Audrey Piehl
Reporter
After school every Tuesday and Thursday you may spot pockets of students journeying across the brisk Waveny fields. These would be the members of Paddle Club on their weekly trek to practice, ready to counter the crisp winter weather with every shot across the net.
Since it’s initiation in 2009, Paddle Club has become the perfect place for beginners and experts alike to work on their paddle game in a compelling and easygoing environment.
Platform tennis, or in more casual terms, paddle, is an already popular sport on the East Coast and one of the fastest growing athletic trends. “It’s becoming really big. Colleges are getting into Paddle Clubs; for instance Yale has a very competitive team,” sophomore and Paddle Club member Ariana Ross said. “It’s growing; almost every mother of my friends play it.”
“I started playing at the Field Club, because my parents played,” junior Phoebe Wilks, founder of the Paddle Club, said. Phoebe had already been an avid paddle competitor for several years before deciding to create a team at the high school. In fact she and Ariana won Nationals together for the Field Club when they were 12 and 11, respectively. “We’ve been first or second at Nationals every year since,” Ariana said.
Not only does Phoebe love playing, but she also thinks our school is a practical location for the Paddle Club, “Waveny had courts nearby [between the dog park and Waveny Pool], and nobody was using them at all at the time,” she said.
Paddle is often mistaken as just another form of tennis, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. There are many key differences that make platform tennis its own game, “You’re inside a cage, and some of the rules are modified. For example, you only get one serve while in tennis you get two, and you can hit the ball off the cage screens. Also the rackets don’t have strings. They’re smaller and have holes,” Ariana said.
Furthermore paddle is typically played during the winter, while tennis is a summer sport. It can get a bit chilly outside, but Phoebe said it actually makes the entire experience more enjoyable. “You put on all these layers and then you just heat up, because it’s very quick and fast-paced.”
A great aspect of Paddle Club is their welcoming attitude towards new players. “I started playing in the middle school program and stopped soon afterwards. Then I heard the high school had a paddle club, and I joined this year,” sophomore Sam Murray said.
Sam finds he has improved significantly since signing up and appreciates the generally laid-back atmosphere, “It’s not really a formal team but there are still opportunities to play competitively against other schools,” he said. “Then when we’re playing matches the coach will occasionally pull you aside and help you improve your game.”
Ariana has come to appreciate the friends she’s made participating in the club and the new skill she’s practiced. “You’re playing with your friends, and I’ve met a lot of people I wouldn’t have been able to know otherwise,” she said. “It’s very easy to be good at if you practice enough, and it’s a great stress reliever.”
