Pickleball gets an unofficial start in Illinois high school sports

As cool as it was to win the first unofficial Illinois High School Pickleball Championship on Thursday afternoon, Yorkville’ s Carson Converse was a little bummed that he won’t get to try and repeat since he just graduated.

Converse and classmate Josiah Aguado topped the 24-team field after defeating Stevenson brothers Eli and Isaac Sommerfeld 11-5, 12-10 in the finals. The Yorkville pair breezed through five pool-play matches Thursday morning before getting challenged more after reaching the quarterfinals.

“It was really cool. I think it’s awesome,” said Converse, who picked up the popular sport two years ago. “It’s great (to win the first one). But it’s the last one too. I wish I could play another.”

Aguado, on the other hand, just finished his sophomore year at Yorkville so he will indeed continue high school, even though Yorkville does not yet have a high school club and even though his family usually treks out to places like Sure Shot in Naperville, which hosted the inaugural high school event Thursday, in order to play.

The event was not affiliated with the IHSA.

“This was a lot of fun,” said Aguado, who first picked up the sport in his driveway. “For pool play it was pretty easy, but then it got harder. In the finals it was close and there was a lot of dinking. That’s what pickleball is.”

The Yorkville sophomore started playing the sport because of his mom, who has played for five years. The sport has taken the country by storm, and players of all ages are grabbing paddles and heading to the courts, which is why facilities like Sure Shot — with 11 indoor courts — have been opening up all over.

“The sport is growing so much. And you can always find people to play with, and a level to fit in with,” Aguado said.

A perfect example of this growth is the Stevenson Pickleball Club, which started the year with four members and now has 64. Jay Mehta, a Naperville resident who teaches at Stevenson and is the sponsor for the school’s pickleball club, was thrilled to watch the action Thursday.

“We’re just trying to get other high schools involved,” said Mehta, who along with his wife got hooked on the sport during the pandemic. “The more we get involved the more opportunity everyone has to play and practice. This was awesome. All of my students loved it. This is going to continue to get bigger and bigger every year.”

The Crystal Lake Central team of Kasparas Venslauskas and Drew Watson earned third-place medals after beating Naperville North’s Nathan Lee and Kyle Tran 11-6, 11-6 in the bronze match.

Sure Shot co-owner Tim Kelly, who helped organize the high school tournament, hopes to have a girls tournament next year. There were a couple girls pairs competing Thursday and even a mixed doubles middle school squad that reached the quarterfinals.

Competing schools also included Glenbard South, Wheaton North, Wheaton Warrenville South, St. Francis and Wheaton Academy.