Lucas Mile, a physical education teacher at Boulder’s Horizons K-8 Charter School, 4545 Sioux Drive, had never played pickleball, but thought the fast growing, accessible sport could work well in his classes.
With an average of 20 students in a class, he said, it’s challenging to find new sports that allow all students to participate at once. The school’s gym is too small for tennis, for example, and only a few students can use the small climbing wall at a time. But four pickleball nets just fit, allowing an entire class to play.
“I want to get everybody moving,” Mile said. “It’s a sport that’s popular with multiple ages. I like the idea of a sport you can play with your whole family.”
Once he came up with pickleball as an option for a new sport, the other challenge was buying the equipment.
Without money in the school budget to cover the cost, he turned to the BOCO Pickleball Club. The 600-member nonprofit club bought nets and collected rackets and balls to donate to the school. Members also provided a free two-hour introduction to pickleball lesson to Mile and several other staff members.
“The club is grateful for the opportunity to help in establishing a pickleball program at Horizon K-8 school and looks forward to the opportunity to support other Boulder Valley School District schools in establishing pickleball programs and seeing our community grow and thrive,” Max Bradley, a BOCO Pickleball board member, said in an email.
After receiving all the equipment about two weeks ago, Mile started teaching third through eighth graders the basics of the game, starting with warm-up activities to get used to the rackets. On Tuesday, he worked with a combined third- and fourth-grade class on learning to serve — keeping racket below the belly, not overhand — before letting them try playing in teams.
While still figuring out control, the students enthusiastically whacked the small plastic balls around the gym and back and forth over the nets.
Fourth grader Asher Sessa said he shared his enthusiasm with his family and is now signed up to take a pickleball class outside of school.
“I love pickleball,” he said. “It’s just fun.”
Classmate Hada Rahin said her tennis background isn’t helping that much in getting the hang of pickleball because the two sports are “pretty different.” While it was “kind of hard” the first time she tried to play, she added, it’s getting easier.
“I like how you work together,” she said.
Greta Rapp, another fourth grader, said she has found the hardest part is hitting the ball just right, in the middle of the paddle, so it goes as far as she wants it to.
“It’s challenging, but it’s really fun,” she said.
Mile said he’s sticking to the basics of pickleball, but isn’t introducing the complicated scoring system, given the limited class time he has with his students. Instead, he’s planning to have students interested in keeping score count each unreturned hit, similar to scoring in ping pong.
“I don’t know that they need to keep score for everything,” he said. “The kids are just making it fun.”
