Player Profile: Huy Lê

Huy Lê is a competitive player. He’d say he’s a 5.0 player but, as “we don’t have a consistent rating system, it’s hard to know for sure.” But what he does know is that he can “compete with other players at the 5.0 level.”

During the pandemic, when Huy was at home with “nothing to do,” a friend introduced him to the game at Louis Sutter. His immediate response was, “That’s a stupid game. I’ll never play it.” The players seemed slow and clumsy – not at all a game he aspired to play. But his friend suggested he give it a second chance and watch it played competitively on YouTube. “That seemed more like it.”  Now he plays daily in the early mornings with the advanced players at the Bay Club and at Sutter Playground.

Pickleball is changing as younger players are taking up the game. What started as an older person’s game is becoming a game for younger players (the average age of pickleball players has dropped from 41 to 35 in the last three years).  With youth comes agility and speed – just what attracted Huy to those games on YouTube. “It’s good that young people are playing, the game is getting more interesting. Players are more willing to be challenged.”

“To be honest,” he concluded, “I never played racket sports before. I was a professional soccer player in Vietnam. Pickleball is all about footwork. I’m never off-balance.”  He is grateful that his wife is beginning to play too because “now she understands what’s so special about the game.”

Huy was born in Vietnam and emigrated to the U.S. in 2013. Both the culture and the language were new. After studying English at CCSF, he transferred to UCLA where he earned a degree that led to a job as a software engineer. He works now between his hours on the court and his volunteer job as Director of Operations for the Golden Gate Pickleball Club. “In the morning, I play pickleball. Then I work, and then it’s back to pickleball.”

A certified coach, Huy finds that coaching cuts into his game time. When he’s on the courts, he “keeps getting asked for my advice. That makes it hard to focus on my game since my immediate response is to help. I can’t get away from helping.”

Despite his initial hesitancy, Huy is convinced that Pickleball is “a great sport. It’s fun playing and talking to people. Men, women, people of all ages play the game. In pickleball you never know who you’ll meet.”

- Judy Goddess