Lou Stephens’ contribution to pickleball was celebrated last year when she was awarded the prestigious Finnish Travelling Paddle, recognising her achievements as the founder of London Pickleball and one of Pickleball England’s leading volunteers.
Naturally, the work doesn’t stop there as she heads into Season 3 of the Premier Pickleball League as owner of Masters team MCMX.
Lou describes her captain Richard Love as “the best player in the league”, and the two worked very closely as they developed a wishlist of potential players ahead of the draft.
“Luckily, we both agreed on the same people,” she says.
“As much as you obviously want to get the best players you can get, we have to know that their personalities would fit in with the team. It’s singles, doubles and mixed, and because of the way it’s formatted, players won’t all get to play the same amount of games, so we needed to know that we had people who weren’t going to start getting stroppy if they didn’t get to play as much as they might want to.
“We also have to be conscious that people are traveling quite a distance to the games, so we have to bear that in mind.”
During the matches, Lou will be on the sidelines, having already had the necessary preparation conversations with Richard.
“We look at the teams we’re playing and their personnel, and then we look at what we think will be our best team to achieve the best outcome.
“We always think we know who our opposition is and then they turn up with a different team!
“We try and make sure all the players get a balance of games across the season. Heidi McClune, she’s flying over from Ireland for each round. She has to do all that herself, and we have to bear that in mind when we’re looking at the team selection. Of course, we’re trying to win, but we’ve picked a squad of players that anyone can play in any of of the different scenarios.”
Pickleball is still a relatively young sport with many top players still funding their own travel and accommodation for big tournaments. Lou, a former international footballer, is familiar with the landscape and its challenges.
“Even now, when I talk to people, and I’ll talk about when I was playing for Wales, and they’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, you were a pro footballer, weren’t you?’
“‘No!’
“‘Yeah, you played for Wales!’
“‘Yeah, and it cost me a fortune!’
“I look at what the players of my generation would do. I remember paying for my Wales blazer and sewing the badge on it.”
Women’s football is, of course, big business now – and Lou hopes that pickleball will also enjoy the same growth, but in a sustainable way.
“Sustainable growth is better than a quick cash influx and then the bubble bursts. I think steady growth is really important.”
Lou was part of the team putting together the plans for the Franklin Pickleball Club in Kingston – rejected in October last year. Reflecting on that massive disappointment now, she points to the surge in interest in pickleball in just the year since.
“I’m now running sessions every single day of the week, and on a Tuesday, we have four separate sessions,” she says. “That’s happened in the year we didn’t open.
“Maybe we were a year too early. Now there are enough people [who would play there] to get the critical mass and really bring the publicity.
“We worked so hard to get where we got, but everything happens for a reason.”
