N.J. pickleball league planned

Pickleball has been taking the country by storm, and a longtime Sparta resident is about to add New Jersey to a long list of states that are organizing the pastime into a competitive league.

Kelley Merwin of Sparta and her business partner, Kim Finnie of Morris Plains, are launching the Garden State Pickleball League, with plans to have the first session start in September.

Merwin has worked in professional sports licensing and merchandising for most of her life, first with the Atlanta Braves and later with professional wrestling.

For 17 years, she has lived in Sparta, hometown of her husband, Chris.

“I love Sparta. It’s such a great community to raise a kid. There’s so many things to do. I mean, how do you not love it here,” she said.

Merwin was inspired to ride the wave of the relatively recent pickleball craze because she and Finnie have participated in a statewide tennis league for many years. They have experienced the benefits of an organized league firsthand.

She believes that experience could translate easily to pickleball.

“For tennis, we have league play all across northern New Jersey and you play every week against another team in another community. We thought this would be a great way to bring in indoor pickleball,” she said.

The tennis league is a great way to meet new people, she noted. “With tennis, some of my closest friends I met playing against them at a different club. Now we travel to tournaments together.”

An organized league that requires some travel is a very new idea for pickleball players. In the current format across New Jersey, players mainly rent courts, take lessons and participate in round-robins within their club or facility.

’Very social sport’

With plans to model the league after the tennis league format, Merwin and Finnie envision the Garden State Pickleball League offering opportunities to meet new people in an organized and competitive environment because the culture of pickleball is highly social already.

“It’s a very social sport so people go, they meet people, they jump in for a game. Whether you go there with someone or not, it’s very social and welcoming like that,” Merwin said.

She and Finnie are in discussions with several clubs in Sussex, Morris, Essex and Passaic counties that would host games for the league. They expect to expand throughout all of New Jersey and have received inquiries from towns in Bergen County as well East Brunswick and Monroe in Central Jersey.

The first session of the Garden State Pickleball League would start in September and be limited to a daytime women’s league that will last 12 weeks.

After those 12 weeks, the plan is to expand to more players and times.

“Once we work out any kinks and get feedback, in January, we’ll kick off a men’s league and mixed doubles. We want to add evenings and weekends for people that are working and want to play,” she said.

It’s important to Merwin that people know that the Garden State Pickleball League will offer competition for all levels of play, from beginners to more advanced. Everyone will be placed by level so that the competition is exciting.

“We want it to be fun and competitive. We don’t want anyone destroying anyone.”

She also encourages anyone who is new to the idea of pickleball to give it a try. “For the beginner who’s kind of interested but a little bit afraid - go with a friend. Get a paddle, get a ball and hit around a little bit. Just try it.”

For anyone interested in registering for the first round of competition, information is online at www.gardenstatepickle.com