What started out as a joke, a common interest among friends, and a playful yet competitive sport, has now turned into an event that many students participate in, according to junior Annie Douma. 

The Pickleball Club has recently emerged as FHC’s newest club. Their first meeting was Saturday, Mar. 5th, and since then, they have held three additional gatherings. Each meeting takes place at Ada Park, and with nearly twenty-five people turning out each time, students are guaranteed to have fun. 

“Originally, [my friends and I] were all hanging out, and the idea of starting the Pickleball Club came up as a joke, since we all play,” Annie said. “We even made a group chat called ‘Pickleball Club Captains,’ but it didn’t go anywhere for a little while. And then this year, kind of out of nowhere, [junior Max Cooper] came to [junior Megan Fox and I] about starting the club for real, and from there, we all helped him, and what started as a joke turned out to really be fun.” 

All three captains are juniors: Annie Douma, Megan Fox, and Max Cooper. Although they all have different stories of how they started playing pickleball, their common love for the sport is what brought them together in order to spread the word and to make something of their collective hobby. 

One of the main things that Annie enjoys most about the club is that you don’t necessarily have to be amazing at pickleball in order to have a good time on the court. 

“I’ve been playing pickleball for a little while now, but I am not necessarily very good at it,” Annie said. “I just think it’s fun. One day, I was partnered with Max, and I know the rules and how to do it, but I am not always the most consistent. So when the other team hit the ball to us and I completely missed it, Max goes, ‘Little rusty, are we?’ as a joke, and I was like, ‘No, I just suck.’”

This turned into an ongoing inside joke, which she also finds to be quite funny, and it just goes to show that the Pickleball Club can be a place for everyone of all skill levels. 

For most people that go to the meet-ups, it’s not necessarily about gaining skills—although that is a perk—but rather spending time with the rest of your class that you might not otherwise see outside of school.

“One of the best parts of the club is getting people outside of their comfort zones,” Megan said, “because you are forced to talk to people you normally wouldn’t since you’re either playing against them or they’re put on your team. So I feel like people have started to build bonds that way with other people from our class.”

Because of this reason, Megan feels as though anyone who is even considering joining should at least show up to one meeting to see how it all works. 

Megan explains that at the meetings, they do some warm-ups, go over the rules, and then let people loose in order to actually play the game. After a while, everyone will come back together and play pickleball-related drills such as ‘King of the Court’—which everyone really enjoys. 

“We are always trying to come up with new ways to keep it entertaining for people,” Megan said. “Recently, we came up with the idea to have a tournament after spring break together with some potential prizes for the winners, that way people have the incentive to try it out and see for themselves how fun it is.”

Max agrees with Megan that ensuring that people continue to go to the meetings is one of the trickiest parts of running a club. But, word about the club continues to travel fast, thanks to the continued work they put in to keep it relevant.

“We make sure to advertise it a lot through FX and Instagram,” Max said. “And we really want everyone to know that the club has a place for them whether or not they are there to be with friends, or to actually learn how to play, whatever the reason; it’s just fun.”

In addition to having strong communication with its participants and the ongoing effort to make sure the club remains an entertaining outlet for all of the students, Max feels that the club will stick around even after its current leaders graduate. 

“I think there’s a very bright future for the Pickleball Club,” Max said. “We have a lot of junior members, but also a couple of young members that play, and they thoroughly enjoy pickleball, and I hope to pass it on to one of them someday, so I definitely see us continuing it next year. And I hope that they’ll continue it after we have graduated, so people can keep having a good time with their class.”