For brothers Boone and Ford Casady, pickleball is extra than simply a sport, it’s a ardour. The 16-year-old twins are among the many high junior gamers on the planet, however extra essential to them than trophies and medals is a need to unfold the fastest-growing sport in America to excessive faculties and schools.
Their imaginative and prescient, mixed with the persistence of fellow Crossroads sophomores Samantha Leeds and Hannah Carey, has birthed the L.A. High School Pickleball League, the primary of its sort in California. The first match can be Jan. 24 on the Santa Monica Pickleball Center.
Teams from Crossroads, Brentwood, Windward, Palisades, Notre Dame and Santa Monica Pacifica Christian will take part, and presumably a number of extra.
Matches can be biweekly with all faculties competing on the similar shared location. The match format is loosely primarily based on highschool tennis with three doubles strains, one singles line and “friendlies” — guaranteeing that novices, alternates and creating gamers all get taking part in time. The season culminates with semifinals and a league championship.
“My brother and I grew up playing competitive tennis and baseball,” Boone stated. “We’d been playing tennis since we were about 3 and in eighth grade we moved to Barcelona to train at the Emilio Sánchez Academy for tennis. We were first introduced to pickleball earlier while we were in Mexico playing with friends and we immediately fell in love with it. We entered our first tournament in Palm Springs and realized we’d found something special.
“We noticed that so many juniors were training and competing individually but there wasn’t a school-based structure like you have in other varsity sports. We decided to change that. We wanted girls to be involved from the start — it was important to us that the league be coed and inclusive to reflect how competitive girls pickleball already is. We’re also co-founders of the Crossroads Pickleball Club along with Samantha and Hannah and we’re working to grow participation on campus and across L.A.”
The 4 founders of the L.A. High School Pickleball League play combined doubles.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
Unlike most youth sports activities initiatives, the league was not created by adults or directors, it was constructed solely by students. Over the final two years they’ve coordinated with the Southern Section for recognition and steerage, labored with Crossroads directors to set up pickleball as a school-sanctioned varsity sport, organized early intramural and inter-school tournaments, constructed communication networks amongst native excessive faculties and helped different faculties begin turning their membership groups into varsity applications.
“In high school sports, students usually join a system that already exists,” Leeds stated. “With pickleball, we had to build the system ourselves.”
Boone defeated Ford to earn the No. 1 seed on the 2024 Junior PPA National Championships, however they met once more for the gold medal and this time Ford gained. They additionally took the gold in doubles and completed No. 1 and No. 2 within the nation within the 14s division.
At the 2025 Junior PPA National Championships, the brothers took silver and bronze within the Boys U16 singles and partnered for silver in doubles. They had been additionally introduced the Community Assist Award to acknowledge their initiative in beginning the Los Angeles High School Pickleball League. They are straight-A students and play shortstop and third base on the varsity baseball workforce.
So far, their hardest competitors in pickleball has been one another.
“Boone and I practice together all the time and we play against each other constantly,” Ford stated. “Boone knows the part of my game to attack and I know what to do against him so we always have great matches. No matter who wins, we hug it out at the end.”
The siblings performed of their first professional occasion of the yr Saturday — the Masters Tournament in Palm Springs.
Leeds and Carey had been launched to pickleball in eighth grade.
“I remember leaving PE after playing pickleball, heading to soccer practice and honestly feeling kind of bored,” Leeds recalled. “All I wanted to do was keep playing pickleball.”
“Samantha and I got randomly paired to do pickleball in PE,” stated Carey, who misplaced her house within the Palisades hearth. “Most kids would sit out, look bored, or try to skip but as the pickleball nets went up our peers were engaged, exhilarated and connecting over their love of pickleball. So Samantha and I started making petitions to create a league.”
The women, then 13, had a assembly with Anthony Locke, head of college at Crossroads, and made a pitch deck. Using her abilities as a filmmaker Leeds created a quick sizzle video to assist present what pickleball may appear like as a actual college sport.
“We were told that forming school-based teams and leagues is a necessary first step towards eventual CIF recognition,” she stated. “I created a Varsity Team Starter Kit, outlining the steps we used to establish pickleball as a school-sanctioned varsity sport. Leaders at other schools are actively using it to establish their own teams.”
Added Carey: “We connected with Boone and Ford, which was such an honor considering their talent and passion for the sport. We decided to join forces and use our resources together to further our process of creating a league.”
The inaugural season runs from January to March however starting within the 2026-27 college yr the plan is to transfer to the standard winter sports activities window, November by way of January.
“Pickleball has the potential to become a true varsity sport at both the high school and college levels,” Boone stated. “We’re so excited to help push it forward.”