A new high-speed, intramural competition has come to our campus. It is something that is not often associated with edgy rivalries and challenging tournament play, but that is what we have witnessed as competitive pickleball arrived at Princeton Day School.
Before you conjure up images of a pseudo sport, regulated to noisy courts at 60-and-older retirement communities, you need to see how it is played here. At PDS, this is competitive pickleball, where the players are students and the speed of the wiffle ball hit by our non-retirees is surprisingly fast. Players rapidly scramble across their section of the court to return volleys and smash the wiffle ball to smash it past their opponents. Playing pickleball at PDS is a real competition.
Bringing a competitive pickleball tournament was the brainchild of sophomore Andrew Thallemer . “I started the pickleball club since I loved the sport and wanted more opportunities for the Upper School community to get together to have fun,” said Thallemer. The club was tentatively approved in June of 2023 and Thallemer asked Sophomore Umang Sharma to share in the responsibility of the club leadership. After more than two years of planning, the inaugural tournament was held starting Thursday, February 1. From the first, the Pickleball Tournament at PDS drew spectators representing the Upper, Middle, and Lower schools.
“It was pretty amazing, ” says Sharma. We had a lot of players sign up and a lot of people came to watch. During the preparation and the tournament, people were able to bond.”
Sophomore Charlie Kaplowitz added the pickleball matches “got a good amount of attention but [he] hope [s] to see more participation in future tournaments.” Indeed the tournament involved 20 students from the Upper School. “There was a pretty great crowd a good amount of people,” according to senior Will Maschler, who added that “it was a privilege being part of it, having never had a pickleball tournament before now,” and describing it as “a lot of fun with great team chemistry and people who played really well together.”
Creating the first-ever pickleball tournament was not without its challenges. Sharma and Thallemer said that finding the right times that all members could meet to ensure that they had time to play and making sure everything was set up on time, were among the tougher aspects of 2024 pickleball logistics. There is also the need for more referees, which Thallemer and Sharma hope to see rectified in the 2024-25 school year.
Regardless, Sharma is grateful to all who signed up for and came to watch the PDS Pickleball Tournament, calling it “amazing.” “Next time, I am sure lots more people will want to put their pickleball playing skills to the test and make the tournament even more fun,” said Thallemer
The winning team of this year’s inaugural tournament were seniors Will Maschler and Sam Cohen, who expect that the Tournament will continue past their tenure to the 2024-25 school year. “I hope there will be more tournaments, maybe one every trimester and played outside,” added Maschler. “Good luck to next year’s participants, but Sam and I will always be number one.”
