According to an online article posted by The Kitchen, the number of colleges and universities offering pickleball as a club or intramural option jumped from seventeen to one hundred thirty in the last year. Ben Van Hout, director of operations at DUPR, expects the number of schools offering the sport to double or triple next year. Pickleball will remain a club sport until sanctioned by the NCAA, a move expected within the next few years.
Grace Vogt and John Neely are college students whose parents live at The Landings. Both are instrumental in launching pickleball clubs at their respective schools. Grace, a Finance major at the University of Dayton, started playing a year ago. Her DUPR rating is currently 3.89. In the summer of 2023, Grace petitioned the school for permission to organize a pickleball club. Given the green light, she wrote the club bylaws, and started building membership. What began with just ten members, rapidly grew to about one hundred. As the university does not yet have courts on campus, Grace arranged for the club to play at a local park. When weather permits, the team practices and plays four days a week.
Each club member pays annual dues, which helps pay for transportation, team uniforms, and entry fees for intercollegiate competition. While not yet an NCAA sanctioned sport, about 130 schools currently have pickleball clubs which compete in organized tournaments. The next step will be to gain recognition by the NCAA. For all her hard work and vision, the University of Dayton Center for Student Involvement awarded Grace the Boldness in Leadership Award.
John Neely, a pickleball player and Finance and Management Information Systems major, earned a seat in the University of Georgia student government in his freshman year. Noting the school did not have a pickleball club, he spoke to the Dean of Students Eric Atkinson and President Jere Morehead about starting one. They were dubious, convinced pickleball was a sport for old people, but John persisted and eventually gained permission. By April of 2023 the school had six permanent courts on campus. The sport was immediately popular with the students, and it is not unusual for them to be playing as late as 1:00AM. He returned to President Morehead to lobby for new courts, saying “The sport is too successful!” UGA now has eighteen courts which continue to be packed. The UGA Pickleball Club currently has over 900 members.
John emphasizes the importance of the UGA administration and President’s office to the growth of pickleball on campus. “Without the leadership of President Morehead and Dean Atkinson, the pickleball community at UGA would not be as successful as it is today. John hopes to start a career in management consulting after graduation, but one wonders if politics is in his future.
If it wasn’t already apparent, pickleball is no longer just an old person’s sport. Ambitious college students like Grace and John are at the forefront of a campus movement that will help feed the rapidly growing pickleball movement for years to come.