Pickleball is a racket or paddle sport in which two or four players use a smooth-faced paddle to hit a plastic ball. Pickleball is played both indoors and outdoors. It was invented in 1965 as a children’s backyard game in the United States.
In Pickleball, the only way to score is while your team is serving. The returning team is trying to earn back the serve. You earn a point when your opponents fail to return a shot. For example, when the other side misses a return, and the ball bounces two times consecutively on the other team’s side, you win a point.
When it comes to practice, if you get to the courts early, you play freely with friends. When the whole group is there, two people are usually selected to lead the run, which is two laps around the courts. When we are finished, the whole group goes into a group stretching session led by the coaches. Depending on the day and your skill level, we usually split up into groups and practice skills. When we are finished, we have some free playing time again.
This year, the Eaglebrook Pickleball coaching staff consists of Ms. Morsman, Ms. Adawiya, Mr. Lamb, Mr. Mandell ’00, and Mr. Morganis. There are 26 players on the team, ranging from Third to Sixth Form. The players on the Pickleball team are Lief Abramson ’28, Tyce Boudway ’29, Eric Choi ’28, Matthias Choi ’28, Alex Choi ’28, Finn Coffin ’28, Camdyn Foster ’26, Marcus Fraser ’26, Jaden Godette ’27, Reid Harrison ’26, Jacob Kang ’26, David Luo ’28, James McGee ’27, Declan Morris ’28, Lucas Pearman ’27, Chase Quebec ’27, Kaden Song ’27, Jaden Song ’28, Parker Stanton ’26, Malakai Veras ’27, Conner Wang ’29, Rex Wang ’28, Nicholas Woodward ’26, Jeppard Xia ’26, Leo Yu ’29, and Kenneth Zheng ’29.