Pickleball will be a varsity HS sport

[Anonymous]

I have nothing against it, per se, but how will the court space work in terms of competing with tennis team needs for the space?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not many POC play PB. There are 76 PB courts in Fairfax County, and if you go to any of them at any given time, you rarely see POC and PB. That is unless you count Asians as POC. Go to any lifetime, Onelife, Village Pickle in Leesburg, PB in Tysons, and you hardly see any POC there play PB.

One thing about PB as a varsity sport in Montgomery, you can bet that 100% of team will be made up of tennis players that will also play varsity tennis in the spring. Anyone else will not stand a chance against them

That’s a silly comment. Pickleball is basically doubles game…plenty of people can become great at pickleball that would suck at tennis (or don’t play tennis) because you have to move so much less.

Again…it’s the equivalent of saying tennis players can easily become the best ping pong players because there is a racquet and a net.

PB is also a single game, and it is also very physically demanding, not as much as single in tennis but there are so much court to cover, unlike double PB where non-athletic people just "dink" the ball into the kitchen area.

If you're a competitive tennis player, you get really good at PB in less then one month, and I can say this from personal experience. I had a 11 UTR tennis rating when I started playing PB and it took me three weeks to get good with PB. I can hit topspin and serve at 60MPH and easily beat up 5.0 PB player. That's why you see former tennis players like Jack Sock and Chris Haworth started PB in less than a year and they already beat Ben Johns .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I saw the email yesterday about PB becoming a varsity sport. I don’t understand why it can’t be a club or a rec sport at high school. My kids are working hard to make varsity in their respective sports. It feels like an insult when some kid can take up pickleball and put down they play on a varsity sport on their college application. It’s not the same thing as years of intense playing, injuries and tryouts. What a joke.

You think colleges care about your kid playing a varsity sport

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PB is another rich white & Asian sport, just like tennis or golf.

you literally need a plastic ball and two inexpensive paddles to play with on a free, public court. no lessons required, no stringing. it's as affordable as basketball.

Then please explain why I am not seeing a lot of POC playing PB. I play PB at Lewinsville park in McLean and East Potomac Center in DC and I rarely see black or Hispanic PB players. I only see either white or Asian PB players, young and old.

You are playing in McLean dear

That made me LOL!

Not many POC play PB. There are 76 PB courts in Fairfax County, and if you go to any of them at any given time, you rarely see POC and PB. That is unless you count Asians as POC. Go to any lifetime, Onelife, Village Pickle in Leesburg, PB in Tysons, and you hardly see any POC there play PB.

One thing about PB as a varsity sport in Montgomery, you can bet that 100% of team will be made up of tennis players that will also play varsity tennis in the spring. Anyone else will not stand a chance against them

Wait, when you go to areas that lack POC, you aren't seeing POC? That's really shocking

Are you saying POC don't live in wealthy neighborhoods of Fairfax County? Such a stupid comment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I saw the email yesterday about PB becoming a varsity sport. I don’t understand why it can’t be a club or a rec sport at high school. My kids are working hard to make varsity in their respective sports. It feels like an insult when some kid can take up pickleball and put down they play on a varsity sport on their college application. It’s not the same thing as years of intense playing, injuries and tryouts. What a joke.

You do realize that anyone who plays a no cut sport can do that now? 80% of cross country runners fall into this category

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I predict that in FCPS, football will cease to exist at certain HS where the demographics won’t support one team, let alone fresh/jv/varsity.

I think it would be great if football was replaced by a bunch of other sports that kids actually want to play, cost less, and have lower injury rates.

My kids go to an FCPS school (Woodson) where they don't fill the freshman football team even though they are begging kids to play. But have no freshman soccer team despite huge turnouts and cuts for the JV soccer team. While I don't see FCPS getting rid of football or adding pickleball anytime soon, I'm pretty sure based on the number of high schoolers I know that get together to play pickleball just for fun, that Woodson could easily field a pickleball team.

If they were smart, they would replace football with flag football which will likely become a college sport and will see a ton of interest with it played in the 2028 Olympics. It is also co-Ed so you can have girls teams as well.

That’s not co-ed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I saw the email yesterday about PB becoming a varsity sport. I don’t understand why it can’t be a club or a rec sport at high school. My kids are working hard to make varsity in their respective sports. It feels like an insult when some kid can take up pickleball and put down they play on a varsity sport on their college application. It’s not the same thing as years of intense playing, injuries and tryouts. What a joke.

What sport? We already have varsity “sports” like cross country, tennis, volleyball, and standing (baseball).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have nothing against it, per se, but how will the court space work in terms of competing with tennis team needs for the space?

Tennis is a Spring sport, and because of that, the tennis courts sit idle in Fall and Winter season. PB will be a Fall sport so the tennis court will be utilized. There is usually six tennis courts at each HS in Montgomery so that will be equal to 12 PB courts. This is a very smart move by Montgomery County.

[Anonymous]

Clarification for the people who couldn’t read the whole half page article:

Pickleball is a corollary sport, with bocce, handball, add slow pitch softball. It’s part of the inclusive program, for students with disabilities or average fitness. It’s the athletic version of non-AP/DE classes.

No one’s stealing your precious D1 scholarship or Ivy League admit by playing pickleball. Sorry if you’re so bitter that not everyone else broke their child’s body for a sport because they don’t share your insecurity about your child’s academic readiness for your sense of entitlement to attend an elite college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not many POC play PB. There are 76 PB courts in Fairfax County, and if you go to any of them at any given time, you rarely see POC and PB. That is unless you count Asians as POC. Go to any lifetime, Onelife, Village Pickle in Leesburg, PB in Tysons, and you hardly see any POC there play PB.

One thing about PB as a varsity sport in Montgomery, you can bet that 100% of team will be made up of tennis players that will also play varsity tennis in the spring. Anyone else will not stand a chance against them

That’s a silly comment. Pickleball is basically doubles game…plenty of people can become great at pickleball that would suck at tennis (or don’t play tennis) because you have to move so much less.

Again…it’s the equivalent of saying tennis players can easily become the best ping pong players because there is a racquet and a net.

PB is also a single game, and it is also very physically demanding, not as much as single in tennis but there are so much court to cover, unlike double PB where non-athletic people just "dink" the ball into the kitchen area.

If you're a competitive tennis player, you get really good at PB in less then one month, and I can say this from personal experience. I had a 11 UTR tennis rating when I started playing PB and it took me three weeks to get good with PB. I can hit topspin and serve at 60MPH and easily beat up 5.0 PB player. That's why you see former tennis players like Jack Sock and Chris Haworth started PB in less than a year and they already beat Ben Johns .

Pickleball has a kitchen? Now we’re talking! This is my sport!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not many POC play PB. There are 76 PB courts in Fairfax County, and if you go to any of them at any given time, you rarely see POC and PB. That is unless you count Asians as POC. Go to any lifetime, Onelife, Village Pickle in Leesburg, PB in Tysons, and you hardly see any POC there play PB.

One thing about PB as a varsity sport in Montgomery, you can bet that 100% of team will be made up of tennis players that will also play varsity tennis in the spring. Anyone else will not stand a chance against them

That’s a silly comment. Pickleball is basically doubles game…plenty of people can become great at pickleball that would suck at tennis (or don’t play tennis) because you have to move so much less.

Again…it’s the equivalent of saying tennis players can easily become the best ping pong players because there is a racquet and a net.

PB is also a single game, and it is also very physically demanding, not as much as single in tennis but there are so much court to cover, unlike double PB where non-athletic people just "dink" the ball into the kitchen area.

If you're a competitive tennis player, you get really good at PB in less then one month, and I can say this from personal experience. I had a 11 UTR tennis rating when I started playing PB and it took me three weeks to get good with PB. I can hit topspin and serve at 60MPH and easily beat up 5.0 PB player. That's why you see former tennis players like Jack Sock and Chris Haworth started PB in less than a year and they already beat Ben Johns .

Well yes a good D1 tennis player could be top 20 in the world if they dedicated a little time

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PB is another rich white & Asian sport, just like tennis or golf.

you literally need a plastic ball and two inexpensive paddles to play with on a free, public court. no lessons required, no stringing. it's as affordable as basketball.

Then please explain why I am not seeing a lot of POC playing PB. I play PB at Lewinsville park in McLean and East Potomac Center in DC and I rarely see black or Hispanic PB players. I only see either white or Asian PB players, young and old.

You are playing in McLean dear

That made me LOL!

Not many POC play PB. There are 76 PB courts in Fairfax County, and if you go to any of them at any given time, you rarely see POC and PB. That is unless you count Asians as POC. Go to any lifetime, Onelife, Village Pickle in Leesburg, PB in Tysons, and you hardly see any POC there play PB.

One thing about PB as a varsity sport in Montgomery, you can bet that 100% of team will be made up of tennis players that will also play varsity tennis in the spring. Anyone else will not stand a chance against them

Wait, when you go to areas that lack POC, you aren't seeing POC? That's really shocking

Are you saying POC don't live in wealthy neighborhoods of Fairfax County? Such a stupid comment.

PP defined POC as non-asian and non-white. Do you understand demographics or do you pretend that McLean is actually diverse

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw the email yesterday about PB becoming a varsity sport. I don’t understand why it can’t be a club or a rec sport at high school. My kids are working hard to make varsity in their respective sports. It feels like an insult when some kid can take up pickleball and put down they play on a varsity sport on their college application. It’s not the same thing as years of intense playing, injuries and tryouts. What a joke.

What sport? We already have varsity “sports” like cross country, tennis, volleyball, and standing (baseball).

We found the moron in the room

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clarification for the people who couldn’t read the whole half page article:

Pickleball is a corollary sport, with bocce, handball, add slow pitch softball. It’s part of the inclusive program, for students with disabilities or average fitness. It’s the athletic version of non-AP/DE classes.

No one’s stealing your precious D1 scholarship or Ivy League admit by playing pickleball. Sorry if you’re so bitter that not everyone else broke their child’s body for a sport because they don’t share your insecurity about your child’s academic readiness for your sense of entitlement to attend an elite college.

Wow somebody is angry!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clarification for the people who couldn’t read the whole half page article:

Pickleball is a corollary sport, with bocce, handball, add slow pitch softball. It’s part of the inclusive program, for students with disabilities or average fitness. It’s the athletic version of non-AP/DE classes.

No one’s stealing your precious D1 scholarship or Ivy League admit by playing pickleball. Sorry if you’re so bitter that not everyone else broke their child’s body for a sport because they don’t share your insecurity about your child’s academic readiness for your sense of entitlement to attend an elite college.

Any sport that has limited number of kids on the court and rewards better coordination and fitness will not end up being inclusive. The kids who actually get to play will all be in good shape with good hand eye coordination