Wed Jun 9 2021 | Matt Hamilton | USA Insider
Minutes before the U.S. women’s national team took the field for tryouts on Wednesday afternoon, head coach Jenny Levy and assistant Joe Spallina grabbed their pickleball paddles.
Levy, an avid pickleball player in Chapel Hill, N.C., where she coaches the North Carolina women’s team, had heard there were cicadas in the area and planned accordingly.
With paddles in hand, Levy and Spallina went to work.
“Where are they?” Levy shouted as cicadas buzzed past the U.S. women’s national team staff.
Levy focused in on a flying cicada, and with one swing of the paddle, a small thud and a smile on her face, she had started a competition.