Every Thursday afternoon, the sound of plastic balls bouncing on acrylic courts and the chatter of people fill the air as Wando’s newest club gets under way. Starting this year, a pickleball club was formed for all students to enjoy and play.
The founder of the Pickleball Club, junior Virginia Cook, organizes all of the social media and events. She started playing in 2020 and has enjoyed playing it throughout the years, so she decided to try and make it a club.
“I have been playing for three years, I started in quarantine with my family,” Cook said.
The Pickleball club is a new and flourishing club that started this year and teacher Sponsor, Jessie Bunting hopes it will continue throughout the school and into other schools as well.
Bunting has enjoyed sponsoring this club ever since she was asked because she played the sport so much over the summer.
“What I enjoy most is getting to know the kids outside of school. Some of them are players I coached in the past. Also students that I taught in the past. So it’s fun getting to see them in a light hearted, easy going atmosphere where we can all have fun,” Bunting said.
Every Thursday the club sets up at a court and gets ready to play. When new members join, the previous members make it their main goal to catch them up to speed.
“We meet up at pickleball courts somewhere in town and usually just group up and partner up, get a double duo going on and play some rounds teaching some people the rules and how to keep score. We play rounds until eight and then see who comes out champion on top [at] the end of the day,” Bunting said.
Pickleball Club allows for a fun and easygoing environment. Normally their meetings happen outside of school at a local tennis court, with them hoping to play all year.
“Hopefully if people want to play in the winter it will go all year around,” Cook said. Junior Zoe Butterworth, the president of the Pickleball Club, has seen so much progress since the beginning of the school year, she believes it will continue to progress throughout the year.
“I definitely hope it improves because we just started so we had a great start but I hope to get more people and new faces,” Butterworth said.
The Pickleball Club’s short-term goals are to get more students to come out and be more consistent with the club, learn how to play, and also pass the message around the school.
“Every club should have a long term and short term goal, so they can know what they need to work toward with the Pickleball club they are hoping for as many people as possible to join,” Cook said.
Bunting also hopes to get different schools involved so that they can have matches like other club sports.
“I would love if we could get other schools to have Pickleball clubs and set up some tournaments with each other, even just within Wando pickleball club itself getting inner squad tournaments going on and have some double happening some single tournaments,” Bunting said.
Butterworth shares that she loves having the opportunity to branch out and make new friends.
“I enjoy meeting new people because some of these people I’ve seen in the hall but I never really talked to them at school,” Butterworth said.
Being involved in a club as a sponsor can possibly affect a teacher’s time outside of school or even during school. According to Bunting it doesn’t have that effect on her.
“It’s only two hours outside of school every week but it’s really fun cause I get to know some different kids that I don’t get to teach and get to see them outside of school and have fun doing an activity that I think everyone enjoys doing when they are out there,” Bunting said.
The club helps students become involved in school activities, while also giving their mind a small break from schoolwork. It also helps students get more social by branching out and meeting new people who they haven’t met before. Pickleball Club is a welcoming club where anyone and everyone who is interested can join a fun and simple club.
“It’s fun and competitive and once again it’s easy to pick up and play. Also I feel pickleball is meant for everyone to play,” Cook said.
