Major League Pickleball’s Atlanta Bouncers begin season Friday

BUFORD, Ga. (Atlanta News First)—If you can’t get enough sports, listen up: Major League Pickleball will play its 2024 season this weekend in metro Atlanta.

You might have heard of the local MLP team, the Atlanta Bouncers, but the players are brand new.

“My name is Angie Walker. I am a professional pickleball player and play for the Atlanta Bouncers,” Walker announced.

Unlike your grandma, the Bouncers, made up of Walker, Jaume Martinez Vich, Todd Fought, and Genie Erokhina, don’t do this for kicks.

“Pickleball allows me not to have another job,” Martinez Vich said.

Most players come from tennis backgrounds. Martinez Vich was a three-time all-American tennis player in college at Hawaii Pacific, Walker played at Idaho State, and Fought at Weber State.

The four Bouncers were drafted by Atlanta in April’s MLP Draft.

Walker

“Every day, I wake up and get to do something I genuinely love and call it my job,” Walker said.

But the time for excitement is over, and Chris Wolfe, who runs pickleball operations for Competitive Sports Ventures and acts as the Bouncer’s coach when they’re in town, has one goal in mind.

“I think we have one of the top teams, and we’re ready to move on to Premier [Level],” Wolfe said.

Major League Pickleball works a bit like European soccer. There are 22 teams spread into two leagues: Premier and Challenger. At season’s end, the top four Challenger teams move into Premier.

“They need waters, they want me to sing to them, I’ll do whatever,” Wolfe said.

The team practices at one of CSV’s businesses, the popular Pickle & Social in Buford.

The Bouncers are the Deep South’s only team, partly owned by Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young.

And a nearly 30-match season begins Friday, May 10, at the Peachtree Corners Lifetime Fitness.

It’s the start of Walker and Martinez Vich hope are long careers in a successful league.

“I hope so,” Walker said. “Definitely the next five. Hopefully forever.”

“We’re going in the right direction, and that’s what matters,” Martinez Vich said.

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