By: Mason Halfin

America’s fastest growing sport, Pickleball, is being added to the WVWC roster of sports starting in fall of 2026. 

If you don’t know what Pickleball is, Pickleball is a sport that is similar to tennis. It is played with a wiffleball type of ball and a solid paddle. It also is played on a smaller court than tennis. Unlike tennis, there is an area in front of the net referred to as the “kitchen” where players may not step in to play the ball unless the ball is not going to come out of the kitchen. 

Now that we have established what Pickleball is, how popular really is the sport? Well according to Picklehead, 19.8 million Americans played Pickleball in 2024 which was up 45.8% from the previous year. Overall, participation has grown 300% from 2021 to 2024 and has been the fastest-growing sport in the United States for multiple years (Picklehead, 2025). 

The sport is attracting younger players as well. According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), participation in Pickleball in college students doubled from 2022 to 2023. Along with that, the largest age demographic in the sport is among 25-34 year olds (SFIA, 2024).

Alec Moran, a very successful Fairmont State tennis player and coach, has been selected to the pickleball staff as the GM to build the initial roster of the team. Moran stated some goals for the program, “Growing the program is the biggest goal, in terms of players, community engagement, and awareness,” Moran also had high hopes for where the team could be in upcoming years, “We want to be recognized as a top pickleball program in the state, region, and in the country.” 

I also asked Moran to acknowledge some challenges with starting a new college program, “Starting a new sport and building it from the ground up is challenging in many ways.” Moran continued listing the unique challenge in pickleball recruiting, “The biggest challenge is recruiting players for a sport where there is not a high school association. This means we have to be really creative in recruiting hs tennis players and other athletes who would like to transition to a new sport.” 

The team will be co-ed and include a minimum of four men and four women on the roster. The team will compete with mostly regional schools including but not limited to WVU, Pitt, Radford, James Madison (JMU), Liberty, Virginia Tech, etc. Pickleball is also unique in the fact that it has a dual season, meaning there’s a fall and spring season. However, Moran also told me the main tournament the team will compete in, the DUPR National Tournament is in the spring. The tournaments have many formats, but typically there are men’s doubles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles, and even could include singles.

As the fastest growing sport continues to surge, WVWC is joining in the action quickly, looking to establish, compete, and make its mark on the pickleball landscape.

Picture from the WVWC Athletic Website