Five-time national pickleball champion Brett Warner has helped around 30 Arizona schools create pickleball clubs, expanding the sport from his own competition career into the state’s classrooms. Warner, a Mesa resident, is doing that work through PURE Pickleball & Padel, even as a dust storm story drew attention to Arizona weather elsewhere.
Warner said, "I’ve got great friends and training partners here in Arizona" and added, "Whether it’s your first time walking on the court by yourself, or families coming together to play, Arizona has the best pickleball community in the world." Those comments came as he described how the school clubs can compete against each other and can potentially lead to a collegiate scholarship.
PURE Pickleball & Padel
PURE Pickleball & Padel created a way for high school students across the Valley to form clubs for their schools, then use those clubs as a pathway to organized competition. Warner said, "Having the option of playing on high school teams and giving kids the chance to play at the next level is the goal at the end of the day."
He also said, "We are moving so fast, and the feedback from players and parents is so consistent of wanting to play more that we actually started PURE academy." That gives families a separate place to keep playing after the school clubs are established, which keeps the program moving beyond a one-time introduction.
Mesa and Arizona
Warner’s route into pickleball runs through tennis and college athletics. He grew up playing tennis at a very young age, became a collegiate athlete at George Washington University, and later learned pickleball through his brother after a holiday visit. From there, he won national championships in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.
The contrast is part of what makes his role unusual: the state’s school-club push comes from a player whose background began in tennis, then turned into five national pickleball championships. Pickleball itself was created in 1965 on Bainbridge Island Washington by Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum, but Warner’s work shows how the game now moves through Arizona schools, not just private courts.
For Arizona students, the practical change is straightforward. Around 30 schools already have clubs, those clubs can play one another, and the program has a route to keep expanding through PURE academy. Warner’s own answer for why he keeps pushing is already fixed in place: Arizona’s pickleball community is the one he wants to build on.
