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It started in 1965 when businessman Bill Bell and congressman Joel Pritchard came together on a hot summer day. With nothing else to do, the two friends went to a badminton court and began experimenting with a new game. What started as a knockoff badminton match with cheap plywood ping-pong paddles and poorly punctured plastic balls has evolved into one of the most popular recreational sports in America.
Pickleball has grown rapidly since the COVID-19 pandemic. Many attribute this rapid growth to the popularity across all generations, as physicians praise the activity for elderly patients, families play with young children, students play in gym class, and coworkers build work leagues. Pickleball is a form of high cardiovascular exercise, that helps maintain healthy joints and muscles while also tapping into skills like flexibility, hand-eye coordination, and even social skills. These factors together lead to one conclusion, that pickleball is an accessible and inclusive sport with many physical and psychological benefits.
Students from Ankeny High have already started their own pickleball league, where they play at Hawkeye Park during the summer for a cash prize. Recently, students from Ankeny Centennial have also started something similar.
“We always wanted to do something connected to the school that we started,” Ankeny Centennial senior Rhett Wichman said, “We saw a bunch of students playing pickleball, so why couldn’t we all play [together] at one place?”
Wichman helped start Centennial’s newest club which is all about playing pickleball. Students meet at Ashland Ridge Elementary School every Wednesday after school. They set up the courts, play pickleball for an hour, and then go home.
“It’s casual. This is the first year that this club has existed, so obviously it’s going to be heavily casual. We have talked about [organizing] more tournaments in the future, but that’s for wider horizons.” Wichman stated.
Although the club mainly consists of tennis players or students with a lot of pickleball experience, the club is open to all sorts of players, whether they are brand new to pickleball or have been playing for years.
“One of us tries to explain the rules and walk them through a few points,” Ankeny Centennial junior Curran Anliker said, “[We] walk them through different scenarios and the point system so they know how to play. If you just play, you’re going to understand it more.”
There are over 50 members in the club, and around 15-20 people regularly attend every week. The club’s booming growth is not out of the norm; in fact, pickleball had approximately 19.8 million players in 2024, which was a 45.8% increase from 2023. One reason for this rapid growth is the sport’s simplicity and accessibility.
“All ages can play [pickleball],” Anliker stated, “It’s pretty simple and straightforward. Pickleball is an easy gateway to get into.”
Tennis coach and ORBIS teacher Warren Lofgren is the sponsor of the club and has been playing pickleball for about seven years. A fan of the strategy and finesse required for pickleball, Lofgren was hooked immediately and started to play in leagues and joined a few tournaments as well.
“Pickleball is an awesome sport. It’s tons of fun,” Lofgren said, “The students have organized everything, they bring the equipment, and set up and take down everything each time we meet. It’s a great group of students, they seem to have a lot of fun every week. Every once in a while I even get in and play against them to show them how it’s done!”
With pickleball on the rise in Ankeny, many students have asked about pickleball becoming a potential new varsity sport for high school. With school districts in Maryland officially recognizing pickleball as a varsity sport and countless high school tournaments being held across the country, it seems that it is only a matter of time before pickleball is not only a varsity sport in Iowa, but also in all 50 states.
“I personally don’t have a doubt in my mind that [pickleball] is 100% going to be a varsity sport, maybe not in the next five years, but maybe 10 years down the line,” Wichman said, “If [pickleball] is still prominent, people are going to realize that. They’re already teaching it in gyms so people know how to play. If people are coming out to [pickleball club], there’s obviously a want to play.”
