Written by Charles McElyea
Photo by Rose Morgan
Pickleball has been taking over campus rapidly. Just four years ago, most students hadn’t either heard of or played pickleball. The sport is making headway globally and found itself in Dayton, Tennessee. The Dayton community took to the sport rather quickly and it became a sensation. Dayton installed multiple pickleball courts that would host competitive competitions every month.
Tracy Davidson, 1996 Bryan College graduate, has been a friendly face on campus for quite some time. She has worked directly with the admissions office since 2019 while her husband has been the head coach for the men’s soccer team.
In 2021, she began her pickleball journey, where she played with some coworkers to get exercise. Soon after, she played in her first tournament and was practically addicted. After being beaten, she developed a drive to study the game and become better at it.
“I previously coached at Sherwood Christian Academy before coming to work at BC and am married to a very dedicated coach,” said Davidson. “So coaching is not only in my blood, but also part of our family DNA.”
Bryan decided that they wanted to jump onboard and eventually get ahead of other colleges by giving out athletic scholarships for the pickleball team. The plan was put into motion and Mrs. Davidson would be transformed into Coach Davidson.
The challenge with this is finding players. Recruiting is difficult due to the lack of high school teams in the area. Pickleball has yet to find its way into high school sports. That means the program cannot see other players play. They began recruiting by word of mouth, college fairs and attending sponsored events.
Bryan started from the ground floor on this project. While they understood the time it would take to reach a competitive level, they were more than ready to get going. The team consisted of some familiar names on campus: Tyler Constance, Tim Wu, Ethan Pollack, Amber Zbyszinski and Alayna Kerr.
Their first ever recruit, Isaac Simpson, came out of Cleveland, Tennessee. They have been competing in many tournaments including the Dayton Classic, Fairfield Glade and The Grateful Gobbler.
The next big step is for them to compete in the College Regional Tournament at Revolve in Cleveland. This will feature many colleges from the southeast area. All of these teams are relatively new and are hoping to showcase their talent in order to grow the sport as a whole. These teams include Clemson, Auburn, University of Alabama Birmingham and UT Chattanooga.
This is a huge step in the right direction for Bryan. Not only will this help the school get more recruits, but it will lead to more scholarships and better funding for pickleball in the future. Coach Davidson was extremely excited to see where this journey takes them.
“We view ourselves as David against many Goliaths, but we are excited for the opportunity and look forward to good results. The future of Bryan College Pickleball is bright.”
