The Scoop sat down with Jarrod Smith, coach of Drury University’s Pickleball team. Smith has spent over two decades coaching tennis, a decade playing pickleball and as a professional pickleball player for many of those years. He turned his passion for pickleball into something bigger: the first collegiate pickleball team in the country.
The Scoop asked him a few questions about his journey of starting this program.
Q: How did it all start? When did you get the idea of starting the first collegiate pickleball team?
A: I was out playing a pro tour, and I was enjoying it, but I’ve been a coach for so long, so I thought, how do I impact the sport of pickleball? The last push I needed was at the country club, when this group of 6-8 teenage boys came to the courts on Friday night to play pickleball. They didn’t necessarily know what they were doing, but they were having fun. I went over and spoke to them. They said they love pickleball, and one of them said: “I wish there was a college pickleball,” and I was like: just wait.
Q: What are some challenges you faced while starting the first college pickleball team?
A: The biggest challenge I am still facing is that there is no blueprint for this. I am making everything up as I go, but having the support of the O’Reilly to build this has helped me to figure the rest out. Leaving tennis and coming to pickleball, there is definitely a good foundation, but still, there’s so many things that are different. I mean, this whole thing is much bigger than me, but I always try to better myself, and ask myself: what did I do that was good in my past coaching career? What can I do better? So really what’s challenging is setting that foundation for college pickleball.
Q: What are your hopes for the team? What is the vision for the upcoming years?
A: My vision for college pickleball is that we maintain that foundation in the heart of the sport. I would not want pickleball to become this cutthroat sport that the most sports are. I hope that if we play a match, us and that other team sit down, grill some burgers and we keep this familiar feeling of the sport, where it’s not like we are at war with them. We are trying to win a match, but we want everybody to leave with a smile, have fun, and just for the whole community to have fun, and get better. That would be my dream.
Q: Using one word, how would you describe the journey of creating the first collegiate pickleball team?
A: Wow, there’s so many, but honestly I would say “exciting.” I wake up every day, and I am just in a good mood. I am so happy and excited every day. I always think about the next month, the next year, I’m just so thrilled.
