Pickleball brings joy and is an activity that mathematics teacher Lam Le wishes she could play every day, Le said.
The sound of the pickleball-ball bouncing makes Le very happy and puts her in a good mood, Le said. Le decided to invite her students to play, she said.
“My AP Calculus students, they’re very stressed with tests and quizzes from their AP classes,” Le said. “So I say, ‘Hey, let’s just come every Friday before school’, because generally, that’s when the test happens.”
Senior Sai Anish Sivakumar, who was invited by Le to play pickleball last year, discovered the sport during P.E., he said. As a regular table tennis player, he partially enjoys the Friday morning pickleball because it is another net sport, he added.
“We have a small pickleball community here with friends, and it feels like a happy environment where we could just play against each other,” Sivakumar said.
Sivakumar mainly plays pickleball on Friday mornings, he said. He likes to play the sport before quizzes because it helps him think and focus better, he said. To him, that is the main benefit of Friday morning pickleball, he added.
“If you (students) are free before school on Friday, you should come, too,” Sivakumar said.
The morning pickleball community started three years ago, and has moved its Friday start time from around 7:30 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. because students liked to play the sport for a longer time, Le said.
“The regulars would be Ms.Topping, myself, our students, and other students from other classes also join because their friends tell them to come in and play,” Le said. “We also have Mr. McMurray, our assistant principal, come in and join, and Mr. Wrencher usually plays with us — he’s a basketball coach — and Ms. Monica Chen; she’s a counselor. She comes sometimes.”
Pickleball is a fun game that is not as tiring as tennis and does not require you to be in peak shape to play, French teacher Lisa Topping said. She likes to play pickleball because it is an activity that she can do with Le, Topping said.
“It’s just a great way to start a Friday morning,” Topping said. “Get your blood flowing and be with the students and with Ms. Le. It’s nice. So it is kind of social, but a little bit physical to get your blood flowing.”
Senior Janie Nguyen started playing pickleball on Friday mornings around mid-September, she said.
“Ms. Le found out that me and a couple of my friends were on the tennis team, so she offered us to come on Fridays,” Nguyen said. “Then we started from there, and I’ve been coming every week since then.”
Nguyen believes that pickleball helps hand-eye coordination, timing, and especially distance perception, she added.
“When you’re coming from a tennis player to play pickleball, it’s kind of hard because as a tennis player, you once think that pickleball is not as superior as tennis,” Nguyen said. “But once you start playing, it’s really fun, and it’s not that big of a deal.”
Because pickleball is more gentle on the elbows and wrists, and she is not competitive, the sport makes Le relaxed and happy at the same time, Le said.
“You get happy energy, you get out in the outdoors, and you get fresh air,” Le said. “And students often tell me, ‘Ms. Le, I feel so much happier.’ That’s the goal for the students — to feel there are activities out there that help them to stay healthy and be happy,more than just studying and studying. They can take a break, and then it will help them do better on their tests.”
