Ben Peake ‘25 discovered his love of pickleball in high school. In Oct. of 2022, his sophomore year, he co-founded the Davidson College Pickleball Club so that he could bring his love of the game to his new community.
“As an avid player, I wanted pickleball to have a presence on Davidson’s campus so I could have a place to play,” Peake said. In the club’s early stages, it took time to receive proper support from the College. After conversations with campus recreation officials, leaders were allowed to host practices on the basketball courts in the Baker Sports Complex, and its members used wooden paddles.
“[It was] not ideal,” Peake stated. “Luckily, we were able to secure a GAMMA Sports sponsorship, giving us some new nets and quality paddles. After some time and [acknowledgment of] the interest, campus recreation officials finally allowed us to use the indoor tennis courts. Once that happened, we were able to quickly build up a solid base of students.”
Thomas Lane ‘26 was one of the first students to come to the initial meetings. Unlike Peake, Lane was completely unfamiliar with the sport before joining the club. That unfamiliarity quickly turned to obsession.
“Prior to the first day of club [practice], I had no idea what pickleball was. I was immediately hooked and started playing all the time. The following summer I really got into it, playing almost every night for a few hours,” Lane said.
As his love for pickleball grew, he became more involved, filling in for club leadership who were studying abroad for the fall 2023 semester. Lane formerly served as co-president with Peake but will lead alongside Emily Brestle ‘27 going forward.
What appealed to Brestle most when she joined the club was the possibility to travel “all over the East Coast.”
“It was an opportunity to play in high-level competitions in a sport I love,” Brestle said. “I was compelled to accept a leadership position to help expand and strengthen the club’s national presence and continue to grow the sport of pickleball.”
The collegiate interest in pickleball has exploded on seemingly every campus, not just Davidson.
“Over the past two years, pickleball has rapidly grown, with hundreds of colleges forming clubs and competing at regional and national tournaments,” Lane said. “With this rapid growth, it’s been exciting to help Davidson’s club grow too. No semester has looked the same.”
The club has been fortunate to form partnerships with Gearbox, who provides the top four players with paddles, and Head, a renowned organization in the tennis world, who does the same with on-court shoes.
Last spring, the team was only able to attend one national tournament. This year, the team has already competed in four. In the New Jersey Super Regional, the team finished 9th out of 30 teams in a field that included large institutions like the University of Pittsburgh and George Mason University. In their most recent trip to nationals, they lost in the first round to the 2024 national champions Utah Tech University.
For the new club leadership, this experience is only the beginning.
“I am hoping the club continues to become more competitive on the national [stage],” Brestle said. “We want to encourage [players of] all skill levels to come practice, and we want to further develop our more advanced players to be able to compete at the next level. We are hoping to continue to attend super regional tournaments and earn bids to nationals.”
While improvement remains the goal, community stays at the heart of what makes the club so successful.
“This past year we’ve had the most consistent group of people show [up] to practice each week,” Lane said. “In past semesters we’ve often had large fluctuations in practice numbers. It’s been really exciting to see people who are coming twice a week or every week and forming a fun pickleball community.”
As Peake prepares to leave his club behind, he can take time to appreciate all it has accomplished.
“The club is exactly what I envisioned: a space for people to meet others they haven’t met yet, have a good time and compete in tournaments,” he said. “I’m more than happy to leave it in the capable hands of Thomas and Emily, who have already been doing fantastic work now and will do so next year. I’m also grateful to Charlotte [Juge ‘27], Thad [Wilkin ‘28], Rajeev [Krishnamurthy ‘28] and Cavan [Klein ‘27] for taking on other leadership roles and making the club the best it can be. It’s one of the activities I’ll miss most when I leave campus next month. But I feel a sense of pride more than anything else.”