Harlingen students discover pickleball at ACE Summer Camp outing

Courts at RGV Pickle filled with Harlingen students as ACE Summer Camp sent children from Long Elementary, Gutierrez Middle School of Arts and Sciences and Coakley Middle School into a pickleball session built around first contact with the game. Coaches kept the pace brisk as yellow balls bounced across the courts and the students moved from introduction to action quickly, turning the outing into a lesson in movement, timing and basic paddle work.

The June 25 outing was designed to give students a chance to try something new while learning the mechanics of pickleball, said Danyella Rodriguez, the ACE coordinator. For many of the children, it was their first real exposure to the sport, and the experience leaned less on competition than on getting comfortable with how the game is played. Coach Carlos Gamez said he enjoyed teaching the kids as much as they enjoyed playing, and that they were learning how to hold the paddle and execute strokes.

Students described the sport as fun, physical and social. Catalina Saldana said she was playing pickleball for one of the first times and liked how enjoyable and active it felt. One 10-year-old student singled out the chance to play with friends as the best part, a sign that the outing worked as both recreation and a low-pressure introduction to a new sport.

That kind of access fits the way pickleball has spread beyond adult rec leagues. USA Pickleball, the sport’s national governing body, offers educator resources, curriculum guides, equipment grants and training support for schools and youth programs, and says its junior and youth programming is built for players under 18 with a focus on community, confidence and growth. The sport itself dates to 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington, when Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum created it, but its recent surge has pushed it into places like summer camps and school enrichment programs.

The growth numbers help explain why. The Sports & Fitness Industry Association and Pickleheads released their 2024 State of Pickleball report on Nov. 14, 2024, and SFIA later said 24.3 million Americans played pickleball in 2025. RGV Pickle says its facility draws players from across the Rio Grande Valley, including Brownsville, McAllen and Harlingen, giving students at ACE Summer Camp a direct link to a regional pickleball scene that is expanding beyond casual adult play and into school-age programming.