Vinnie LaCosta, a senior at Albert Einstein High School in Kensington, loves to play team sports, but he didn’t always get an opportunity to play on school teams because of the competitive nature of the programs.
Over the years, LaCosta, a learning for independence student, has found a home playing sports such as bocce in Montgomery County Public School’s (MCPS) corollary sports program. The program is an initiative to increase “interscholastic athletics participation opportunities for all students, in particular students with disabilities,” according to the MCPS website.
This fall, LaCosta will make history as a member of the first-ever varsity pickleball team at Einstein after the school district announced it would expand the paddle sport to all 25 high schools.
MCPS Systemwide Athletics Director Jeff Sullivan announced in a press conference at Winston Churchill High School on Thursday that pickleball will be offered at all high schools as a varsity sport in the corollary sports program.
Sullivan said MCPS believes that they’re the first district in the country to offer pickleball as a varsity sport.
“The goal of the corollary sports is to have a 50/50 ratio of students with and without disabilities,” Sullivan told MoCo360 on Thursday. “We believe that pickleball is going to attract all students—it’s just so inclusive.”
MCPS already has two corollary sports: bocce, which is offered in the winter, and allied softball, which is offered in the spring. Sullivan said the school district previously offered handball for the fall, but only two schools fielded handball teams last year. While participation decreased for handball, Sullivan said a piloted pickleball program at 11 schools proved popular.
“It was a smash,” Sullivan said.
Now, with the help of the professional D.C. Pickleball Team, Rockville-based pickleball equipment company JOOLA and grant funding, all MCPS high school students including LaCosta will have an opportunity to play the sport with no additional cost to the already tight school district budget, Sullivan said.
Alex Gomez-Ordonez, 17, a senior at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, said expanding the sport to all schools will bring more competition, more games and, of course, more fun. Montgomery Blair was one of the 11 schools that piloted pickleball.
“A lot of students, it’s hard for them to join a varsity sport,” Gomez-Ordonez said. “Making [pickleball] a varsity sport for all schools will give more students a chance to join in.”
At the press conference, students like Gomez-Ordonez played alongside fellow student players, coaches and professional D.C. Pickleball player Vivian Glozman.
Vinnie LaCosta first started playing pickleball with his parents, which is a testament to how inclusive the sport is, Vinnie’s mom, Aimee, said. Vinnie said he doesn’t always beat his brothers, but does beat his dad, Bill, during games.
According to the New York Times, pickleball is easier to learn than sports such as tennis and is slower paced, making it a sport accessible to many different ages and abilities.
“You can play with [all] generations,” Aimee LaCosta said. “We’re in our 50s, and we can play with him and his brothers and all their friends … Now he’s going to be on the very first Einstein pickleball team.”
Montgomery Blair pickleball coach Beth Sanchez and her co-coach Kesa Summers said the expansion will legitimize pickleball as a varsity sport across the school district and therefore encourage more students to play. Varsity pickleball players will have equipment, uniforms and even a varsity pin to put on their varsity letter jackets, Sullivan said.
“I anticipate it being a really popular varsity sport going forward,” Summers said. “I think other schools and districts are going to follow.”
Plus, Adam Behnke, chief operating officer of the D.C. Pickleball Team, said it could put many students on a “pathway to pro” pickleball. Montgomery County has produced professional pickleball players in the past, such as Ben Johns, who was ranked as the men’s No. 1 Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) player in the world in 2022.
“This is going to be one of those things that we all get to say we were at the forefront of writing pickleball history,” Behnke said. “That’s going to leave a lasting impact with all of us in our community.”
While MCPS may be making history with the first varsity pickleball program, students such as Alex Gomez-Ordonez are just focused on having more fun.
“It’s not a dumb sport. It’s a fun game,” Alex said. “It’s taken seriously, and [everyone] should play it.”