The fluorescent glow from Walker Field House’s lights shines through the holes of plastic balls. Four students face-off, sweaty and smiling, paddles raised to the roof. They flick the ball back and forth in a steady rhythm, with as much competitive spirit as a Florida retiree. This image is here to stay as pickleball becomes the newest addition to Vassar’s Intramural Sports program.
A doubles league will take place on Mondays from 8 to 10 p.m. and Tuesdays from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday nights are open for everyone to come and hit around, while Tuesday nights are designated for scheduled matches between teams. Both meetings take place at Walker Field House.
The game of pickleball recalls parts of both badminton and tennis. Like badminton, the only way to earn a point is to win while being the serving team. Like tennis, the doubles game becomes an interesting whack-a-mole of volleys, only on a smaller court, which means it is easier to chat with your friends and partner as you play.
Inclusion of pickleball in Vassar’s intramural offerings joins the explosive rise in popularity for the activity in the United States. It holds the title of fastest growing sport in the country for the third year in a row, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association’s tracking. Participation rates rose more than fifty percent from 2022 to 2023.
The troves of people signing up to play on Vassar’s campus fit this larger trend, as students now have a convenient way to play.
“Pickleball currently has 36 doubles teams signed up, which is incredible for a first-time offering,” wrote Mike Callahan in correspondence with the paper. He currently serves as the Senior Assistant Director of Athletics for Sport & Recreation Services.
The decision to include the sport picked up steam in 2024’s spring semester. Noticing its popularity, Callahan decided it would be a good fit for students. The choice was judged as a smart one by some student workers he asked, and it was off to the races.
“The Athletics Department supported it and I got approval to begin purchasing equipment,” Callahan shared. On Mondays and Tuesdays students without equipment like paddles will be able to borrow them onsite.
Intramural sport participation more broadly has expanded under Callahan, who remembers around 125 unique participants competing in an intramural sport in January 2015. The number has since risen to about 600 participants across all programs.
“Now adding Pickleball to our programming is only going to help the program continue to grow,” he said.
It is now a standard Vassar sight to notice a pack of students—free from a never-ending pile of readings or problem sets—enjoying intramural games as the sun sets. Team cultures and traditions have developed over the years, with some groups existing for an entire student’s career, winning back-to-back league championship tournaments and owning many coveted championship shirts.
Callahan loves intramural sports because of the sense of community it creates, and the space it offers for people to forge lifelong friendships with teammates. The programs are open to everyone, regardless of experience level, extending the ability to gain new hobbies every semester. And it provides an opportunity to employ students, who Callahan says he relies on heavily to keep the leagues running smoothly.
Other leagues currently offered include tennis, basketball, volleyball and soccer. There is also an open badminton and dodgeball tournament coming in the spring. Which sports are being played rotate, with the semester divided into two sessions. For this fall, the current session features two other weekly leagues, volleyball and outdoor soccer. Around November the second session will begin, with indoor soccer and indoor tennis being played in Walker Field House.
Rotating indoors and outdoors as the seasons change allows there to be opportunities to get active year round. This session 17 teams are competing in the volleyball league, and 12 in soccer. It is a statistic to be proud of.
“These are great numbers for a school that is Vassar’s size,” Callahan said.
As for the future, Callahan hopes to offer more chances for open styles of play with the sports already offered—like how badminton operates—where everyone is free to play as long as they would like and may come and go as they please. In the meantime, we all have a chance to run, jump and chitchat on whatever court or field we end up on. Competition will remain fierce as Brewer takes on Brewer, but the sports will remain a way to socialize, exercise and de-stress over these four, long years.