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Three years ago, if you wanted to play pickleball at Harvard, you’d have been fresh out of luck. Now, only a few years later and following the explosion of the sport nation-wide, the Harvard Pickleball club — which hosts 50 active members, three weekly practices, and a competitive squad — is changing the game for the Harvard pickleball scene.

Pickleball has been the fastest growing sport in the United States for three years running, and what all started with a group of friends with plastic nets and paddles has turned into a competitive Harvard Pickleball Club team with national championship aspirations.

Pickleball is a paddle sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton, and ping pong. It’s played on a low net with solid paddles and a plastic ball. Originally designed as a retirement game, the sport has racked up celebrity endorsements and over 36 million Americans playing at least once in 2024.

For junior Austin Barkas, the Harvard Pickleball Club’s incoming co-president, the appeal of the sport comes down to its accessibility.

“In pickleball, a good player and a new player, it’s a small gap. So there’s more chance for beginners to enter and actually succeed pretty quickly,” Barkas said.

This popularity has translated for the Harvard Pickleball Club, which has both recreational and competitive teams to try to meet demand. The club also recently qualified and traveled to Atlanta for the selective 2025 Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating collegiate pickleball national championship. The DUPR championships is arguably the most competitive collegiate pickleball tournament with over $40,000 in cash prizes and over one hundred schools in the circuit.

Elle Freedman, a co-president of the Harvard Pickleball Club and key figure in the growth of pickleball on campus, still remembers the humble origins of the sport at Harvard..

“Freshman year I acquired this portable net and bought Amazon paddles for twenty bucks, and I just started playing whenever and wherever,” Freedman said.

Freedman and the other original members of what would become the Pickleball Club, began holding impromptu games throughout the campus.

“We were playing in the Lowell Squash Courts. We were playing in the actual squash courts. We were playing in the Science Center plaza,” she said.

As more and more students joined, these informal meetups became a more common occurrence and the group continued to grow rapidly. However, due to a club recognition freeze by the Dean of Students Office for the 2023-24 academic year, the on-campus pickleball community was isolated into only these spontaneous meetings.

Harvard Pickleball Club made it out the kitchen in fall of 2024, becoming the first organized Ivy League pickleball club.

The club was an immediate hit. Sessions started with fully recreational play, but as more and more friends came, the club soon was unable to hold everyone who came.

“We have limited court space. We need to kind of figure something out here. So we did try outs, but we didn’t want to lose that mission of trying to get anybody in and able to play,” Barkas said.

“So we do two practices a week of actual club team practices, and then on Sundays, we do open play, which is encouraged for absolutely anybody, whatever the skill level, to come and play,” he added.

According to Freedman, the melting pot, low-pressure nature of the sport attracts the large crowds.

“It’s building community through sport,” she said. “You don’t have to be this insane athlete in order to play pickleball. We have the captain of the football team playing against the CS brainiac. And they are playing a sport. In what other contexts would they come together?”

The unusual mix of people has also helped build a strong community for the sport..

“We have like 30, 40 people that can just show up at any given time, and you never know who’s gonna be there,” said senior Andrew Chung, a starting athlete for Harvad’s national team. “I think it’s actually the easiest way to be active and also have fun and be social. There’s no other social sport like that.”

Even with the success of the recreational side of Harvard Pickleball, the club has bigger dreams.. In late January 2025 the club’s competitive team decided on a goal: making the national tournament in Atlanta. To do that they would have to win gold at any of the three northeastern regional qualifying tournaments.

The Crimson’s competitive team traveled to the University of Connecticut in early February. Harvard’s teams ended the day winning their round-robin pools and making it all the way to the semifinals and quarterfinals, respectively. With their first tournament under their belt, the team traveled home with their eyes opened to the world of competitive pickleball.

“That was the first time I really learned, ‘Oh, there's like a higher level to collegiate pickleball,’” said Chung.

The team’s next opportunity to earn a nationals qualifier came in March. This time it came in the form of the New Jersey Dynamic Pickleball Rating Super Regional qualifier. Any medal would earn the Crimson a national bid. Thirty teams competed, making it a packed house on a cold, rainy Northeast day. The Crimson finished the day with a slightly gloomy 2-2 record and with a quick exit from the tournament. Although they were happy with the trip and the progress the club had made to get there, they were still determined to not give up on their goal.

“All eyes on our upcoming Boston campus qualifier on March 29…get hype,” read their Instagram caption.

The Boston Campus Regionals landed exactly one week before Nationals. The Crimson had home court advantage on its side though, and was able to send three squads to the tournament. After seven hours of intense pickleballing, the Crimson’s number one team was slated against Boston College in the championship matchup.

“We had to win this match,” Freedman said.

Notching swift victories, the Crimson dinked and volleyed its way to victory and a trip to Atlanta.

“It was crazy to actually see the level of pickleball out there. That was really, really inspiring,” said Chung.

Heading into the 2025-2026 season, the Harvard Pickleball Club hopes to continue growing while fostering the inclusive atmosphere where anyone can join and play anytime. At the same time it will continue to field a competitively ranked team, aiming to be a national threat on the court.

With the original founding class of Harvard Pickleball Club, including Freedman, graduating this year, the goal won’t be an easy feat to accomplish.

“Our biggest mission is to make sure we continue the culture that Elle set up and continue the community she built,” Barkas said.

From twenty dollar amazon nets to custom pickleball paddles and cross continental tournaments, Harvard Pickleball Club has quickly become a force on campus. As the sport continues to increase in popularity and esteem around the nation the Crimson will be right there with those leading the sport.

— Staff Writer Jake C. Swanson can be reached at jake.swanson@thecrimson.com.