Pickleball Program Coming to NYC Schools, Public & Private

A pickleball program for NYC school students is coming to the five boroughs, with one private school and one public school—the Allan Stevenson School on E. 78th St., and the East Side Community School on E. 12th St.—serving as the first Manhattan test cases.

The initiative began on Feb. 4, and aims to bring the insurgent sport to the “hands of every single NYC public student.” It is slated to spread to other schools in the coming months.

The roll-out, which will be overseen by a pickleball networking company known as Conquer, is being facilitated by the Major League Pickleball team known as Brooklyn Pickleball Team; Conquer Kids serves as the official youth partner of the MLP team.

JOOL, a pickleball apparel company, will also participate. Major League Pickleball is itself sponsored by DoorDash. Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Pickleball Team has an array of famous stakeholders including Eva Longoria, Justin Verlander, and Odell Beckham Jr.

“This is a first-of-its-kind partnership, and it’s exactly what the sport needs right now,” Conquer Kids Co-Founder Louis Long said in a statement.

“Pickleball is growing at an incredible pace, but growth only matters if it’s accessible. By partnering with the Brooklyn Pickleball Team and JOOLA, we’re ensuring kids across all five boroughs have the opportunity to learn, play, and fall in love with the game,” Long added.

Another co-founder, Matthew Lee, emphasized how the pilot program will just be one part of a larger initiative to integrate pickleball into the larger educational system: “From elementary school to high school, and now into college programs, we’re creating clear pathways for participation, leadership, and lifelong engagement.”

According to Conquer Kids, they already provide pickleball-curious youth with extracurricular “organized pickleball open play, leagues, clinics, and events.”

The new partnership coming to schools such as Allen-Stevenson, however, could help provide some serious additional momentum for a sport that has drawn a fair share of adult attention (and occasional controversy) borough-wide.

After all, Conquer Kids openly describes the initiative as “a historic milestone” and “a new standard for grassroots growth and community engagement in the fastest-growing sport in America.”

The Allen-Stevenson School, a pricey K-8 institution where tuition goes for more than $60,000 per pupil, is located not far from Carl Schurz Park on E. 86th St. After the sport and its proponents arrived at the public park—which abuts Gracie Mansion—a sort of low-intensity public conflict flared up, in what Our Town dubbed the “Pickleball Wars.”

It’s unclear if that simmering beef, which has involved certain local residents expressing frustration that “picklers” successfully took over half of the park’s recreational space for their own usage, will find any parallels in the Conquer rollout targeting NYC schools.

Pickleball, after all, has already found a foothold in other school systems across the United States.

It’s now being offered as a varsity high-school sport in the Montgomery County public system in Maryland, for example, with one 15 year-old participant telling NPR that its appeal stems from its character as “a very casual game” that you can also “play competitively...with your dad or your grandma.”