News (Youth)

AYPBC Phase 2 News Story Here
​
​Update from Connie McCaan, Co-Project Leader
Activating Youth Pickleball Victoria Regional Pickleball Association (“AYPVRPA”), Region 3

April 3, 2026

AYPVRPA Report

Region 3, AYPVRPA, has worked hard on many fronts to build on the success of School Year 2024-2025 which was the first year of joint work with Pickleball BC to put paddles in the hands of Victoria youth.

Our co-project leader, Heather Hood joined the PBCA Board and provided her extensive knowledge and skills to PBC’s Youth Committee and as Vice President. This meant we had to find a replacement for the almost impossible to replace Heather. We found Tina van der Lee who is new to pickleball but not new to focusing on the needs of underserved youth. Tina brought her first-rate skills in human resources and fundraising to Region 3. That has led us to some fine steps forward. Tina developed a resource guide for our Community Volunteers and led a half day workshop for the volunteers which included time in the gym with our NCCP certified, Level 2 lead coach.

We were quick to realize that funding was going to be one of biggest challenges as we knew that dollars from the 2025/2026 viaSport BC grant would be lower than the previous year, even though PBCA continued with their equivalent Phase 1 financial support. With our new ability on how to fundraise we approached multiple sources for dollars. Our first application to Jumpstart was turned down, however, we learnt from that experience and applied for the next funding cycle. We will hear soon on that application.

We reached out successfully to two local firefighter associations who have a fine track record of supporting youth, and we knew that local firefighters were playing pickleball as part of their exercise component. It is so much easier when the prospective funders know our game!

We applied for funding for our Slamboree to two local sources and this week received funds from local radio station CFAX who again, supported the heart of our project which is to break down the barriers for youth to access this important new sport in elementary schools.

The new funding allowed us to expand to more elementary schools and perhaps to our first Middle school. It is also going to support a 2-day Slamboree which focuses on a fun day for the new schools and a slightly more tournament style day for the schools who entered the AYP program last year. Our Slamboree is the first time our student teams play on a dedicated pickleball facility, in a large sport center. We offer free snack bags with pickleball wrist bands, pickleball key chains, a multitude of door prizes and fruit supplied by a local grocer. The fun tournament is created by our local Court Crusher team who have developed a business organizing pickleball tournaments and offer their services to us free of charge. Archie Browning Sport Centre supplies the facility at a greatly reduced rate as they, too, wish to support youth in an emerging sport. Last year the Slamboree was so much fun, enjoyed by all of us, students, parents, School leaders and volunteers. We expect this year to be double the fun with double the number of student/teams.

The reason we have success with the Slamboree is we support Noon Hour Pickleball Clubs in 9 schools. Two accomplished volunteers lead the students in drills, the basics of the game and prepare the student/teams for the Slamboree. We do not do play downs, we only enforce rules lightly and every student receives a medal for showing up. We want fun to be the focus of all our events.
Some statistics from Region 3: School Year 2025-2026 4 new elementary schools, 2 inner city, one in the francophone school board. 610 grade 3, 4 and 5’s has been introduced to pickleball, 9 pickleball clubs established in SD 61 elementary schools, 2 elementary schools will come onboard in September, financially supported by their PAC’s and 8 teaches are signed up for a dedicated NCCP Level 1 coaching for teachers in May 2026.

April 10, 2026: Eagle View Elementary School students receiving their pickleball equipment. Over 40 students showed up to begin their adventure in learning pickleball. Coach Darren Anderson did a fine job of leading the students and this group will be instructed every noon hour on Fridays until the Thursday June 4th Slamboree. This basket of equipment was funded by AYPVBC/Region 3, the firefighters and VRPA. Eagle View Elementary is one of our 2025-2026 schools and they are with us because School Leader, Emma Johnson is a pickleball player and last year took the 2024-2025 McKenzie Elementary school players to the “Top Scoring Team” level!
​
Left photo, or top on mobile: Coach Darren Anderson on the left. Teacher Dagmar Restell on the right. And excited Eagle View players in the centre. Right photo, or bottom on mobile: Emma Johnston, school leader and Connie McCann AYPVRPA/Region 3 on the left. Teacher Dagmar Restell on the right. Excited Eagle View players in the centre.

Finally, I would like to give a shout out to the volunteers who make this program work. They do so with enthusiasm, dedication and a smile on their face. Region 3 could not do what we do without them.

Respectfully submitted,
Connie McCann, Co-Project Leader, AYPVRPA, Region 3

—–

April 14, 2026

AYPVRPA Update

AYPVRPA was notified yesterday that we received $7,815 from Jumpstart/Canadian Tire. We are so pleased by the faith that our funders are putting in us and the work we do.We could not have done any of this without the vision that all of you initiated and the leadership that you inspired.

We made 2 applications and were successful in one. We have to date received funding from the Township of Esquimalt Firefighters, the City of Victoria Firefighters, CFAX Santas Anonymous Fund and now Jumpstart.

What this means for us. We are going into Middle Schools. Committed to a 2-day Slamboree for elementary schools and considering a 1-day Slamboree for Middle Schools. We will be putting paddles in the hands of at least 2 inner city Middle Schools. None of this is without challenges but I can attest to the commitment of AYPVRPA’s team and their quest to ensure the sport stays affordable and accessible.

Respectfully submitted,
Connie McCann, Co-Project Leader, AYPVRPA, Region 3

###

April 4, 2026

Maggie Murch
AYPBC North Shore Pickleball Club, Region 2

Hey picklers and amazing volunteers!

Spring is near and yes… this means the North Shore Pickleball Club is back at its youth development volunteer work this spring, with a bit of a new twist!

The North Shore is now part of the Activating Youth Pickleball in BC (“AYPBC”) program as one of 7 regions in BC to be partnering with Pickleball BC. Funding for this AYPBC program has been granted through viaSport BC which is great for the advancement of our sport! You can learn more about the program here.

As you know, we’ve spent the last 5 Springs getting into schools to introduce pickleball to students and teachers alike including one-off sessions for classes and staff socials for teachers. This year we will shift gears with the goal of more training for teachers to create sustainable programs and knowledge within the schools on their own. As such, you can see our North Shore goals outlined here.

GOALS FOR 2026

• Work with at least 4-6 schools and build a minimum 5 week pickleball program for grades 4-7
• Continue the free intro to pickleball offer to at least 5 schools, ideally at least 2 schools that haven’t participated in our program in the past
• Offer school classes an affordable field trip package to Fairgrounds Pickleball
• Create a Jamboree event for participating schools in spring of 2026 (scheduled for May 22nd, 11-2 pm at Fairgrounds)
• Offer NCCP level 1 training to 4-6 pickleball advocate teachers from NVSD or WVSD (confirmed for May 4th at Fairgrounds)

VOLUNTEERS – WE STILL NEED YOU!
What does this mean for our awesome volunteers? We still need our amazing group of volunteers that have showed up in spades for the last 5 years! As you can see from our goals, we will have perhaps a few less school visits but the ones we have will need a little more time from some of you! Especially goal #1 above. What this might look like is volunteering once a week for 3 hours at the same school for 5 weeks or so. You will help build (resources provided) a progressive program for the 5 (or so) sessions and each week get the teacher to take on more of the leading and responsibility so that in future they can run a program like this themselves.

NEW – VOLUNTEER COORDINATORS
This year, I’m thrilled to have Wendy Holtan and Joan Burke helping me out with the volunteer coordination. We are working closely together – I am communicating with the schools and once we have the specific schools signed up, Wendy and Joan will match up volunteers with school programs. Ideally for each school in Goal 1 above, we will have at least one person/leader who can commit to the school weekly and then other volunteers can support weekly if we can’t find multiple people who can commit weekly.

Here is the contact information for Wendy and Joan – and please do reach out to them if you are interested in being a leader and or a support volunteer!

Wendy Holtan, wholtan@shaw.ca
Joan Burke, jburke@shaw.ca

While nothing is 100% confirmed as of yet, here are a few schools that have expressed interest in the 5 week program incase any of these appeal to you:

Cleveland, Bowen Island, Lynmour, Dorothy Lynas, and Highlands

Thank you for your time and consideration in volunteering for pickleball youth development!!!! We’ve come a long way already!

Total Impact so far from 2021-2025
Students reached: 4,958
Teachers reached: 737

Thank you and as always, if you’d like me to remove you from these emails, just send me an email privately and I will remove you.

Maggie, Wendy and Joan

###

April 14, 2026

South Okanagan Youth Pickleball Association (“SOYPA”) Update
Youth Pickleball Growing in the South Okanagan

SOYPA is working with six local elementary schools and three secondary schools to promote youth pickleball across the South Okanagan.
​
This Spring, programs are running at Holy Cross Elementary, Trout Creek Elementary, Summerland Elementary, Columbia Elementary, Kettle Valley Elementary, and Senpokchin Elementary School, introducing Grades 4–7 students through fun, game-based learning while building core skills.

With support from Pickleball BC, SOYPA is also supplying portable nets, paddles, and balls to participating schools.

SOYPA is hoping to introduce pickleball into secondary schools in May, including Summerland Secondary, Penticton Secondary (Pen High), and Princess Margaret Secondary School, with a youth tournament planned in the first weeks of June.

Partnerships with the YMCA, local clubs, and community organizations continue to grow, supporting facility access, coaching, and long-term development opportunities.

We have a registered list of 22 volunteers with 6 Active coaches. We are planning a Level 1 clinic on June 13th in Penticton for any persons wishing to help coach in our programs and have 5 spots left.

The biggest obstacle is getting courts time to run programs. As the sport is new to the secondary student population, I believe it will take 2 to 3 years then I expect we will see an explosion of youth involvement. The kids at the three elementary schools that we finished our introductory program at were very excited, which is what it is all about. Anyone interested in helping or playing in our June secondary tournament send me an E-mail.

Mark Tamblyn
President, SOYPA
[email protected]

###

April 15, 2026

AYPBC Sunshine Coast Report

Hello from the Sunshine Coast,

We had our first AYPBC program on Monday this week.

Monday 13 April
24 kiddos. 17 girls + 7 boys
Ages 11 and 12
2 coaches and 6 volunteers

Wednesday 15 April
Two sessions.
Session 1: 25 kiddos 14 girls + 11 boys
Session 2: 25 kiddos 16 girls + 9 boys
Ages 11 and 12
2 coaches and 5 volunteers

Unfortunately no photographs as we have not yet received the nets and balls.

Besides the equipment issues the only problem has been scheduling. We were supposed to be at 2 different schools Monday and another 2 on Wednesday. We were cancelled last minute due to school scheduling complications. However, we have managed to reschedule.

Thank you everyone for your help and support. Our coaches, volunteers and the children have all enjoyed the sessions so far.

Cheryl Linsley
Sunshine Coast Pickleball Association

###

April 15, 2026

PBCA AYPBC Youth Program Phase 2 – Franklin Equipment Shipped, NCCP Arranged & Final ViaSport Report

Hello David,

The elementary schools in the Northern BC region have shown so much excitement to have pickleball introduced to their students!

The Superintendent of our school district is very supportive of having all elementary schools participate in the program. I have been working with the personnel responsible for Pro D days to have pickleball added to the agenda. Unfortunately, it will have to wait until the new school year.

We are waiting for the nets and balls to arrive yet, but having the paddles already in hand has allowed us to start the program. We have been using personal nets and some multipurpose equipment, as well as personal and some club balls to use at the schools.

​Unfortunately we do not have permission to allow photos of the kids opening up the boxes, but one teacher did allow me to take a picture of his son 🙂 The kids and teachers have been very thankful for this program. They are enthusiastic and some don’t want the class to end!

​Five elementary schools have agreed to participate for this school year. I have been in contact with a private school to also add their school to the list. Currently, we are teaching pickleball in two schools with the intermediate and primary grades. One of the schools has a French Immersion division that has its own set of classes. We are scheduled to attend another elementary school during the last week of April. Track and Field takes over most of the month of May, so we have tentatively scheduled the end of May and the beginning of June to attend the other two schools.

The main challenge so far has been scheduling time. The teachers are putting in a lot of effort to make it work around their very busy schedules. ​

Please see the following spreadsheet for the number of introductions so far

Liz Sales
Vice President, Quesnel Pickleball Club
​AYPBC Northern BC

###

April 20, 2026

Vernon Pickleball Association

The Slamborees were held here at our facility on February 24th and 26th in the mornings. We hosted 2 schools each day with about 140 kids each day. The kids had a blast with almost every one of them participating. We set up the event so each school had 6 different pickleball skill games to participate in. The kids had about 5 minutes to practice the skill needed and then they completed the skill.

Thanks,

Julie Varrie
General Manager, Vernon Pickleball Association
​

​Vancouver Elementary School Teachers
David Thompson High School, Vancouver, BC
June 13, 2025

90 Students, 9 Elementary Schools
Prizes Given To Every Student

Champlain, Cunningham, Grenfell, Laurier Tecumseh, Maquinna, Norquay, Van Horne, and Wekwanes

Thank You To The Sponsors: Dairy Queen, K8 Strings, Rackets & Runners, Rise and Shine Ice Cream, and Save-On Foods

Sharon Hoy, AYPBC Coordinator, Interviewing The Attendees …

March 6th 2025, Vancouver, B.C.— With the assistance of a $30,000 grant from the viaSport British Columbia Provincial Sport Development Fund awarded to PBCA in September of 2024, PBCA and Pickleball Canada (“PCO”) procured and delivered Franklin Sports equipment for the AYPBC initiative, introducing K – 7 students to the sport of pickleball across BC.

Working around the clock to out-race the impending, ever-changing Canada-USA 25% tax tariffs, David Snell PBCA President and Barry Petrachenko, PCO Executive Director, ensured that the pickleball equipment the students would use was shipped prior to the midnight deadline last month.

David Snell, PBCA President’s Comments & Background Recap
As David explains: “Though the final AYPBC lesson curriculum and tool sets for all of our BC clubs will not be ready until this Summer, our initiative of introducing pickleball to 16 Elementary schools and approximately 500 K – 7 students at our 3 BC Regions has had a tremendous start. Acquiring the equipment, including providing some Vancouver school teachers NCCP pickleball certification to coach students, were all positive steps towards our initiative.

To date, there are countless number of teachers and our 3 Regional Clubs (Vancouver, Victoria, and Vernon) who are overseeing this rollout, and all are involved in making this initiative happen. Overall, they are seeing the tremendous enthusiasm of both the teachers and the youth as our program is successfully deployed”.

Here an example of a heartfelt gratification PBCA has received from Darren Comer, Physical & Health Education Teacher, École Macaulay Elementary School, Greater Victoria School District: “I am writing this email on behalf of all of us here at Macaulay Elementary to pass along a huge THANK YOU for your very kind donation of pickleball equipment. We thoroughly enjoyed the 3 days of lessons provided to our students by the VRPA community volunteers and we will most certainly make good use of this amazing equipment for years to come!

Thank you for helping to introduce a relatively new sport to our students and in doing so helping to foster more active lifestyles in our young citizens ”

Regional AYPBC Program Updates
1. Victoria, Vancouver Island Region: Connie McCann, past President, Victoria Regional Pickleball Association (“VRPA”) states: “VRPA received the delivery of AYPBC equipment. Very exciting. We are eternally grateful for what we received and started distributing to our first school.”

Another photograph by Connie with her roving camera … “George Jay Elementary School here in Victoria with PE Teacher Luke Forand. We are scheduling gym visits to George Jay in late May.”

2. Vernon, Thompson Okanagan Region: From Rick Klein, Chair Player Development Committee/Vernon Pickleball Association (“VPA”): “We received our equipment order from Franklin on Friday morning last week. Thanks to David and the rest of the PBCA board for your efforts in putting this all together—we really appreciate the work done and we are putting the equipment into use first thing Tuesday morning when we bring 90 grade 6 students to our facility and hold our first Slamboree!!

Last Thursday, February 20th we brought in 80 Grade 7 students for their own Slamboree, so there was fun chaos at VPA!!

Exciting times for us as we have been working with our three designated schools for the past month holding in-school practice sessions in preparation for this event. We will be doing 5 different skills competitions for the schools as well as courts for game playing. Our team is ready for the challenge with snacks and water and of course our new Franklin Equipment. We look forward to the progression of the plan.”

3. Vancouver Region: AYPBC Project Coordinator Sharon Hoy provides an update:
“The original EVES (East Vancouver Elementary School) project is into its third year of spreading pickleball throughout the district. We are really excited under the AYPBC program to be able to provide further equipment and pickleball introductions to under-resourced schools in Vancouver that are new to pickleball.

We currently offer monthly ‘Learn & Play’ professional development sessions to teachers new to pickleball and twenty-two teachers have just received Canada’s National Coaching Certification Program (“NCCP”) training as described below.

Some of these teachers do not have equipment and we can now share the four sets of equipment with those that want to teach this great game to their students. We will also use this equipment for school-wide programming where each student from kindergarten to grade 7 receives three introductory pickleball sessions.

From the start, removing financial barriers by providing equipment has been an important part of the success and growth of youth pickleball in Vancouver elementary schools. We thank you for your support!”

Also, according to Raja Sabbagha: “As one of the members of the original EVES pickleball project in Vancouver … I just wanted to take this opportunity, on behalf of our entire group, to say that we really appreciate your [PBCA] continued support of our initiative. I received a huge shipment of new Pickleball equipment at my school. Please thank everyone involved for their generosity, and we look forward to continuing our partnership in the near future.”

Summary: Positive Energies!!
As eager players heading for the pickleball courts, we are all familiar with that pre-match excitement—the anticipation of playing with our partners and friends, and the euphoria of hitting that first ball. Those are some of the positive, healthy emotions we hope to pass on to our youth through our AYPBC program starting in our 3 Regions, and later in 2025 throughout BC.

For more information, contact:
David Snell, President, Pickleball BC Association
[email protected]

​Sharon Hoy, AYPBC Project Coordinator

​The USA Pickleball Championships took take place from November 10 to 17 in Mesa Arizona. Over 2,500 players of all ages and skill levels competed on 41 courts.

Just preceding and during the event, international pickleball leaders experienced a behind-the-scenes tour and deep dive into hosting, planning, organization, execution and logistics of a major tournament. Through its All Access National Championship Experience, the Global Pickleball Federation (GPF) also delivered educational + networking events for the visiting pickleball leaders from all five continents.

A workshop addressed GPF’s Active.8 strategic priorities: membership development; coaching and instruction; multi-sport games/Olympics; rules and officiating; marketing and communications; tournaments, ratings and rankings; community development and grants; and revenue, sponsorships and partnerships.

Leaders from Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania and The Americas also presented the state of pickleball within their continents. And Pickleball Canada President Val Vollmin and Executive Director Barry Petrachenko were given a special place on the workshop agenda to review the evolution of Canada’s integrated national l provincial l club system for pickleball. Val and Barry also delivered The Americas review.

“British Columbia’s leadership in advancing the Pickleball Schools model for activating youth pickleball in Canada was highlighted by Val and Barry through both their Americas and Pickleball Canada presentations” said Tony Casey. This topic was well received by the global leaders who expressed interest in hearing more about Pickleball Schools development in BC, Canada and beyond.

During the Arizona pickleball week, the GPF also held its first Annual General Meeting, which included in-person representation by GPF member countries from the five continents.

“All in all … mid-November 2024 in Arizona was very good for competitive players and keen pickleball leaders alike”, concludes Director Tony Casey. Tony Casey is a current director of the GPF, former member of the PFA and Pickleball Canada boards, and is an EVES/Pickleball Schools project co-coordinator along with Sharon Hoy for the Vancouver Pickleball Association.