With the increase in popularity of pickleball over the last couple of years, people of all ages are participating in the sport all year round. Like tennis, pickleball is a paddle sport played on a small court with a net. On Sept. 16, the school held a pickleball tournament where duos competed against each other. 

  “Me and Sydney play all the time. It’s one of our favorite things. It’s just so fun. And we’re not very good at it, but it’s still really fun. I play tennis [and] they’re very similar,” senior Lily Alvarado said. 

  While Alvarado and her partner Sydney Rapin did not win the tournament, they still claimed that they had lots of fun on the court. The winners, juniors Blake LaFaive and Hudson Robertson, had a similar attitude.

  “[I competed] just for fun. I didn’t think we were gonna win. We usually just play it as a hobby a lot during the summer,” Robertson said. 

  Skill was not the only factor that went into making a good team, however. Students who signed up for the tournament generally signed up with a close friend, which many people found to be helpful while playing. A lot of these pairs have practiced together before.

  “[Lily’s] my best friend and we play all the time. We’re doubles partners all the time just for fun, and we play really well together I think,” senior Sydney Rapin said.

  Everyone who competed in the tournament played for different reasons, but the tournament couldn’t have been possible without someone pulling the strings behind the scenes. Junior Avery Plummer, an active student senate member, decided to take on the responsibility of organizing the entire tournament.

  “For senate, we put on projects to get more of the school involved, so I decided to put on a pickleball tournament since that’s been getting more popular lately,” Plummer said.

  Plummer was in charge of everything from the sign-up sheet to what order the games were played in. Plummer was also responsible for recording who won what round and made a bracket to use during the tournament. She said she enjoyed watching the tournament come together after all of her hard work.

  “It felt good to see people enjoying themselves and just having fun and playing pickleball,” Plummer said. 

  But running a tournament is not without problems. For Plummer, it was the fact that a couple of people did not show up to compete. 

  “The hardest part was making the bracket because some people didn’t show up,” Plummer said. 

  Plummer persevered nonetheless and ensured the tournament ran smoothly. Thanks to Plummer’s work, the pickleball tournament provided students with a place to get together and have fun. While everyone had a different experience, Plummer said she felt optimistic about the tournament at the end of the day, and she reached her goal of encouraging student involvement.

  “I thought it was so much fun, [and] I would definitely do it again,” Alvarado said.