Ryan Corkery was among the country’ s first high school varsity pickleball players. The 18-year-old played at Montgomery County’ s Sherwood High School.
“ I love pickleball because of how social of a game it is and how much you have to trust and communicate with your partner to do well. Before pickleball, I only played larger team sports where it is five or 10 or 11 players on each team. Pickleball forces you to collaborate with one person, who you may have never met, to play well.”
Danya Saleem, a 17-year-old varsity player at Churchill High School in Potomac, Maryland, says,“ High school pickleball is by far the best sports team I have ever been on, and every year I am excited to go back when the season starts.”
It seems only a matter of time until pickleball becomes a varsity sport elsewhere.
“ I do think it’ s coming [ in more school districts ],” agrees Lindsey Atkinson, director of sports for the National Federation of High Schools.
Jeff Cluff, assistant director of the Utah High School Activities Association, says,“ I see us becoming the first state that sanctions pickleball in the next few years.”
Companies Selkirk and JOOLA are contributing to the youth movement as well.
Selkirk spokesperson Brynn Grissom explains,“ We offer a Growth Program, through which we donate paddles to various communities to help the sport grow. A part of this does include schools, which typically use them in their physical education classes. To date, we’ ve donated more than 30,000 paddles.”
Corey Bockhaus, JOOLA’ s editorial strategy manager, says the company has provided equipment to more than 150 schools across the country, including beginner paddles, nets, balls, apparel and accessories.
“ By investing in youth pickleball, we can get kids introduced to the sport at a younger age, and as they grow and progress we’ ll be there to assist along the way,” Bockhaus adds.“ Their progress and the progress of the sport will grow so much faster with that investment.”
Outside Montgomery County, while high school players may not yet be able to earn varsity letters in pickleball, they can win tournament medals.
Last December, in Mesa, Arizona, 150 players from 25 high schools competed in the first-ever Arizona High School Pickleball Championships and tournament organizers hope to have players from 100 high schools competing by 2027.
On April 11, DUPR( the Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating service), in partnership with the Collegiate Pickleball Tour, is sponsoring the first-ever national high school tournament— also in Mesa. It will be streamed on DUPR’ s YouTube channel.
“ We expect 64 of the nation’ s best high schoolers to come out and compete from at least 20 different schools,” says Jacob Smith, DUPR’ s director of college and high school pickleball.“ We have been building up to this High School National Championship with our regional high school tournaments this school year.”
After they graduate, pickleballers can play in college. According to Noah Suemnick, chief operating officer of the National Collegiate Pickleball Association, 120 colleges have club teams. When the NCPA was founded in 2023, only 30 colleges had club squads.
“ The collegiate rivalry among schools and the energy that college pickleball brings is unlike anything I’ ve seen in all of pickleball,” Suemnick adds.“ Universities are seeing how exciting collegiate pickleball is.”
Although it is not yet an official NCAA sport, at least four colleges offer pickleball scholarships. The first to launch a varsity program was Drury University, in the fall of 2024. Drury is in Springfield, Missouri, the same city where 5-year-olds are learning to play pickleball.
The future of the sport is being written right now in kindergarten gyms, where the next generation is finding their rhythm with foam paddles and balloons. •
Matthew Schwartz spent 40 years in television news and won more than 200 awards, including four Emmys and four Edward R. Murrow awards for investigative reporting. His 2020 memoir,“ Confessions of an Investigative Reporter,” was an Amazon # 1 bestseller. He writes a weekly blog for Hudef Sport and plays pickleball six days a week.
MARCH / APRIL 2026 | MAGAZINE 41