CRANBERRY TWP — Competitive pickleball. That's a thing. One that's growing ever more popular. And one that's happening in Cranberry Township this weekend.

From Friday through Sunday, the 2021 USA Pickleball North Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship will take hold at Graham Park, and will be hosted by the Cranberry Township Pickleball Association. It's the first time the township's pickleball association has hosted a sanctioned qualifying tournament for the USA Pickleball National Championships.

Pickleball — a cross between tennis, badminton and ping-pong — is, according to The Economist, the fastest-growing sport in the United States. It may not have the popularity of, say, football or baseball, but USA Pickleball, the national governing body for the sport, boasts that more than 28,000 fans were present at the 2019 national championships, and the organization claims it has more than 40,000 members.

More than that, the Sports Fitness Industry Association's 2019 report showed pickleball reached more than 3.3 million participants. Contributing to the sport's popularity, Cranberry's pickleball association claims, is that the sport is easy to learn, affordable to play and fun for all ages and levels.

The event schedule is online and can be found at www.cranberrytownship.org/CTPA. Those interested in watching live, but unable to attend, can watch on Cranberry's pickleball association Facebook page, which will stream play from the championship court all three days.