Pickleball, most often described as tennis with paddles, is seeing a rising trend throughout the community and is slowly but surely becoming a part of WEGO.
According to CNBC, pickleball has become a global sensation with a staggering 36 million players, reasons vary from the sport being a pretty straightforward sport with a mix of badminton, ping-pong and tennis. The twist behind the game is that two or four players use paddles and a wiffleball to play a series of matches to score 11 points with a 2-point margin – all while hitting the wiffleball over a short net.
For a couple of years, WEGO’s PE department has owned pickleball rackets, wiffle balls, and nets (which are similar to badminton nets) with the hope of paving the way for not only pickleball, but also badminton, to be part of the permanent WEGO curriculum.
Currently, pickleball is part of the freshman and sophomore PE classes, part of an experiment to see if students will engage with this new physical activity. Due to the success with the younger student section, there are plans to bring the sport to the junior and senior classes.
“It’s just something different. So you know, they’re still trying to get used to it when they play it for the first couple of times. It’s not like, you know, badminton, or floor hockey or soccer, where they’ve been playing it for, you know, a long time and they’re kind of used to it and know how it’s done. It’s something new, so they’re just trying to get the feel for it,” interim Division Head for PE, Health, and Driver’s Ed Conor Zaputil said.
Originally, pickleball was a game that thrived in retirement homes for its beloved social aspects and exercise benefits. The game was significant for seniors because the wiffle ball travels at such a slow pace that seniors could play a game for hours.
EVERYDAY Health’s research shows that pickleball is an acrobatic sport, meaning pickleball helps improve cardiovascular fitness. Also, the game is considered a low-impact sport with a low risk of injury, and is easy to learn.
Now, the younger generation has taken a liking of the underdog sport the past decade, with 28.8% of pickleball players age ranging from 18-34.
“If there are some students in the building that really enjoyed it and wanted to start up a club team, and then it kind of took off from there, I definitely see it starting there. And then you never know: maybe IHSA (Illinois High School Sports Association). Maybe they’ll make it a full-time sport because of how fast it is growing and everything. If our students want to play it, and there’s enough students, they could definitely start a club here. And I think that’d be great,” Zaputil said.
Many students are unfamiliar with pickleball, despite its rising popularity.
“I think it would be a great addition to the PE class, but also if the results are good, then maybe start like a club or something like that. It’s a sport people should at least know the foundation of how to play,” sophomore Patricia Marszalek said.
Students are torn as to whether further investment should be made in this growing sport, however. Some argued that other sports, such as Lacrosse or gymnastics, two sports that are not a part of the WEGO community, should take priority when it comes to establishing new clubs.
“There are so many other sports that we could be doing like lacrosse, gymnastics, and instead of pickleball because I feel like no one is gonna play pickleball,” sophomore Cecilia Ayala said.
