Jack Thorpe

Middle-school student Jack Thorpe celebrated his recent birthday by inviting five friends to the courts at Louis Sutter Park, across the street from his house.

Thorpe really took to the game this last year, his mother Erin explained. During the pandemic, when school was on zoom, “he’d head out to the courts at lunch and for p.e.; when classes were over, he’d run back there again.”  Having this sport and playing with older community members is really making him mature a lot quicker.” Pickleball is so much a part of Jack’s life that he convinced his school, a private school in Noe Valley, to create a court and supply the nets – making it the first elementary school in the city to offer pickleball. This June, Jack will be playing against other 13- and 14-year-olds in the Junior PPA (Professional Pickleball Association) Orange County Cup.

- Judy Goddess