The smashing success of Occidental Pickleball, with a group chat to prove it

248
The Pickleball Club at the McKinnon Tennis Courts at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA. Sept. 6, 2024. Amalia Rimmon/The Occidental

Pickleball Club provides Occidental students of all interests and abilities the chance to ride the kitchen line, the front boundary of the court that marks an area where the players may not step while hitting the ball. Though the Pickleball Club has taken off this year, the original idea was founded by a friend group that included Club Treasurer Joseph Langley (senior) and Club President Sara Masaki (senior) back in their first year.

“She made a group chat with just our friends, and kept mentioning that we play to people,” Langley said. “We kept adding to that group chat and eventually it got too large, so we made a Gmail chat because it’s really easy to add people to that.”

According to new member Keya Mammen (sophomore), after starting officially as a club at Occidental this year, the club has experienced a new surge in membership this fall, and the group chat currently hosts around 70 students.

“It was like this huge craze, everyone was playing on social media. The group chat came to be so we could get as many Oxy students as possible,” Mammen said.

Sebastian Accetta serves as the chief operating officer of Electrum Pickleball at Purdue University.

“At Purdue, the club first started off as a group,” Accetta said. “People would just text when they wanted to play and meetup. If someone new was found they would be added to the group chat.”

Across both the clubs at Occidental College and Purdue University, the creation of a group chat has been instrumental in getting people together and drumming up a baseline interest in the club.

According to Accetta, the ability to gather all interested parties has led to a group with an excellent sense of community — one that participants can engage with at any level they are comfortable with.

“Due to the naturally social aspect of the club, pickleball has specifically drawn young adults to the sport,” Accetta said. “A lot of my closest friends have come from Pickleball Club, and whenever we host open plays or events, I always see new people chatting and smiling.”

The Pickleball Club at the McKinnon Tennis Courts at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA. Sept. 6, 2024. Amalia Rimmon/The Occidental

According to Langley, for Occidental Pickleball Club, the sentiment of a friendly environment is the same.

“One of the really nice things about pickleball as opposed to tennis is that it works really well as a club,” Langley said. “The court is smaller, so you can chat and banter while you play. You get to know someone really well that way.”

According to Mammen, because of the nature of pickleball, people can play with different groups and collaborate which creates a social environment.

“Everyone knows each other in some sense, especially since Oxy is such a small school,” Mammen said.

According to Langley, though the club is official and does receive occasional funding, administration has been challenging to work with. Specifically, it has been a struggle for the club to get authorization to use athletic facilities and equipment.

“There are rules around reserving the tennis courts — you can only do that twice a semester,” Langley said. “We’ve been looking into trying to go to other places such as public parks or tournaments with other schools.”

According to Langley, due to the more intimate nature of the game, a collaborative and supportive experience is created.

“The mechanics of pickleball are not what make it so awesome to me,” Langley said. “At the end of the day it’s fun to hear someone hyping you up when you do well, and that’s what Pickleball Club is.”

Contact Benjamin Petteruti at petteruti@oxy.edu

*This article was edited on Sept. 30 to reflect the fact that the tennis courts are available to the campus community during regular hours. This article previously quoted Langley saying that the Oxy Athletics does not allow non-athletes at the tennis courts at any time, which is incorrect.

Loading

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here