In the summer of 1965 in Bainbridge Island, Washington, a group of friends created pickleball with the sole intention of entertaining children. But, 60 years later the game has evolved into a sport for all.

What started as just a game meant for fun has now become a sport at universities across America; collegiate teams play against each other, including at Texas A&M.

“The club has over 200 paying members with a goal of reaching 1,000 members this year,” communication senior and Texas A&M Pickleball Club Vice President Jonathan Steanson said.

When someone hears the word pickleball, it might sound strange. It was at first for marketing sophomore and Pickleball Club Secretary Jenna Grace Wentland when she picked up a paddle for the first time two years ago.

Wentland, like others, started off not knowing anything about pickleball and is now helping lead the club as an officer. 

“The summer after I graduated high school, all my friends were like, ‘Hey, let’s go play pickleball,’ and I was like, ‘I’ve never heard of it. It sounds dumb,’” Wentland said. “But then I went and I became obsessed with it and we’ve played ever since.”

The club accepts students of all skill levels. For many, the club is a place to learn how to play pickleball or a place to be a part of a team. But no matter what the reason is, all members of the club can find their place in the group, Steanson said.

“There are a ton of different people to get to know, and it is quite an easy place to find a crowd that you want to get in with because we have such a diverse group of people,” Steanson said. “I mean, we have people who’ve never played pickleball before to people who are really, really good at pickleball, so it’s really been easy to kind of integrate into.”

When oceanography senior and Pickleball Club President Hugo Bernardi joined the club his sophomore year at A&M, he quickly became intrigued by the leadership aspect of it.

“I joined the club my sophomore year, and I had a couple friends that spoke to me about the club,” Bernardi said. “So that’s kind of how I got involved, and honestly, I got really close to some of the people on the board and eventually made my way up.”

This is when the club started to mean more to Bernardi than just playing pickleball. The leadership aspect of leading a student organization became a passion he wanted to pursue. 

“I was really interested in actually being part of the club and running it, and learning how it runs, how we book the courts, how we set people for tournaments and stuff like that,” Bernardi said. “I was really excited to be able to represent our school out in collegiate tournaments.”

The group has changed greatly since Bernardi joined the club his sophomore year. . When he first joined, the club was small and had only been around for two years.

Since then, the club has grown and its collegiate team has made its way up to No. 10 in the National Collegiate Pickleball Association rankings.

“In the beginning, A&M wasn’t really big on pickleball, but now we’re in there,” Bernardi said. “We’re a top10 school in the collegiate world, so we’re definitely getting there, and it’s really exciting for me to just continue being a part of that.”

Currently, A&M competes against schools across the country, from Stanford to Virginia. And while some of these schools have had a collegiate team for over five years, A&M has only been competing against other schools since 2023.

And all along the way, the club has not only been working its way up on the court, but also within the community.

“There’s no barrier,” Steanson said. “ … I mean, we’ve had a professor, we’ve had a cop, we’ve had just some old lady join. We just have had a ton of different people, and there’s room for them all.”

Something the pickleball club stands for is inclusion. While many clubs and organizations are only for A&M students, the pickleball club accepts not only students but everyone within the community. 

This is what makes the club so special for everyone who is a part of it. With so many differences, one thing stays the same for all members , and that is their love for pickleball, Bernardi said.

“You get people from your major, people from your hometown that you didn’t know and stuff like that, so I think it’s a great way to just communicate and expand,” Bernardi said. “This is where I’ve met my best friends, people that I’m gonna invite to my wedding. I only see them twice a week playing pickleball, but I see them throughout the week just hanging out.”

The club may only meet twice a week for practice, but that doesn’t stop these friends from spending time together off the court.

“I’ve made some really good friends here and not even just through board members,” Wentland said. “You have to play with these people, and you kind of talk and you see the same people around and you get a really good friend group out of it. So the community is amazing.”