Former Bosque basketball standout now playing college pickleball

A 2024 graduate of Bosque High may be the first New Mexican to have earned a scholarship to play pickleball in college.

Kyle Morris, a former basketball standout for the Bobcats, hopes to one day be a pro in pickleball — the fast-paced paddle sport that blends elements of tennis, badminton and ping-pong.

While pickleball isn’t officially recognized by the NCAA, some universities offer scholarships to players on club-level programs. In late 2023, Utah Tech University became the first college to do so. A few others soon followed, including Drury University in Springfield, Missouri — where Morris spent his freshman year on scholarship. Now, he’s transferring to Arizona State University, though not on scholarship.

Morris had always hoped to get an athletic scholarship to attend college, but on a different kind of court. He averaged nearly 20 points a game as a junior and 16 points as a senior for the Bosque basketball team and “that’s what I was planning on doing in college,” he said.

He first picked up a pickleball paddle his junior year, introduced to the sport by Bosque Athletic Director Jeaney Garcia, a former basketball player herself, and now a pickleball coach. Morris learned he was a talented pickleball player, too, and Garcia encouraged him to consider playing it at the next level.

“She told me that Drury had a pickle- ball college, and she told me to reach out and see if you get a response. I got a response, he (the coach) saw me play and took me out on a visit.”

That summer, he began training seriously, eventually becoming one of New Mexico’s first competitive collegiate pickleball players.

“In just a short time, he committed himself to mastering the game — seeking out the best players, studying the sport, and honing his technical skills with remarkable speed,” Garcia said in an email to the Journal.

Morris credits basketball for giving him a competitive edge on the pickleball court — “I think it definitely helps … with my reach and my first step,” he noted — and said it was a “very hard decision” to choose between the sports.

“The main reason I’d say I chose pickleball (is) because it’s something I think I have a good chance with going beyond college with instead of basketball (which) will most likely be college and then I’m done,” he said.

When colleges compete against one another in pickleball, it’s done in a team format: two men and two women make up a roster, competing in men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles. If the overall match is tied 2-2, it goes to a “dreambreaker” — a singles tiebreaker in which all four players rotate in for points until one team reaches 21, winning by two.

With the sport growing rapidly across the U.S., Morris felt Arizona State offered a bigger stage and better competition.

“Pickleball out there is much bigger and so the opportunities out there will be much better because my ultimate goal is to go pro,” Morris said. “There’s a lot more competition out in Arizona, and it’s closer to home which is really nice”

Morris was born in Tempe, Arizona, before moving to New Mexico at age 5.

On whether pickleball should sanctioned as an NCAA sport, Morris had a definitive response.

“I think it definitely should be, especially with how rapidly it’s growing, and especially how big it is on college campuses, too,” he said. “Kids are playing all night long. For college pickleball, I just hope that more schools support it more, so it’s not just club-based … because I think it’s a sport that can really take off and help schools as well.”