Staff hope more students join pickleball events held on campus

KEYLA HOLMES campus editor keyla.holmes@my.tccd.edu

South Campus creates the opportunity for students and staff to take part in, according to many, one of the fastest growing sports – pickleball.

With the many clubs and activities offered at South, pickleball is one that anyone, regardless of age, can get involved

“Anyone can play it from a five year old all the way up to a ninety year old,” South HPE instructor Staci Smith said.

For those not familiar with the sport, Smith said it’s similar to tennis and ping

“It’s as if tennis and ping pong had a baby,” she said. “A lot of the rules are a lot like tennis, and then there’s a bit of ping pong because you use a paddle.”

While playing sports may not be for everyone, athleticism may not be an important factor for pickleball.

“It’s fun and I can do it,” South math adjunct Cathy Haley said. “I’m not athletic at all – never have been,” she said.

Faculty and staff have the chance to get together once a week and work on their

“We started this past fall for faculty and staff health and wellness, offering pickleball once a week,” Smith said. “We’ve been teaching pickleball in our classes for several years, so since we’ve come back from the pandemic we’ve really been pushing pickleball out there.”

South’s senior ed program gives their students the opportunity to get involved.

“These last couple of years they’ve been having a senior ed program, so that they offer it to the older people, and that makes it kind of fun – so they’ve been coming out and playing,” South senior student David Gustafson said.

While seniors are joining in on the fast growing sport, getting the rest of the student population involved hasn’t exactly been easy.

“I offered this class last fall for students to take and not enough students registered for it,” Smith said. “I offered it again this spring – not enough students registered,” she said. “We’re hoping by next fall, more students will sign up for it and a class will really make.”

Haley not only wants to get the ball rolling due to how fun she thinks the sport is, but because of its accessibility.

“I’ve been trying to help Staci get it started here because this is maybe the only sport that you could play life long that’s affordable and accessible,” she said. “Things like Golf people could play, but it’s very expensive.”

Not only is pickleball a growing sport across the country but it’s getting attention and participation right here in Tarrant County.

We’re hoping by next fall, more students will sign up for it and a class will really make.

Staci Smith South HPE instructor

“You go to any tennis courts in Fort Worth, you go to any rec center – YMCA, they’re playing pickleball,” Smith said.

While trying something new can be intimidating, Gustafson said what he’d say to anyone considering the sport.

“You’ve got to try,” he said. “Yes, the first experience is going to be a little rough, and you may not hit what you think you can do, but everybody that’s started had to start playing at that level where they weren’t very good. Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Gustafson said.

For those under the impression that pickleball is only for senior citizens, Gustafson has one last remark.

“Some call it a geezer game, and I’ve told them ‘get out here, and I’ll show you what geezers can do’.” the district, discussed the questions they would address later that day and what they thought the day would bring. TR peer leader Sunny Whiddon said she was excited to take part in the trip but also anxious.

“I’m scared I’m going to mess up or say the wrong words in front of them,” she said. “I’m scared I’m going to say something silly and they’re going to be upset at me. But also this guy actually represents me, and I want him to know and see who is in his district.” great to see students to be able to interact with our government officials. So we all coordinate together all the student activities offices and the directors of student development services to gather student leaders to be a part of this.”

Whiddon said that as a young queer individual, she has a unique perspective that deserves to be heard. She planned to ask questions regarding public transportation, city infrastructure and queer topics. NE SGA parliamentarian Abiskar Thapaliya shared Whiddon’s sentiment.

Walker said she loved seeing the interaction between all the campuses and that seeing the students at the rally with the other community colleges was a proud moment for her.

But many students on the trip didn’t actually meet with the person they were scheduled to meet with but rather varying members of their staff.

TR SGA vice president Grace Kadia-Riccardi also couldn’t meet with her representative, Sen. Kelly Hancock. She said she was incredibly prepared for this meeting but was instead met with a wall.

“I was really excited to meet with the representative, Mr. Hancock himself,” KadiaRiccardi said. “I was really thinking that I was going to press him with all these questions that I had about specific inconsistencies with his bills. So when I went to his office, I heard him behind the little wall and I was like ‘OK, cool. We’re actually gonna meet him.’ A lot of people hadn’t been meeting him.”

Instead, she said she met with his policy adviser, who would not answer the questions posed to him because he didn’t want to speak on Hancock’s behalf.

“I had five questions. I got the answers to maybe two of them,” she said.

“I’m just excited to be here,” he said. “It’s 6:04 in the morning, January 26 and everything’s dark. We’re on the highway, excited to be in Austin, meet new people, ready to have fun.”

The event itself included meetings throughout the day with representatives or their teams, as well as a rally in front of the Capitol to kick things off. There, students from community colleges around the state all stood together.

NE student development services director Cara Walker, who was one of the advisers for the event, said it was vice chancellor emeritus Bill Lace who coordinated across the campuses to bring this trip to fruition.

“It happens every other year during the Texas legislative session,” she said. “So I’ve been a couple times before this. It’s always

She said what discouraged her the most was the feeling of disrespect she got from the staff and the experience as a whole.

“These are the people that are sitting in our government right now, and they’re not supporting community college students,” Kadia-Riccardi said. “So it just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Some students did get to meet their representatives, though. Whiddon said while his representative was a genuinely funny guy, the conversation focused more on specific bills rather than change. However, the overall experience was incredibly fun.

“I was expecting to be more bored, to be honest,” she said. “I was expecting that it would be boring on the way in and out. But I got to meet cool people today as well as seeing the Capitol and meeting the representative. It’s really awesome.”