Pickleball pros Josh Smith, Olivia McMillan, Courtney Zalinski and Mix Wild congratulate one another on a game well played after a practice session at Wild Dunes Tennis Center. Zalinski is a Top-40 Pro Pickleball Association player who hopes to work her way into the top 10 this spring.
Photo by Mic Smith
Maybe you’ve heard the thwocks and the whacks of paddles and balls at your neighborhood park. Maybe you’re an expert at dinks and serves. Maybe you’re just wondering what all the fuss is about pickleball.
More than 13 million players across the country tell an unmistakable truth: Pickleball is one of the hottest sports around, and it’s getting hotter by the moment. In South Carolina, you can find more than 200 places to get your volley on. Young and old, men and women, from cities to suburbs and everywhere in between—people of all kinds are drawn in by the sport that’s beloved for being sociable and accessible, something almost anyone can pick up and quickly learn to enjoy.
Meet a young pickleball professional and a seasoned amateur, two of the diverse South Carolina faces of a sport that has something to offer for almost everyone.
Charleston-native pickleball pro Courtney McMillan was an accomplished tennis player before getting hooked on pickleball. Now, she’s a full-time pickleball athlete.
Photo by Mic Smith
Olivia McMillan, 33
Pickleball claim to fame: Top-40 Pro Pickleball Association (PPA) Tour Professional
On an unseasonably hot December afternoon, full-time pickleball pro and Charleston native Olivia McMillan is working up a sweat. The match itself—a mixed-doubles practice session—starts off friendly enough, with relaxed banter and self-reported violations for volleying inside the kitchen. Then competition takes over.
It’s McMillan and Josh Smith, the Wild Dunes pro, against Max Wild and Courtney Zalinski, another pair of accomplished tennis players turned hardcore pickleballers. The score is tied 9-9, and whichever team reaches 11 wins the game and bragging rights.
But there’s more on the line for McMillan. She’s coming off knee surgery, and in a few weeks, she’ll return to professional singles play in the PPA’s first tournament of the season in Palm Springs, California. She’s trying to hone her game to meet her goal—to finish in the top 10 this year.
“When someone told me you could go pro in pickleball,” she recalls, “I thought, ‘There’s no way that’s a thing. There’s no way that’s real.’”
She had, admittedly, “knocked” the sport when she first heard about it while playing tennis. But then she tried it. And then she got hooked. And then she started training. And then she went to the U.S. Open and won a gold medal. And then she quit her corporate job and turned pro.
“And now I travel all over the U.S. and get to play pickleball full time, which is the most amazing thing,” she says.
Standing at the baseline, now at match point, McMillan serves—a graceful, looping, left-handed swing that sends the ball whizzing. Wild’s return hits the net, and the winning team high-fives their paddles. For all the ramped-up intensity, though, the friendliness instantly reappears.
“That’s the biggest thing,” McMillan says about the sport’s appeal. “It’s just fun, and it’s good community.”
Fred Jahad, a 74-year-old pickleball amateur, is the 2024 South Carolina State Champion in Senior Singles and Senior Mixed Doubles.
Photo by Mic Smith
Dr. Fred Jahad, 74
Pickleball claim to fame: 2024 South Carolina State Champion in Senior Singles and Senior Mixed Doubles
It’s fair to say that when Dr. Fred Jahad decides to do something, he’s all in. As a teacher, he never missed a day of school in 37 years. As a wrestler, he was set to represent Team USA in the 1980 Olympics until Jimmy Carter boycotted those games. And when he got serious about pickleball at age 70?
“I was playing six, seven hours a day,” he says. “At James Island High School, I was running the steps up and down, trying to stay in good shape for the competition. And because of my background in wrestling, mentality is really, really important.”
Jahad and his wife, Cindy, began playing pickleball regularly on public courts. He’d played squash and a little tennis before, but he soon discovered pickleball was his new calling. He liked that, compared to tennis, the courts were smaller, you didn’t get as tired or as injured, and you could play anytime.
“And the good thing about pickleball is that the people are so nice,” he says. “And everybody is there to help you. It’s a socializing, friendly atmosphere.”
Not long after picking up pickleball, Jahad began playing in amateur tournaments, and not long after that, he began winning them. He plays singles, doubles and mixed doubles, and he’s racked up an entire trophy case full of gold medals from tournaments all over the nation and world.
Yet for all the whirlwind of practice and travel, he has no intention of slowing down. He wants to become a professional in Super Seniors and begin competing for prize money. So, now he’s playing every day at Pickle Bar in Summerville, a complex that includes nine outdoor courts and a restaurant, where everybody knows Dr. Fred.
“If you want to be really good like I want to be, and compete, then you find the best people and practice with them,” he says.