Derek Jeter will always be the captain — but this weekend, it’s a bit of a different role.
Jeter, of course, was the captain of the New York Yankees for the final 12 seasons of his Hall of Fame 20-year career.
Now, Jeter has received the title of captain of a padel team at the Reserve Cup in Miami this weekend.
The Reserve Cup, founded by Wayne Boich, is an annual event where the top padel players compete in a tournament. Jeter is going up against NBA All-Star Jimmy Butler.
“I’m here to support Wayne. I’m no padel expert, he’s the panel expert. He first told me about his vision, and I’m proud of what he’s been able to build here,” Jeter said in an interview with Fox Business.
The first Reserve Cup in Miami was just two years ago, and stars like Jeter, David Beckham, and Serena Williams have shown their love for the sport that combines tennis, pickleball, racquetball, and squash. Prize money is around $600,000 with over $2 million in sponsorship revenue.
“For me, it came from loving the sport first. I knew nothing about padel in 2013, I played at a wedding. And then I was like, ‘Wow, this is an amazing sport.’ I had no idea what it was. And then I started to play with a bunch of ex-tennis players in Miami, and there was barely any courts in the United States. I think under 10 in the whole U.S., but there was three in Miami. We started to play a lot, and then when I went over to Spain and played with the pros, we were like, ‘Wow, this is such a cool sport to watch live, and playing against these guys is amazing,'” Boich said to Fox Business.
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Boich then started bringing pro players to Miami, built a court at his house, and “it became an event.”
“It’s so engaging yet so much easier yet so much easier than most forced to fill very athletic and get intermediate. I noticed how men and women from around 75 years old could get hooked in one session. I found that very telling,” Boich said.
“What we have with Reserve Cup, it’s not a tour event, but we’re very much a high-end lifestyle event that people go to for great padel but many other things,” Boich added. “Whether it’s networking, watching padel, the events we do on-site, the people they get exposed to. Most of all, I’m very humbled and proud to see all these folks getting into the game and obviously the part that we played in it.”
The Reserve Cup is no exhibition, though, as some of the game’s best in the world are competing for the prizes.
“That’s what draws people here. Any time you’re watching a sport, if you have the best players in the world — look at World Series and Super Bowl — people want to go see it,” Jeter added. “He’s turned this into an event getting some of the top players in the world here.”
For Boich, it means the world to have support from someone like the 14-time All-Star and five-time World Series winner.
“I’m just fortunate that I’ve been around sports for a long time, and those folks have been friends of mine for a long time. And I got them in the padel, they both very much enjoy it. Jimmy’s an avid player when he can play, and Derek certainly loves it,” Boich said. So they’re helpful, right? And I think they appreciate and believe what we’re building at Reserve and they’re happy to be a part of it, and I’m very lucky before that. It’s been great.
“And then I think on the Reserve Cup side, it’s been really good to see the corporate money starting to flow into it. We’re in a position now where we have some great sponsors at Reserve Cup to help make the event a success. We’ve supplied probably about 20% of the courts that have been sold in the United States. It’s the tip of the iceberg.”
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