USA Pickleball JUNIOR SPOTLIGHT
DOMINIC
OSBORNE
By Bob Nibarger
Dominic ( Dom ) Osborne , 11 , is an avid sports lover , having played baseball , basketball , and flag football . That all changed when he was 9 years old and his great aunt and uncle introduced his family to pickleball . His parents and grandparents would often need a partner to play with , so whenever he could , he played .
In the summer of 2019 , Dom got a chance to play in his first round-robin junior tournament and he was hooked — bringing home a gold medal ! He went on to play in the Midwest Holiday Open in Indiana and again took gold in both singles and doubles in the Junior division .
His medal streak continued during that same tournament when he got the opportunity to play with his dad , Mark Osborne , in a unique event where an adult at any skill level could play with a junior player . Dom was ecstatic to take home a silver medal , competing against high-level players .
Dom has incredible speed , great determination and , on the court , is extremely competitive . He has a true passion for tournaments and enjoys playing in them , so he was disappointed that most of the tournaments were canceled in 2020 . But Dom still took home gold , silver , and bronze medals in both the Chicago and Cincinnati Open .
Through all of his hard work and determination , he is honored to now be a Selkirk-sponsored junior player .
One perk of competing in tournaments has been the opportunity for Dom to make new friends playing pickleball , including Grant Libstaff , who joined him in winning a silver medal .
Tyson McGuffin is one of the pros that Dominic most admires and loves watching . He first met Tyson
in July 2019 in Grand Rapids , Michigan , at the Beer City Open . One of his goals was to learn Tyson ’ s serve . He recently was able to have one of his most memorable pickleball experiences attending one of Tyson ’ s two-day pickleball camps in Atlanta , along with his parents .
Following the camp , Dom now likes to spend extra time on the court perfecting that serve , while also adding the Erne shot to his toolbox — and most enjoying when he nails an ATP !
Dominic has also had the honor of playing against Webby , of the “ Webby and Eddie ” video podcast , and received a rave review from Webby himself :
“ I ’ ve had the pleasure of seeing Dominic Osborne grow tremendously as a junior player the past couple of years . I have to admit the first time I played with Dominic , I underestimated how good this then 10-year-old player would be . We played singles , so I took it easy the first few rallies to avoid beating him too badly . Before I knew it , Dominic had a commanding 6-0 lead . I turned it up and gave it all I had , but it didn ’ t matter — he ended up beating me 11-0 . Even though I briefly felt a little embarrassed , my emotions quickly shifted toward feeling very proud and excited at the fact that I was in the presence of a very talented pickleball player . Players like Dominic are a great example of what the Junior division of pickleball should be .”
Even though Dominic is not intimidated and will play with or against players of any age , he wishes there were more kids playing .
Juniors are absolutely the future of pickleball , and we hope Dominic Osborne will be a name that will be well-known for many years to come . •