Pickleballers.io Podcast

Cian Kirby is a 21-year-old Irish Entrepreneur and CEO of RDR Sports, which produced the Apex S1. Kirby told us how he found out about pickleball, why he wanted to start a paddle company, what to expect in the future, gameplay in Ireland and a lot more! #pickleball #paddle #ireland #entrepreneur

Jake "Hospital" Wilson is a former college tennis player who transitioned into pickleball and now plays for Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Learn about the hospital story hours before the NCPA national championships, Jake putting Samford on the map and what else to expect from this young phenom!

The NCPA (National Collegiate Pickleball Association) held its inaugural college national championships from 15-17 at The Hub in San Diego, Calif. Close to 40 colleges and over 220 players were on display at the event, creating a huge hype and buzz for the sport! Here's a quick recap of the event alongside Ryder Henderson who was a commentator at the event. #pickleball #pickleballpodcast

Spencer Sasson is the president and founder of NSU (Nova Southeastern University) Pickleball Club! After taking a deep affinity to recreational pickleball, Spencer decided to take it one step further and found a pickleball club on his campus! Now NSU Pickleball Club has partnered with Pickleballers.io, where they’re working together on apparel fundraisers with proceeds benefiting the club and sponsoring tournaments for the pickleball club! Check out this episode and discover how Spencer and NSU are changing the College Pickleball Club Scene.

Richard Livornese Jr. is a pro pickleball player playing on the APP Next Gen and APP tour. He's won the Next Gen twice, won 2 medals on the APP tour in men's doubles and has only been playing for a couple of years! We talked APP, pro pickle and off-the-court life! The King of Jersey in the flesh!

Noah Suemnick is the CEO of the NCPA (National Collegiate Pickleball Association), and if focused on delivering an amazing college pickleball product for players, fans and spectators! All of that is happening at the NCPA Collegiate National Championships in March in San Diego! Find out what to expect from the NCPA!

Jayce Fitzpatrick is fresh off his DUPR Illinois Super Regional Championship with his 3 teammates, earning Ohio State a DUPR Nationals Bid for this November. Jayce is in his 3rd year at Ohio State and has only played pickleball for 1.5 years. He plans to keep grinding, continue playing college tournaments and enter some APP pro qualifiers.

Jacob Smith, DUPR's Collegiate Pickleball Director, leads the charge in the college pickleball tournament scene. DUPR has amped up their 2024 compared to 2023, including more school bids to their national competition at the end of the year, more tournaments and a new tournament format called the "campus regionals." If you want to know about college pickleball, Jacob Smith is the person!

Collin Shick is a pickleball pro and college pickleball legend, winning the first ever DUPR Team National Championship at the end of 2022. A few months later he went on a monster run in his first PPA tournament ever to bring home a silver in singles. Since then he's been improving drastically, got drafted to an MLP team, signed a PPA contract and played in a tournament with Jack Sock!

Ava Ignatowich is a professional pickleball player who signed a PPA contract at the end of last year. She also competes on the DUPR circuit for college pickleball, all while balancing school and life on campus. We talked about how she can accomplish this, what she plans to do after college and a whole lot more. #pickleball #pickleballpodcast

Averee Beck and Logan Rosenbach are 2 of 4 Utah Tech players who won the APP College National Championship on January 3-7. Not only did this Utah Tech team win the tournament and receive scholarship money, but Utah Tech had another team that placed 3rd. Fair to say they're building something special over there in Utah.

Jarrod Smith is a professional pickleball player, tennis coach and soon-to-be Drury University's head pickleball coach! In November of 2023 Drury University announced they will have pickleball as a varsity coach, meaning it will recruit, offer scholarships, receive funding and be considered as an official sports team at the university. Smith is hoping that this spark will ignite a fire! #pickleball #collegepickleball

Fernando Esquivel is the founder and president of Ohio State Pickleball Club. They're one of the elite college pickleball clubs in the Midwest, having recently competed at the DUPR national champions in December of 2023. Now OSU's pickleball club and college pickleball is entering 2024 with the APP College Championships among many other tournaments, events and situations!

Joseph Benavidez is a former professional mixed martial artist who fought in the UFC for over a decade. He fought for the flyweight title on 5 different occasions. After retiring in 2021, Benavidez turned to Pickleball to stay active, engage with the community and challenge himself. In November 2023, Benavidez inked a deal with PBX Pickleball, a pickleball organization hosting events featuring high-level retired athletes from various sports!

This Episode, I break down by Pickleball Christmas List!

Lauralei Singsank anchored the University of Virginia Pickleball Club in the Dreambreaker against the favorites UNC. One serve, one third shot and boom, they were 2023 national champions. Outside of Pickleball Club, Singsank is a law student who is graduating in the spring of 2024. She plans on taking the bar, while still keeping her pickleball career as alive as possible.

The Hype Guys, Canton O’Donnell (aka Dragon) and Erik Iverson (aka Nighthawk), are the PPA's crowd engagement specialists! They started this journey in May of 2023, and within 3 days they became "The Hype Guys." Shortly after that, they are now elite specialists at their craft, getting the crowds "HYPED" for some pro pickleball action. In this 10 Questions 10 Minutes special, we talked about how they got started, what they do outside of pickleball and of course the hypothetical questions, including a new segment called "hype or hush."

Meet Brandon Lane, the Florida pickleball pro with a passion for more than just the game. A former college tennis player, Brandon seamlessly transitioned his skills to dominate the pickleball court. Beyond the sport, he's a globe-trotter, chasing tasty waves wherever they break. Dive into this episode where we fire 10 Questions in 10 Minutes at him, covering everything from life to pickleball to the pursuit of the perfect wave!

Emily Ackerman is a Pickleball Professional playing for the Las Vegas Night Owls in the MLP. You can also find her on the APP the majority of their tournaments. Ackerman's greatest accomplishments in Pickleball so far has come via MLP where she and her former team, Bay Area Breakers, won the Challenger Level Super Final last season in San Clemente. She hopes to repeat the same for the Las Vegas Night Owls in San Clemente in December. #pickleball #pickleballpodcast

Chris Cali is a pickleball pundit with his own brand Sorry Not Sorry Pickleball. In this episode, we talked about 10 trending topics and conversations from MLP Dallas: Premier Level and Challenger Level. Some topics include Federico's foul mouth, Ben's poor attitude and Anna Leigh Waters' value! Let us know where we got it right, and where we got it wrong in the comments!

MLP Dallas begins on Thursday, Nov 2, and we have you covered with the top 10 questions going into the tournament featuring questions for both the Challenger and Premier Level. We answered some serious questions, gave predictions and had some less serious questions as well, all in preparation for MLP Dallas.

Gearbox's CEO Rafael Filippini joined the Pickleballers Podcast to discuss their Epic New Paddle Release. He talked about these paddles' unique features, the changes he made and if he thinks it will get banned. The new series features 4 paddles: 2 control types and 2 power types. Within those 2 types, there is a traditional shape and an elongated shape. #pickleball #gearboxpickleball #pickleballpaddles

Roscoe Bellamy, 22, is a Pro Pickleball Player from Bell Canyon, California who recently signed a 3-year MLP Contract starting in January 2024. Roscoe started playing in early 2023 and won a men's singles silver medal at the APP Atlanta. He's a menace in singles and is quickly bringing up his doubles game. In this interview, we talked about his origin story, the APP Atlanta Call, his training regimen and more.

Shea Underwood is one of Pickleball's original content creators, getting into the space after his dreams of making it to the NFL after college football didn't pan out. At first, Shea filmed POV Pickleball videos, quickly turned into highlight videos, tip videos and more. Now Shea gives away tons of paddles and other things weekly, inspiring the Pickleball community.

Andrei Daescu is your latest MLP Champion for the Orlando Squeeze along with his teammates Anna Bright, Rachel Rohrabacher and Zane Navratil. Daescu and company may have completed the best comeback in pickleball history. He recaps the tournament in this podcast!

Dustin Davis has done everything when it comes to Pickleball which includes getting certifications for Pickleball and Health & Fitness to help Pickleballers prevent/manage injuries and become better players on the court. Dustin talks about all this and more on the podcast!

Jack Munro, aka Jr. Mint, sat down on the Podcast to talk about MLP Pickleball, College Pickleball, what it was like when people were signing contracts, shots he's working on and much more! This was filmed 2 weeks ago, obviously a lot has changed since then, but keep that in mind when you listen!

Ed Ju, a top content creator and coach in pickleball sat down on the podcast to talk about how he got into pickleball, how he applies what he learned into video format, where the game is going and how we can become better pickleball players!

PCKL's CEO and founder Mike Gottfried talked about their new pro series of Pickleball paddles, the reviews, the upgrades; how to build a pickleball brand and company, the future of pickleball balls and more!

Dan Beeman came on the podcast to talk all things pickleball, from his master's thesis, to his pickleball movie script, to creating and running the world's largest pickleball travel club, Dan Beeman has done it all! Listen to all this and more on the podcast!

Ben Van Hout is DUPR's College Pickleball Coordinator among a bunch of other awesome things. On the podcast, he talked about the future of college pickleball, up-and-coming programs and players, and predicted whether or not we see college pickleball as an NCAA sport!

"The Pickleball Pilot," Dean Matt, attempted the 48-48-48 Challenge (48 pickleball games, in 48 states, in 48 days) on May 1 of this year! He crushed his initial prediction and put the pickleball world on a pedestal. He also talked about which places he recommends for Pickleball tourists and a whole lot more.

Matt Calvert, founder of TCU pickleball and former president talked about how he started the pickleball club, where they are now, the future of college pickleball and more! He also is willing to risk $10M against Ben Johns🤯😱

Katy Luxem is the founder of Big Dill Pickleball Co. which specializes in making quality equipment with an emphasis on fun and friendly designs! Luxem has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, USA Today and more!

Ray Colaiacovo is largely to thank for brining the US Open Pickleball Championships, MLP, PPA and APP to National TV. In part 2 of the Pickleballers.io Podcast, Colaiacovo talks how he met Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns and who are his GOATs of Pickleball!

Ray Colaiacovo is a TV Packager for all major networks and is largely responsible for bringing professional pickleball in all its forms (US Open, MLP, PPA, APP, etc.) to national TV. Ray came up with the standard for producing Pickleball on TV, including creating the kitchen cam and so much more!

Connor Garnett was on the Podcast where he talked about the MLP Super Final, the upcoming draft, pickleball tips and the future of our game! Watch the interview on Pickleballers.io!

Dave Benz talks about what it's like announcing Pickleball's biggest tournament, the future of pickleball and so much more!