Pickleball frenzy
Hits MHS

Pickleball, a dynamic combination of sports like badminton, tennis, and pingpong, has rapidly emerged as one of the fastest growing sports in the U.S. According to Pickleheads, the sport has grown about 225% in popularity in recent years, and has the largest age bracket of players, ranging from 18-34 on average.

The game has recently captured the attention of Menasha residents, with a recent Pickleball tournament that was held at the high school, as well as a pickleball club emerging for students to join, and even a league for Menasha teachers and staff.

National Honor Society Hosts Tournament

After months of tedious planning, Kelsie Mohr, a senior at MHS, and her fellow National Honor Society members hosted a Pickleball Tournament on April 24. Expecting only a few teams to show up, they were excited when 24 teams showed up to play.

Teams played in a bracket system to determine championship players.  Following the rules of pickleball, matches play to 11 points.

Two hours later,  the two final duos consisted of Bret Beyer, math teacher at MHS and Joel Johnson, tennis coach and elementary teacher playing against Lynn Melendy, MHS student services secretary, and her husband. 

Both Beyer and Melendy had started playing pickleball about four years ago, and have been playing it ever since. It was an intense finale, different from the previous games. The teams played the best out of three matches instead, fighting for the winning prize. 

Beyer and Johson pulled off the win by the end of the matches.  The two celebrated with their grand prize: a golden pickleball paddle and a jar of pickles.

Beyer felt quite confident about winning. He “knew going in that Mr. Johnson is a good tennis player, and [that he’s also] a solid player; [he] knew it would be a pretty good duo.”

Fortunately, Melendy and her husband were not left out of the excitement. The two were quite content with their second place title. 

Melendy said it was “really fun” to have made it that far because she hadn’t expected to get to play to the end. They were delighted to take home their own silver pickleball paddle, as well as a signature jar of pickles. 

The students of the NHS organized the event to raise money for the NHS scholarship, while also doing something fun. 

Mohr said they knew there were quite a few teachers who played pickleball, and there was also a large age range of players that could be interested in playing. 

“We just wanted to do something that was active,” Mohr said and overall was delighted how the event went.

Student Opportunity to Join

In fall Beyer plans to run a student club for pickleball at Smith Park.  

“It’s something that any age can do,” Beyer said.  “A teenage kid could play with their grandparents and that to me is one of the cool things. It used to be perceived as an old person game, which is just not the case anymore.”

Students do not need their own paddle.  Bluejay Backers and the Menasha Education Foundation donated money to support the club. Beyer now has paddles, balls, and a net.

The Birth of Pickleball
(In case you think actual pickles are involved)

If you’re unfamiliar with the game of pickleball, you may be confused as to why it has been making headlines; and more importantly, why is “pickle” in the name? 

It began the summer of 1965, when a congressman from Washington state, Joel Pritchard, and his friend Bill Bell, a businessman, returned to Pritchard’s estate to find their families lounging in boredom. The estate had an old badminton court, so Pritchard and Bell searched for badminton rackets, but could only find ping pong paddles and a perforated plastic ball. 

The two improvised a new game for their families, creating new rules that relied heavily on badminton. They wanted to keep in mind the original intent of the game, which was to “provide a game that the whole family could play together” (USA Pickleball ).

As Pritchard and Bell worked together with friends to establish the game as a real sport, it was necessary to create a name. The origins have been debated, some believe that it was cutely named after their dog Pickles, but unfortunately it’s more likely a bit more dull. It’s said that Pritchard’s wife named it after the pickle boats in rowing, which would be the boat that was the least competitive in racing and had a crew that would be thrown together at random. 

So, as many might wonder-  no, unfortunately, the sport is not named after the fermented cucumbers in a jar.