New England College is now offering a course in pickleball, and it will run during the second half of spring semester.
Pickleball is a fast-growing racket (Paddle) sport with the same objective as other sports of its kind. According to a study by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), participation nearly doubled, seeing an 85% increase in participation.
Pickle ball is essentially a slower paced game of tennis with a much smaller court size. It is exceptionally easy to learn and fun to play and just like tennis it could be played as either singles or doubles. It can also be played on an outdoor court or an indoor court.
This course at NEC will be instructed by women’s basketball head coach Erica Ledy.
“They wanted to add some new different fun exciting classes, classes that people are doing now and pickleball is a big sport now and very popular. It is going to be the first time taught here, it’s going to be a new class,” Ledy said.
Ledy is getting prepared for the class, which includes getting everything necessary to play.
“We’ve ordered all the equipment so we can play the sport. Hopefully we can do it in the gym and have the nets set up. We are sort of an experiment, but we are going to see how it goes,” Ledy said.
Since classes have not yet been picked, the number of students taking the class is undetermined.
“It will depend on what time they put it and what day. If it is a time where kids don’t have their required courses, I think there will be a lot of kids there, if it’s too early maybe not. If it is in one of those popular course times, we might not have a lot,” Ledy said.
This is not the first time a new physical education course has been introduced to NEC. Last time a sport was introduced here there were many students that were interested in attending.
“Cornhole was a new sport as well, and when we started cornhole we did not know if it would be popular, but it was very popular. I had to turn kids away because we had too many kids wanting to sign up. I think that pickleball might be along the same lines,” Ledy said.
