Not just for retirees: Floridian university students can’t get enough of pickleball

To anyone who thinks pickleball is just for retirees, consider FIU senior Natalie De Arazoza, who plays nearly every day at Tropical Park.

“I will show up at 3 p.m. and play for five or six hours or until they turn the lights out,” said De Arazoza, a 22 year old who is majoring in Biology and Chemistry.

De Arazoza played softball in high school, but pickleball is now her passion – and her meeting place, too.

“Most of my friends,” she said, “are people I’ve met through pickleball.”

In fact, De Arazoza is the new president of FIU’s pickleball club, which has a group-message list of more than 400 students. Of those, about 35 are regulars at Tropical Park.

Perhaps as soon as this spring, FIU is expected to have its own on-campus pickleball courts.

Alexandra Coba, 22, is the former president of FIU’s pickleball club. She held that title throughout 2024, but she graduated in December.

She started playing pickleball in October of 2023, and she was hooked immediately.

“Right after I played for the first time, I wanted to play some more,” Coba said. “I said, ‘Let’s play one more hour. Let’s play 30 more minutes.’

“The next thing you know, you’ve been playing three or four hours. It happens all the time.”

The University of Miami also has a pickleball club. It was founded by a student, Brian Kanzer, who said UM has more than 700 pickleball enthusiasts in its group chat.

Kanzer said UM is building four pickleball-only courts on campus. In the meantime, the students use six courts that share space with intramural tennis.

Kanzer, a 22-year-old senior, played tennis from age seven until he developed some shoulder injuries in high school.

When he was 18, he started playing pickleball. Then, in December of 2022, he got the idea to start a pickleball club at UM. He accomplished his goal – but it wasn’t easy.

“It was a lengthy process,” Kanzer said. “We had to create a constitution; get signatures from interested students; and make a formal presentation to the Committee on School Organizations.

“I did a Power Point presentation, waited a few weeks, and we finally got approved in April of 2023.”

After their first year as a club, Kanzer’s group won UM’s “Best Social Media Marketing” award, beating out 300 other clubs on campus.

Kanzer said pickleball has become huge at colleges all over the country.

“It’s amazing,” Kanser said. “People are choosing their colleges depending on what schools have the best pickleball programs.”

While pickleball is not yet an official NCAA sport, it is big at the club level. The University of North Carolina is ranked No. 1 in the nation. FAU is No. 4, and University of Florida is No. 10.

There’s also a 64-team national championship for club pickleball teams. Utah Tech won the 2024 national title, and the 2025 championship is set for April at a site to be determined.

Indeed, pickleball is growing far more than Kanser could have ever imagined, and it could even be an Olympic sport one day.

“My original goal was to get involved on campus,” Kanser said. “Create a place where people can meet and play recreationally.

“I had played at public parks and made friends through pickleball, and I wanted to bring that to UM.”

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