Coal City runs away with inaugural Town Cup

The courts at North Park in Coal City were electric over the weekend as local players gathered for the highly anticipated "Battle of the Towns" pickleball tournament.
The event, featuring teams representing Coal City, Morris and Braidwood, delivered high-stakes drama, incredible underdog stories and a hometown crowd that walked away with major bragging rights.
The morning kicked off with pool play to determine bracket seeding, where the Coal City teams of Matt Leman/Jeremy Unger and Devon McVey/Abby Stiles both finished a perfect 3-0 to lead the pack. However, once the double-elimination bracket began, the intensity reached another level.
Leman and Unger looked virtually unstoppable, cruising through the winner's bracket and even defeating McVey/Stiles in a tight 11-9 battle to secure an automatic spot in the grand championship.
Dropped to the loser's bracket, McVey and Stiles had to fight their way back, surviving a gritty 11-9 match against Andy Vignocchi and Mason Garner. Because it was a double-elimination format, McVey and Stiles needed to defeat the top seeds twice in a row.
McVey and Stiles controlled the first game 11-5, forcing a winner-take-all match. With the tension high, McVey and Stiles dug deep to pull off an 11-7 victory, completing the ultimate comeback to capture the title and walk away with the $200 cash prize.
While McVey and Stiles took home the hardware, Coal City’s Vignocchi/Garner authored the definitive Cinderella story of the tournament. After a 1-2 showing in morning pool play left them low in the seeding, they flipped a switch in the afternoon.
Vignocchi and Garner went on a spectacular four-match win streak in the elimination bracket—knocking out teams Jon Zarbock/Owen Noon (11-1), Quy Nguyen/Jonah Maldono (11-9), Brodie Peterson/Jace Scalf (11-6), and Aidan Meister/Dom Chellino (11-9)—to storm their way into a 3rd-place podium finish.
The tournament also marked the debut of the "Town Cup," a per-capita scoring system that combined pool play points with bracket success to crown the area's top pickleball community.
While Braidwood held a narrow lead after the morning session, Coal City completely overwhelmed the field in the afternoon bracket. Sweeping the top three podium spots. Coal City finished with a grand total average of 106.25 points to firmly secure the trophy over Braidwood (42) and Morris (25).
"It was a great day for our first ever multi-town tournament, and our goal is to bring more people from all over to enjoy some competitive pickleball,” said event organizer Matt Leman.
“Events like these are only possible with the support of the community and the Coal City Tennis Association wants to give a massive thank you to The Cove for providing complimentary drinks for all of our tournament players and for their continued support of the area's growing pickleball community.”
The Battle of the Towns may be over, but local pickleball action is still heating up for the summer. The CCTA has announced that the final league of the summer will run from July 7 through August 11. Registration details and more information can be found by following the Coal City Tennis Association on Facebook and Instagram.