BY MARK BERTON
O
nce a week, at Camp Pendleton in Virginia Beach, a group of 10
cadets play pickleball on a hand-painted court that also serves
as a half-court basketball court.
One aspect of the Commonwealth Challenge Youth Academy, a
National Guard-sponsored program that offers a semi-military-
academy approach to at-risk youth, is that none of the kids had ever heard
of pickleball before joining the program—and that’s the whole point.
Charles Morgan, Social Studies teacher for Commonwealth Challenge
and the program’s pickleball pioneer, considers himself a “newbie”
in pickleball. He discovered the sport through a parks and recreation
program when it was just beginning to blossom in 2011, and added it into
his personal rotation of activities that he enjoyed regularly. In 2015, he
underwent back surgery, and pickleball became a higher priority because
it’s one of the few sports he could still enjoy throughout his recovery. He
never knew pickleball would give him a leg up on the competition when he
applied for a teaching position at Commonwealth Challenge.
“When I interviewed for the position, they asked me not only what my
qualifications for social studies were, but what extracurricular activities I
brought with me,” he says. “I’d worked in museums and everyone around
here has experience with soccer. Trying to stand out, I told them about
pickleball and that got everybody very interested.”
Morgan got the job and quickly created a pickleball club with two cadets
from each platoon—eight in all, with two additional slots filled by players
he hand-picks to round out the group. Pickleball substitutes for one of the
regular physical training obligations each week, and once in a while the
group will travel two miles down the road to a local recreational court at
Red Wing Park to play with the civilian regulars.
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