Pickleball
We recently painted a pickleball court in the parking lot of the Hillyard Youth Center for students to play on. It was a sunny Thursday, and I was setting up the net alone with a crowd of a few students watching, their curiosity peaked. One student walked out of the youth center as I was finishing set up and eagerly asked, “You tryna take an L?” to which I of course laughed and picked up a paddle, ready to prove to this 16-year-old that 25 is not old, despite his trash talk.
We began what became a best-of-seven series with games that came down to the wire. The student had a smile and laughed more than I had seen in a while. In the end, I handed the student “an L” and walked away with him as we said “good game” and headed back inside. I asked him where he had learned to play pickleball and how he got so good. He looked at me with a big smile on his face and said, “We got to play an hour a day when I was locked up. After spending all day in my cell, I liked it because I got to get out and do something other than just read.”
Stories like this are common among our students at YFC. These students come from a variety of backgrounds, but more than a few have had their own run-ins with the law and have made decisions that have resulted in some pretty serious consequences. I have discovered that students want to let us in on the stories of their lives but sometimes just do not know how; sometimes they just need a little buffer. On this sunny Thursday afternoon, pickleball happened to be the perfect buffer, providing much-needed relief and comfort to the students.