For pickleball champ from Oregon, the game is on

Pickleball has been around since the 60s but you may not have heard about it until recently. It’s been called the fastest growing sport in the country. Eleven-time pickleball national champion Wesley Gabrielsen says it’s like tennis meets ping pong, combined with badminton. And most importantly, it’s just plain fun. Pickleball is easy to learn, costs very little and is unique in that it’s a physical sport that three generations could play at once. Gabrielsen says you can’t say that about a lot of other sports. He joins us to tell us more about how he got into the game, its appeal and why it’s growing by leaps and bounds.

The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer:

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. We end this week with pickleball. It’s a mashup of tennis, ping pong and badminton. It was invented in the Northwest in the 19 sixties, but in recent years its popularity has exploded. It’s been called the fastest-growing sport in America. It is now played all over the world. Wesley Gabrielson joins me now to talk about pickleball. He is an 11-time national champion. He recently left his job as a high school teacher and tennis coach to become the head pickleball professional at the Illahe Country Club in Salem. Wesley Gabrielson, welcome.

Wesley Gabrielson: Thanks for having me, Dave. Good to be here.

Miller: It’s good to have you on. Let’s start with the basics. What are the rules of the game?

Gabrielson: Well, pickleball is very similar to tennis, in terms of having a net in a court. It’s kind of like volleyball used to be with scoring, where you can only score a point when you’re serving. But the rallies are fast and furious and it’s just a whole lot of fun.

Miller: How did pickleball get its name?

Gabrielson: There’s a lot of debate about this. Some people think it has to do with a pickle boat and other people think it has to do with the name of the dog of one of the inventors who was named Pickles and would go chase the ball, pick it up and bring it back to the court. So I think it’s really up for interpretation.

Miller: Regardless of that mystery, it did start in the Northwest, in Washington State?

Gabrielson: On Bainbridge Island, 1965.

Miller: How did it grow from there to be what it is today?

Gabrielson: It’s really been interesting just from my perspective, I’ve been playing and competing for about the last 10, 11 years, but obviously there’s been a lot of growth within that time. If we go back to 1965, I think it was played recreationally. And then there were some tournaments in the Pacific Northwest throughout the eighties and nineties. And I feel like in the early to mid-two thousands, it really picked up a lot of steam and then really, honestly, since the covid era when people were looking for things to do that were outside, it really became very, very popular and really in the last year and a half.

Miller: You grew up in Salem. You first played pickleball in middle school, I’ve read. What did the game mean to you back then?

Gabrielson: It was something that was just really fun to play. It was similar to tennis. I just really enjoyed the camaraderie. I think what really draws people into pickleball is how social it is. But once I got into high school and I was competing in tennis, when it rains, you can’t go play tennis outside. So it was a way for me to continue to practice some tennis-type skills with a different sport.

Miller: So you could play pickleball outside in the rain?

Gabrielson: We played inside actually. Yeah, technically you could go play outside, it would be a little slippery, but we would go inside and play.

Miller: So as you noted, you eventually became a serious tennis player and you played in college. When did you go back to pickleball?

Gabrielson: Well, so when I graduated from college, I was starting to teach and I was coaching tennis and still competing. And then I was actually at a tennis tournament and one of my mixed doubles partners in tennis was getting into pickleball and she said, ‘hey, you should come play with me in Vancouver’. So I drove up to Vancouver on a Saturday afternoon, evening, and played pickleball. It was the first time I ever played with a non-wooden paddle, because that’s what we played with in PE class. And a different type of ball. And I learned the strategy and I would say, I think I played one tournament that year in 2011. And then by about 2013 they started to have a few more tournaments in the area. And I said, you know what, I’m just going to give this a go. Because I was getting to a point where I was winning more matches than losing. And I said, I’m going to try this and kind of table my tennis from here on out.

Miller: So was there a point where you realized that comparatively speaking, you were better at pickleball than you were at tennis?

Gabrielson: Yeah. I would say, when I got to those early pickleball tournaments, circa 2012, 2013, and I was getting on the medal stand more often than I was in the tennis world, where I would be lucky to reach the quarterfinals of an open tournament, then I realized I had a little bit better or brighter future in pickleball than in tennis.

Miller: Is it still fun for you? This is a game that started just as pure fun in middle school and then you took tennis more seriously. Then you turned to what once was just fun and then you started treating it really seriously. Does that take the fun away?

Gabrielson: Definitely not. In no way, shape or form. If I get to a point where it’s not fun anymore, then I’ll stop playing it and I’ve been that way in every sport that I play. So, obviously that’s been a really important part of my new chapter in life right now, as this is full time in terms of instruction. I always make sure that I balance my competitive play with also fun play. I have family members who play, I have good friends that play, and we’re at a different level, but that makes it and continues to make it fun for me to play.

Miller: Is that true for tennis as well? I mean, if there are two or four players who are at really different levels in tennis, is it as much fun to play together?

Gabrielson: I think it can still be as fun, and I love tennis. I was coaching high school tennis up until last year. But I feel like It’s much easier in pickleball to have multiple generations and skill levels on one court, and still have a good competitive fun game, compared to tennis. And I think a lot of that has to do with how much smaller the pickleball court is compared to a tennis court.

Miller: I’ve read you can put four pickleball courts in the space of one tennis court. So I mean among other things, does that mean there’s just less running?

Gabrielson: It’s a lot less running. What’s really interesting is when you look at professional tennis, there’s a lot of emphasis on singles. You don’t see as many doubles matches on TV. In pickleball, it’s the opposite. Doubles is kind of the primary event. Pickleball singles is still very taxing on the body, and so that’s why I think you see more people of all ages and skill levels play doubles and it’s more social, because you are closer to your opponent at the net, than you would be in tennis.

Miller: What makes the game fun?

Gabrielson: I just think – and I don’t know if I’m phrasing this correctly – but the barrier to entry. So when you’re starting out a sport, how easy it is it to learn something right away? I think that part of pickleball, where it’s much easier to learn quickly, makes it more enjoyable, in addition to the fact that you are mixing and matching and playing with all different sorts of people of different sports backgrounds. And everyone laughs when they play. Even at the highest level you have a great rally. People congratulate each other for a good rally, whereas in some other sports, things are a little bit more serious, and you don’t see that much sportsmanship. So I think all those things combined make it just really incredibly fun.

Miller: So even when you play at the highest level on the way to winning one of your 11 national championships, at the end of a rally, you would be talking happily across the net?

Gabrielson: Not after every point I think there’s … [interrupted]

Miller: But even sometimes, I honestly, I don’t see that if I watch high level tennis on TV, it doesn’t seem like the people are ever interacting.

Gabrielson: Yeah, you see, kind of . . . I think proximity, because in pickleball, you’re much closer to each other, because most of the play is done at the net, it’s not so much from the baseline. And so, you do see the Roger Federers and Rafaels and the Nadals, if there’s a good point, they’ll kind of smirk at each other and smile, or if something fluky happens on the court. Pickleball, it’s not, I don’t want to make it seem like at the pro level, it’s chummy all the time. But what I mean by it is, when you’re in a really long rally, whether you win or lose that point, or let’s say the ball hits the net and barely trickles over the net to end this long rally, that’s where you see that moment of brevity where people will smile, they’ll say nice shot, they’ll tap paddles and then they’ll go back to business.

Miller: If you’re just tuning in, we’re talking right now about pickleball. Wesley Gabrielson is with us, an 11-time USA pickleball national champion, recently named the head pickleball professional at the Illahe Country Club in Salem. How did you decide to take this job to be a pickleball pro at a country club instead of teaching social studies and coaching tennis at a high school?

Gabrielson: Yeah, I think the whole Covid era has made a lot of people kind of re-evaluate life and opportunities and such. And I really enjoyed being a high school teacher and a tennis coach, but as I saw pickleball grow from a recreational standpoint, there was a tremendous demand for pickleball instruction, because more and more people were playing and there are more and more opportunities for instruction than at any other point in my 10-year pickleball playing career. I did some soul searching and I said, ‘I’m gonna see if I can, if I can get a leave of absence for a year and try this’, meaning if my district will grant me – most people call it a sabbatical, or leave of absence – if I can do this for a year and just explore it and try it. I think it’s better to do that than to think back in 20 years and go, why didn’t I try this when I have this background in this part, why didn’t I try this? And so I taught for the first four months of my leave of absence here, just freelance teaching camps, clinics, at private courts and around, and then I was lucky enough to receive a call from one of my good friends, and actually my private high school tennis coach, when I was in high school, he and two other good friends of mine were named the tennis pros at Illahe Hills Country Club about a year ago. And they said, ‘we’re building this pickleball facility, we heard you’re off teaching for a year, are you interested in coming and teaching pickleball here?’. And from the moment I went to the facility to my first day on the job, it has been a perfect match. I really enjoy it there.

Miller: How much of your decision could be tied to the pandemic-related disruptions to K-12 life?

Gabrielson: It’s super interesting because I think that’s definitely in the back of my mind a bit. And some people have asked me, was it the covid era and, restrictions with schools and being on zoom, did that play a huge part into it? I’m not gonna lie, it’s definitely part of it, but a majority of it was just looking at opportunities that I haven’t really had or taken before. I decided to take this plunge for this year and see how it goes.

Miller: You’re a pro now at a country club in Salem. I’m curious what you think of the pickleball offerings in Portland compared to other parts of Oregon, or other bigger cities around the country?

Gabrielson: Yeah. What’s really been interesting for a lot of us that have been playing pickleball for awhile is, I remember when there was never a permanent pickleball court. Because there are those that exist around the country. There was never a permanent pickleball court here in the greater Portland area, and over time communities like McMinnville where I live, Albany Corvallis, Eugene, they started to put in these permanent pickleball courts. But Portland has a ton of parks where they have dual use between tennis and pickleball on the same court, but there really aren’t a lot of public pickleball courts in Portland. And for years and years, a lot of us involved in the sport have tried and wondered why that’s the case. And I think what we’ve seen as a result is more and more – and we’ll continue to see – some private facilities that are being built. I know there’s one going in Portland, in Clackamas that has been built, that’s opening up soon. But I think the hope would be that Portland starts to use more of their park land to put in these pickleball courts, because the demand is there.

Miller: Do you envision a time when pickleball courts will be as common as tennis courts are now?

Gabrielson: I have seen that in other states that I have traveled to: Utah, Arizona, Florida. I mean in the villages in Florida, I think it’s the biggest retirement community in the US, they have over 300 pickleball courts within that community. So I think you’re going to see more and more courts being built. But I think it may take some time for pickleball court locations to match or surpass tennis courts.

Miller: Wesley Gabrielson, thanks for joining us.

Gabrielson: Thank you so much.

Miller: That’s Wesley Gabrielson, head pickleball professional at the Illahe Country Club in Salem, and 11-time pickleball national champion.

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