This year, the MIAA has stepped towards implementing pickleball club teams around the state, sparking excitement from students, parents, and schools. Westborough was eager to participate in this opportunity and has created a pickleball club team of its own. Especially with pickleballs’ large rise in popularity over the last couple of years, the MIAA hopes to develop these teams to eventually be on par with other major sports. 

To give an overview, pickleball is a mix of tennis, badminton, and ping-pong. Players in this game use paddles similar to ping-pong and plastic balls with holes in them. The sport was originally created in Washington and found significant popularity in the Northwest of the country before spreading everywhere else. According to CNBC in 2023, over 36 million Americans have been playing the sport alongside famous athletes like Tom Brady and LeBron James. Pickleball’s popularity growth has stayed constant over the last couple of years. The Sports and Fitness Industry Association has named Pickleball the fastest-growing sport in 2021, 2022, and 2023 with a 223.5% rate of increase over those three years. 

To start this initiative, several high schools, including Westborough, have created club teams to promote the sport. The idea of having a club team to start is that it requires less commitment than a varsity sport. Eventually, the schools want to drum up enough interest for a larger team. 

Westborough’s team this year consists of 15 players and is coached by Mr. Callaghan with captains Diya Bhattacharya and Luke Miller. These players have put in a significant amount of work towards this new team. Although it may be a club team, these players have been committed to their practices and their games against other schools’ club teams. 

Bhattacharya says, “I’m so proud that this group of people are coming together to try something new. Me personally it’s my senior year and I wanted to give something new a try. Because of my tennis experience, pickleball felt like the right fit for me.” With the similarities in both sports, getting into pickleball with her experience on the Varsity girl’s tennis team came with ease. She’s excited to see how this team continues to grow in the upcoming years. 

On Tuesday, October 15th, eight players from the Westborough team competed in Sturbridge, MA for the pickleball state championship. These players delivered strong performances against other teams from Massachusetts and ended up on top. They won in multiple categories with wins in mixed doubles, men’s doubles, and girl’s singles. 

This team has a bright future ahead of them and this is only the beginning of it. With this first pilot league, this team is bound to grow and develop large amounts of interest in the town. Best of luck for the upcoming year and the rest of the season.