By MOTAZ DEIFY
During the fall, QO athletes and non-athletes may be familiar with: kicking a soccer ball, swinging a golf club, serving a volleyball, swinging a field hockey stick at a ball, throwing a football, dancing, or running. However, some students may not be familiar with swinging a paddle at a ball—an action you take in pickleball, a simple pickup game played with friends that has now come to QO as a pilot program that was initiated this fall.
Pickleball, similar to bocce and allied softball, is a corollary sport that is basically a different version of tennis, and will be played on a modified tennis court. All competitions and practices will be held outside. Usually, pickleball can be played in either singles or doubles, but for QO pickleball, it will be “played in doubles only,” says Athletic Director Jeffery Rabberman.
Holding the team together is science resource teacher Jennifer Yeck, who coached cheer for 22 years, poms for three years, and allied bocce for two years. “It’s so quick to get the pilot program going, and get a certain number of kids to make the team,” says Yeck. Flashing right before anyone’s eyes, practices began two weeks after the interest meeting, September 28, with games to start the week of October 9.
One important aspect of pickleball is that half of the team must be students with disabilities. With that in mind, Yeck is most excited about, “the partnership and community building between the student athletes; a great combination to help kids with disabilities and match them up with kids without disabilities,” she says.
An interest meeting for joining the team was held on Wednesday, September 13, which encouraged any student from grades 9-12 who wished to participate on a varsity school interscholastic athletics team, whether they have played other sports at some point in their lives or not.
Because pickleball is a part of QO Athletics, Rabberman emphasizes the R.A.I.S.E core values of MCPS Athletics apply just like any other sport. “The R.A.I.S.E core values we do for all MCPS athletics doesn’t change for [pickleball],” he says. Some critical core values include respect, sportsmanship, integrity and character, spirited and safe competition.
“The corollary sports in general embody all of the R.A.I.S.E core values,” says Yeck, “because there is that great sense of community between the student athletes and the coaches.”
Furthermore, these core values teach all young athletes to gain the skills they need in order to succeed after high school and beyond, like, as Yeck points out, “working with people that are different from them.”
Although there always will be competitiveness in the sport, Yeck says the pickleball environment is “very positive and super encouraging on both sides.”
October 2023
The Prowler 