You probably know pickleball as the game your neighbors keeps inviting you to play in their backyard, but it isn’t just getting more popular among your friends.
AÂ healthy junior pickleball program recently sprung up in northeast Mesa, and, thanks to the support of a passionate professional and his enthusiastic older players, young players now are gravitating to pickleball like roots gravitate to water.
Red Mountain Ranch Country Club pickleball director Ryan Trefry, a California transplant, believes that with a little nurturing, organized competitive pickleball for junior players will take root in Arizona if they are simply introduced to the fastest growing sport in America.
âItâs just a matter of reaching the kids and getting them on the court, because once they get on the court they love it,â said Ryan, a 5.0 pickleball professional who has accumulated more than 100 pickleball competition medals over the past four years.