New Delhi: For Elsie Hendershot, a 13-year-old pickleball player, the journey to the professional circuit has already involved international travel, sponsorship deals, team trades, and the demands of balancing school with a rapidly growing career.
From Mapleton in Utah, Elsie recently travelled with her father, Kade, to Vietnam for a pickleball event. After an 11-hour flight from San Francisco to Japan and another five-hour flight to Hanoi, the pair was turned away at the airport because they did not have the required visa. They returned to Japan before arranging an emergency visa and flying back to Hanoi.
Elsie documented the ordeal on Instagram, telling her followers that she did not know what a visa was but knew that they “needed it, really badly.”
The episode was one of several challenges faced by the teenager as she pursues a professional career that began unusually early. Elsie started playing pickleball at 10 and, according to The Washington Post, regularly defeated older and more highly rated junior players. By the time she was 12, she had already won 16-and-under tournaments and received a contract offer to turn professional.
Her father told the newspaper that watching an interview with teenage pickleball star Anna Leigh Waters, who had spoken about wanting to compete in the Olympics if the sport were ever included, convinced him that the family should pursue a similar path.
The move comes as professional pickleball seeks to build a younger talent pipeline. Chris Patrick, chief business officer at Pickleball Inc., told the Post that investors have put hundreds of millions of dollars into the professional game, which is creating greater demand for young players who grew up playing pickleball rather than switching from tennis.
Elsie is among a new generation of teenage professionals. The Post reported that 14-year-old Kelly Goodnow and 15-year-old Tama Shimabukuro are also competing professionally. Shimabukuro, Patrick said, had been negotiating a paddle sponsorship worth about $300,000 to $400,000.
Sponsors are an important source of income for professional pickleball players. Elsie signed a multiyear deal with Paddletek in August, with the company also agreeing to cover her travel expenses, according to the Post.
Patrick told the newspaper that players ranked in the top 20 make “really good money”, while the top five or six earn seven figures. Waters, the sport’s top-ranked player, earns close to eight figures including sponsorships, according to her representatives, the Post reported.
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‘Not the life we signed up for’
Elsie’s rapid rise has also brought major changes to her family. Her father now travels with her while her mother, Megan, stays home with their four other children. To complete her education, Elsie attends an online charter school that helps her accommodate her tournament schedule.
Her social media presence is similarly structured around her career. The Post reported that Kade manages her accounts, while Elsie creates videos and writes posts. She is allowed 15 minutes of supervised social media use each day.
Her professional schedule has already taken her across the United States and to Asia. After beginning the season with Major League Pickleball’s St. Louis Shock, she was traded to the Chicago Slice in exchange for a veteran singles player.
The Post reported that Elsie later helped the Slice secure a playoff place after winning a decisive point in a “Dreambreaker” match in Orlando. After crying on the sidelines following a difficult stretch, she returned to the court and helped her team win.
Her coach and teammate Zane Navratil told the Post that Elsie has an unusual ability to absorb coaching.
For the Hendershots, however, the professional journey has come with a cost.
“It’s not the life we signed up for,” Kade told the Post, referring to the family’s relentless travel schedule.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)