A freshman is working to bring a competitive pickleball club to Creighton.  

Timothy Stuckslager, a student in the Heider College of Business, said he is working through the paperwork with the Student Leadership and Involvement Center to officially establish the Pickleball Club as a competitive club on campus.  

He has a big vision for the club when it gets started. 

“I am currently the only official member of the Competitive Pickleball Club but once we get the paperwork done, we can sign more people up, get ranked and participate in tournaments all over the United States; Utah, Dallas, and South Carolina to name a few. So, there are a lot of opportunities,” Stuckslager said. 

Pickleball combines stroke techniques from tennis, ping pong and badminton.  

“You have a smaller court that uses a typical looking tennis net, although scaled much smaller to fit the size of the court and the instruments that are used to play this sport resemble oversized ping pong paddles,” he said.  

Pickleball practices and tournaments are happening on campus already, he said. 

“The Friday before spring break Creighton hosted their Intramural Pickleball Tournament, a new Intercollegiate Pickleball Tour that is being established through DUPR, which stands for Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating,” Stuckslager said. 

 DUPR is a global rating system in which players are rated on the same scale and categorized based on match results.  

“We just got it approved through the DUPR organization about a week ago,” he said.  

This past year, the Kiewit Fitness Center began renting out pickleball equipment and nets.  

“So now anyone, anytime can rent nets and paddles. I think it is a great way to express that people are participating in the sport and that people have that interest. Creighton is matching the interest they see in their student population,” Stuckslager said.  

Steven Walton, the assistant director of sports programs for Campus Recreation, said that around two to three years ago, students, faculty and staff started bringing their own pickleball equipment to the Kiewit Fitness Center. 

“People were bringing their own nets and paddles, so we went over and asked them what sets they had because it is such a growing sport,” Walton said. “We decided to purchase some of our own so that we could start offering pickleball as an intramural activity.” 

Twice a week, the Kiewit Fitness Center runs a faculty-staff pickleball league.  

“We have got about 20 staff members that show up,” Walton said.  

An intramural tournament on a Thursday night – usually a slow night for students and the KFC – had 11 participants.  

“It was pretty promising to get us to 11 participants,” Walton said.   

Alejandro Gandini, a sophomore in the Heider College of Business, plays tennis for Creighton, but he sees the attraction of pickleball.  

“I love tennis so much, but if you are looking to begin playing a racquet sport, pickleball is really fun and easy to start that journey,” he said.