Printable Pickleball Tournament Director Checklist

A pickleball tournament director checklist is not a motivational poster. It is the list of things that, if skipped, turn a Saturday into a dispute at the medal table. Format, tiebreakers, court count, staff PIN, paper backup, and the last-serve time belong on paper before anyone arrives.

Use this as a working list, not a branding exercise. Pair it with the how to run a tournament guide for the why, and the schedule template for the hour grid.

Paper, the registration site, and the print sheet

Most experienced directors already keep a paper order of games. The failure mode is two sheets that disagree: the whiteboard, the laptop, and the phone each have a different next match. A useful print sheet is the same order the desk is scoring, with blanks, so a dead network does not invent a new draw.

If you already register on another site, keep it. Use the print sheet for the hours you are actually calling matches. In DinkTourney that page is /live/<code>/print after you build the draw.

Two weeks out

1. Lock format per division: robin, pools, single elim, or double elim. Write medal depth (champion only, through 3rd, through 7th).
2. Publish scoring (to 11 / 15 / 21, win by 2, cap or no cap, best-of-three or not) and the rating or age split for each division.
3. Publish the tiebreaker list. Do not leave “we will figure it out” on the flyer.
4. Count courts the honest way — see how many courts — and confirm the venue close time in writing.
5. Name a second director. If you are also playing, you do not have a director.
6. Decide registration: free list, or rated event with caps and optional online fees.

Seventy-two hours out

1. Freeze the field or publish the wait-list rule. Late adds after the draw is posted cost you reseeding time you do not have on Saturday.
2. Build the draw. Print one copy of the order of games with blanks for scores. Put a second copy in the car.
3. Assign staff: check-in, score desk, court runner. One person can do desk and runner only if the field is tiny.
4. Test the live link on a phone that is not yours. Confirm the six-character code and the staff PIN open the right event.
5. Pack balls (new, same model), extra grips, a first-aid kit, a roll of court tape, two pens that work, and a power bank.
6. Write the weather / wifi plan in one paragraph. Indoor backup? Delay window? Who texts the field?

Morning of, before first serve

1. Walk every court: nets at 36 inches center, lines dry, cranks tight, nearby lessons warned.
2. Open check-in 30–45 minutes early. Mark no-shows. Do not hold the first round more than 10 minutes for a maybe.
3. Captains’ meeting: format, scoring, tiebreakers, medal depth, who makes line calls, where the desk is, how to see the next match.
4. Hand the printed order of games to the desk. If you are using DinkTourney, the print view is the same sheet with score blanks.
5. Start round one on time even if a seed is in the parking lot. A late start is how a two-court robin misses medals.

During play

1. Only the desk writes official scores. Verbal “we won 11–7” from court 4 is not a result until it is on the sheet or in the app.
2. Call the next match when the previous match hits 9. On-deck teams should be at the gate, not at their car.
3. Protect rest: do not send a team back out in two minutes unless the format is a stacked single-elim and they know it.
4. Injuries and retirements: award the match per the published forfeit rule. Do not redesign the bracket mid-round.
5. If the network dies, keep scoring on the paper sheet. DinkTourney’s tournament controller is built to keep check-in, courts, and scores moving through a wifi outage and sync when the network returns. Card payments and new accounts still need internet — do not promise otherwise.

Medals, teardown, and the 10-minute close

1. Close the robin or pools before you start medals. Confirm seeds out loud. Play only the medal depth you advertised.
2. Announce standings from the sheet, not from memory. Photograph the final standings.
3. Pay staff, return keys, pick up tape and bottle caps. A parks rec will not rebook a sloppy club.
4. Same day: email results or post the live-board link. Note one thing that broke and put it at the top of next month’s list.

If you want the software to carry the draw, use the free creator for casual brackets or rated setup when you need registration and optional fees. Players join with a code in the phone browser.