The 2-0 team pickleball team has played Bethesda Chevy-Chase and Gaithersburg, and is scheduled to play Magruder, Sherwood, and Richard Montgomery .
Team members say they are excited about the season. “The team is looking amazing and we all have high hopes of performing very well throughout all of our games and hopefully in the tournament at the end of the season. I’m excited to see the progression we make from the first match to our final one,” senior Zach Blumberg said.
The team kicked off their first ever pickleball match at home on Sept. 17 against Bethesda-Chevy Chase, resulting in a 5-0 win. Playing a two v. two, junior Jonas Klein found a significance in working as a duo. “Overall the match went great. It felt really good to start off the new official pickleball season with such an incredible win. I think the reason the team was able to pull out a 5-0 win was because we all played in doubles. Working with a partner definitely builds team chemistry, and it’s always good to have a backup if the ball slips right past your paddle,” Klein said.
After a little break, the second match was held on Sept. 26, away against Gaithersburg. Going into the game with high confidence, the Patriots were ready to take on the Trojans and succeeded with another 5-0 win. “The second match was a breeze. We dominated on the court in our games and the team is showing a lot of progress. This game was definitely a big success because we were able to see what we have learned from our coaches and the improvement of our skill sets in action,” Blumberg said.
The third match was scheduled for the following week, Sept. 30 away at Magruder. However due to weather issues, the match was rescheduled for a later date.
MCPS declared pickleball an official school sport because the athletic directors amongst the county were looking for a sport in replacement of handball that would engage a lot of students. With the popular rise of pickleball in mind, it seemed like the perfect choice for a corollary fall sport. “Since handball had fizzled out of all schools besides two in the county, MCPS decided to look for a new corollary sport to replace it. Throughout MCPS, all the athletic directors voted for what sport they think should be in place of handball. The athletic directors were looking for a corollary sport that could be played outside and with its new and growing popularity, pickleball seemed like a great option,” athletic director Al Lightsey said.
Pickleball is played with a paddle and wiffleball. The sport can be played either in singles or doubles; each player starts with an underhand serve and has to serve the ball to the side of the court diagonal from them and must bounce once before the opposing team hits it. The kitchen is the front part of the court that cannot be stepped in and the ball cannot bounce in it off of the serve. However during a rally, the kitchen can be played in if the ball bounces inside of it.
In the game, players can only gain points off of their serve. When playing doubles, if the first person serving messes up or misses the serve, the ball goes to their teammate before it goes to their opponents. Doubles is scored in a 0-0-0 way: The first number being the team serving score, the second number is the opponents, and the third number is server number.
