LAUREN CEBALLOS / SPORTS EDITOR

Sports bring many things to light including competitiveness, new skill and comradery. One sport that includes all of this is pickleball. 

Pickleball is a paddle sport that originated in 1965 and has grown in popularity over the years, all over TikTok and other social media platforms. Many influencers have posted their outfits for pickleball or images of the court, and many USD students followed the trend, rushing to play after class in the campus recreation courts.

 Pickleball was created by Joel Pritchard, a Washington congressman, Bill Bell, a businessman, and Barney McCallum, a handyman. 

  Onix Pickleball, the leading manufacturer of pickleball equipment, stated the origins of the game made by Pritchard, McCallum and Bell on Onix Pickleball.

   “With bored children at home, they sought to play badminton on an old badminton court but couldn’t find the proper equipment. They improvised and played with table tennis paddles and a perforated plastic ball. They began with the net at a badminton net height (60 inches high) and volleyed the ball back and forth over the net,” according to Onix Pickleball.

   McCallum joined the men the following weekend, producing the rules for the game as a solution to their families’ boredom.

 By 1990, nearly  every state in the U.S. was playing pickleball. The USA Pickleball Association (USAPA) was established in 2005 with their first national tournament in 2009.

The name of the game is said to have two origin stories, however one has not prevailed yet. 

  According to Onix Pickleball,    

    “The first account is according to Joan Pritchard; Joel Pritchard, she started calling the game pickleball because the combination of different sports reminded her of the pickle boat in crew, where oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of the other boats. The second account — from Barney McCallum — says that pickleball was named after Pritchard’s dog Pickles, who would chase the ball and run with it. Some believe Pickles was named after the game, because he didn’t join the family until a couple of years after the game was created.”

  USD club pickleball General Manager (President), Shannon Burns defined the sport.

  “I always tell people it’s a combination of ping pong, tennis and badminton… you usually use a wiffle ball type of ball… and then the paddles are a lot smaller,” Burns said.

Burns officially brought the sport to the school in Spring of 2022, after finding an interest in the sport during COVID-19.

   “When I came to USD, I asked around, and I figured out that we didn’t actually  have  a  club pickleball team… so I was like, ‘whoa we need a club, then I bet we would be able to get a lot of people involved.’”

 Burns shared why she chose to start the club.

    “A lot of people didn’t know what it was, so I feel like starting the club would expose people to the sport and get them into it and allow people to have fun with that.”

  USD first-year Christopher Harman found the sport of pickleball through one of his best friends over the summer. The two would meet and play every Friday night with other friends, playing pickleball tournaments. 

 Harman explained why he loves the sport so much.

     “It definitely gives me something to get my mind off of stuff, but it also gives me a place to be competitive still. That’s something that I was worried about leaving high school, because I played sports year round,” Harman said.

 Harman proceeded to join USD club pickleball this year.

 Burns expressed how the club started off small, with a majority of club tennis players.

       “I think we only had 15 registered members the first semester and then since then, we’ve grown a lot. Last semester, we had around 60 registered members… [and this semester] we had over 200 people register at the Alcalá Bazaar.”

  Burns explained a consensus of interest among USD students that was made prevalent during Alcalá Bazaar.

   “This was kind of the first Alcalá Bazaar that everybody knew what it was, and I wasn’t having to explain what it was to people when they came up. They were like, ‘oh my gosh, I love pickleball’ rather than ‘what is pickleball?’” Burns said.

       Harman solidified this statement with his prevalent interest.

   “I  found  out  about  club  pickleball actually through my love for pickleball. Before coming to USD, I looked up and searched if we did have a pickleball club and sure enough we did. I found it… on Instagram and through the USD website,” Harman said.

 Burns explained how she found a community amongst pickleballers at USD specifically.

   “People are able to meet new people that they might not have normally talked to on campus, but they’re able to unite over their love of pickleball, especially with the competitive players and for the beginners,” Burns shared about the club members.

  Harman expanded on this idea as a member of the club.

   “The club has been amazing. They’ve got great leaders. It’s like a tight, fun community and all the people there are super nice and super accepting and wanting to help others,” Harman said.

    Pickleball continues to grow as USD students build their love for it and the connections that they have made because of it.