We often get asked how we discovered pickleball or when we started playing. While we’ve only been on the pro pickleball tour for three years, life before pickleball feels like it was a lifetime ago. A lot happened before we made the transition, and looking back, it’s incredible to see how much we’ve grown and adapted as a family.
After Ryler retired from his professional tennis career in 2011, we jumped into the next chapter with full force. Together, we founded and ran RDTennis, a high-performance tennis program in Seminole, FL. For a year and half, we poured our energy into developing young tennis players, but in 2012, Ryler was recruited to become the men’s assistant coach at the University of Alabama. The opportunity to try the college coaching route was intriguing, and so we packed up and moved to Tuscaloosa.
During those four years in Alabama, I wore many hats—just the way I like it. I worked on my master’s degree in special education, was involved with CrossingPoints, a program for students with disabilities aged 18-21, and also served as the men’s team manager while continuing to coach high-performance tennis. Oh, and I got to experience a lot of Alabama football—Roll Tide!
Life was full, and our family grew during that time. Lily was born in Tuscaloosa in 2015, and when Ryler was offered the associate head coach position at Florida State in 2016, we made the move to Tallahassee. I was pregnant with JR during that transition, and by the time we settled in, our family of four was complete.
In Tallahassee, Ryler was busy recruiting and coaching for FSU while I directed the Seminole High-Performance Tennis Program. But I also found a new passion: triathlons. I fell in love with training and eventually competed in an Ironman 70.3, which was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life.
In 2019, Ryler was recruited to Lake Nona to take a position as a National Coach with Team USA/USTA. We were thrilled. This felt like the culmination of all of his hard work, and we bought a house in beautiful Lake Nona, thinking this would be his forever job. Ryler was shaping the future of American tennis, and we felt like everything was falling into place.
But then the world stopped in 2020 with COVID, and so did Ryler’s job. Nobody could have predicted it, but his role was no longer needed, and he was let go. It was a tough blow, but as a family, we pride ourselves on being adaptable. We knew we’d figure it out.
For a brief time, we relocated to Delaware, where we both coached a lot and got back on our feet. It was during those four months that we were first exposed to pickleball. We didn’t know it at the time, but that was the beginning of something special.
By January 2021, we returned to Florida. I had started a new job as an insurance advisor with Farmers Insurance, while Ryler coached tennis for private clients. Working a remote desk job advising people on insurance coverage was something I never thought I’d do, but I enjoyed it. Talking to people, helping, advising, and selling became a new competitive outlet for me.
While we were both busy with our own pursuits, we missed working together. We needed something to reconnect us as a couple. And that’s when pickleball entered the picture.
It started with Tuesday nights at a local club for open play. We met other couples, shared laughs, and began to realize that pickleball wasn’t just fun—it was the perfect outlet for our competitive spirits. Those Tuesday nights grew into a passion, and soon, they evolved into a journey that would change our lives forever.
And so, our pickleball story began…
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