The Golden Pickle Award, the chamber's own creation, gives the weekend a signature that players remember and return for.

The format is deliberately accessible. Age-split doubles brackets at under-50 and 50-plus, plus an advanced mixed division, cover the demographics that actually show up to community events, and the Friday-evening start lets working players compete without burning a vacation day. It is the same formula that has made charity and chamber-run tournaments some of the most durable events in the sport's calendar, from fire-recovery fundraisers in California to pink-themed charity opens in the Gulf, and it requires no pro tour sanction, no broadcast deal and no dedicated facility to work.

The novice mixed doubles bracket, often the most telling division at a community event, went to Lisa Jerigan and Mike Miller, with Jess Bair and Zach Stough second and Trang Rioux and Jeff Taylor third. A healthy novice field is the leading indicator: it means the event is still recruiting new competitors, not just recycling the same regulars.

The sponsor economy behind the medals

The sponsor list tells its own story about small-city pickleball economics. Players went home with swag bags from Penn National Insurance, T-shirts from WellSpan Health, hydrostickers from GDC IT Solutions, pickleballs from law firm Sharpe & Sharpe and koozies from SEK, CPAs & Advisors. The chamber's thank-you list runs to Patriot Federal Credit Union, Wilson College, The Floor Trader Outlet of Chambersburg, Chick-fil-A Chambersburg, Habitat for Humanity of Franklin County, C.V. Wenger, F&M Trust, GearHouse Brewing Co., Keystone Health, Noelker and Hull Associates, Orrstown Bank, Starr Insurance and The Zoeller Company.

That is a cross-section of an entire local economy, banks, a college, a brewery, a fast-food franchise, a law firm and a credit union, all buying into a pickleball weekend. Local businesses sponsor what local customers care about, and a sponsor board this broad five years running is market research no survey can match: in Chambersburg, pickleball is where the town is.

The grassroots engine

Events like Chambersburg's rarely make national coverage, but they are the layer of the sport that converts casual players into committed ones. A first medal at a local tournament is the hook that turns a twice-a-month player into a league regular, and the chamber's five-year streak suggests the formula compounds: each year's winners bring friends the next fall.

The setting matters too. The Memorial YMCA is a community facility, not a dedicated pickleball complex, which is still the reality for most of the sport's tournaments outside the pro tours. Until the current wave of court construction catches up with demand, multi-use gyms and YMCAs remain the sport's tournament infrastructure, and events like Rally in the Valley are the proof that the model works. The sixth edition is presumably already on the chamber's whiteboard, and if the pattern holds, it will sell out its brackets on the strength of this year's word of mouth alone.

Sources

• Franklin County Free Press - Chambersburg Chamber Celebrates Winners of Fifth Annual Rally in the Valley Pickleball Tournament

Sources checked 20 Oct 2026. Header image is illustrative, not a photo of the events described.