Pickleball and Pickling- Summer Impact Letter - North Florida School of Special Education

In April, NFSSE was gifted two pickleball courts from the Robles Family and they have already been put to a lot of use. Most recently, we created a summer program, Pickleball and Pickling! Our kiddos spend the sunny mornings hitting the ball and then go to the kitchen to turn cucumbers into pickles! Summer campers are learning so much about pickleball and pickling, in fact, did you know that a “kitchen” isn’t just a place to cook? In pickleball, a “kitchen” is the non-volley zone of the pickleball court that extends seven feet from both sides of the net and from sideline to sideline. Our kiddos go from one kitchen to another during their days at Pickleball and Pickling camp!

Mark Robles has his eye on the ball!

The Fun and Folly of Pickleball
By NFSSE Garden Teacher, Page Thomas

The pickleball basket is less full after each P.E. session. Students are learning the art of lobbing and dinking balls across the net; how to stay out of the kitchen and between the lines – mostly…

The impressive trio of power, paddle, and pickleball between a pair of tenacious teens can lead to wiffle balls sailing with an aerodynamic ferocity that far exceeds the boundary of the court!

The excitement of a new sport leads to wild swings from the baseline that cross the court and the chain-link fence, landing with a soft thud on the sensory trail or along the café patio…

And so, on pickleball days, staff and students walking behind campus find the occasional lucky treasures, like Easter eggs forgotten on the hunt–and interest in this curious new game grows with each strong serve…

Coach has made it her mission to keep volleys on the blue and between the fences as students improve their precision, but I for one will miss the happy neon surprises at my feet when I take my lunch outside!

This year’s exuberance for this quirky game to 11 (yes, by 2!) will surely put NFSSE on the PPA map. When this wildly popular hybrid of a game makes it to the Special Olympics, our students are sure to win gold!