Aiken County P.E. teachers gather to learn about pickleball

Matthew Christian, Aiken Standard, S.C.
·2 min read

Aug. 13—A group of physical education teachers spent Tuesday morning learning about one of the fastest growing sports in the world: pickleball.

Mo Garcia, the head professional pickleball player at the H. Odell Weeks Activities Center, led the demonstration recently on a court inside the activities center. Several regular pickleball players also provided instructions during the demonstration.

Pickleball is a racket sport that uses a court similar to badminton, a net similar to tennis court nets, a harder and larger version of a Wiffle ball and larger versions of table tennis paddles.

It has been recognized as the fastest growing sport the previous two years by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association.

"It's been a great opportunity to teach pickleball [and] to bring pickleball into communities that aren't exposed to pickleball," Garcia said. "There's close to 20 million people playing pickleball around the country at the moment. Our (goal) at the moment is to introduce pickleball at the rudimentary level, at the primary schools [and] at the secondary schools."

Garcia, who serves as western South Carolina district ambassador for the U.S. Pickleball Association, the national governing body for the sport, said the plan is for the sport to become an Olympic sport by the 2032 games that will be held in Brisbane, Australia.

He said pickleball will be a demonstration sport at the 2024 games in Paris and will be a trial sport at the 2028 games in Los Angeles.

"So, we're working at the grassroots level, getting it into the schools," Garcia said. "We understand the constraints that the education system and the schools have for budget, and so this [the training] is all gratis. [It's] free just to encourage the teachers, teaching the teachers who are going to take pickleball and introduce it in the curriculum at the schools."

George Pope, a physical education teacher at North Aiken Elementary School, was one of the teachers participating in the introduction.

He said the sport was interesting to learn and that he had taught it when he was a student teacher. Pope said pickleball exposes children to something they may have not seen before and helps them to learn to navigate unfamiliar situations.

Pope added sports like pickleball can serve as a confidence booster for children.

Corey Hulsebus, a physical education teacher at Jefferson Elementary School in Warrenville, said pickleball looked like a fun sport to teach his students.