{"id":129610,"date":"2021-10-13T14:00:09","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T19:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?p=129610"},"modified":"2021-10-13T14:04:58","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T19:04:58","slug":"this-week-in-nchc-hockey-away-from-the-rink-north-dakotas-driscoll-finding-pickleball-a-rewarding-humbling-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2021\/10\/13\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-away-from-the-rink-north-dakotas-driscoll-finding-pickleball-a-rewarding-humbling-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in NCHC Hockey: Away from the rink, North Dakota’s Driscoll finding pickleball a rewarding, humbling experience"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Former North Dakota forward Jasper Weatherby and current UND goaltender Zach Driscoll (furthest two to left) placed second during a doubles pickleball tournament this August in East Grand Forks, Minn. (photo: Grand Cities Pickleball Club).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We can\u2019t all be the Tom Brady of our sport, but North Dakota goaltender Zach Driscoll feels he has a couple of irons in the fire.<\/p>\n

A graduate student who played the last three hockey seasons at Bemidji State, Driscoll in the summer of 2020 was introduced to the sport of pickleball by fellow Twin Cities-area native and former Colgate forward John Snodgrass.<\/p>\n

Pickleball is a paddle sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton and ping pong. Players, either competing in singles or doubles, use plastic balls with holes drilled into them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter John would finish workouts at his gym back home, he\u2019d always go play pickleball,\u201d Driscoll said. \u201cHe kept trying to invite me, and I was like, \u2018Nah, it\u2019s kind of an old person\u2019s sport,\u2019 but one day, I went and liked it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis last summer, when I really got into it, I was taking online classes and had a lot of free time, and a buddy back home was looking for a job, so we had a lot of free time together and went to courts about 5 or 10 minutes from my house. We met about 30 people who took us in and taught us the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
DRISCOLL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Driscoll spent around 15 hours per week playing pickleball that summer. When he arrived in Grand Forks, N.D., this July, UND assistant Karl Goehring connected Driscoll with Grand Forks Herald<\/em> reporter and pickleball enthusiast Brad Schlossman, who matched Driscoll with former UND standout and current San Jose Sharks forward Jasper Weatherby.<\/p>\n

More often than not, they played together on the same side of the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was definitely a better doubles player than Jasper, but I don\u2019t think I ever had a winning series against him in singles,\u201d Driscoll said. \u201cHe always kicked my butt, because he\u2019s 6-foot-4 and his arms reached the frickin\u2019 sidelines when he stood in the middle, so it\u2019s hard to get a ball by him.\u201d<\/p>\n

In August, Driscoll and Weatherby placed second in a doubles tournament hosted by the local Grand Cities Pickleball Club. Winning a medal there, in an advanced-level competition, was an achievement long in the making for Driscoll.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the group that I play with back home, we were playing with people who either had flexibility in their jobs or were retired,\u201d Driscoll said. \u201cI remember that, in my first week, I played against a guy who was celebrating his 81st birthday, and we lost.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy buddy, who\u2019s an athletic 25-year-old, and I lost our first doubles match to a pair of 75-year-old women, and we didn\u2019t score a single point. It\u2019s a humbling experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

That feeling happens less often now for Driscoll, who took advantage of the NCAA\u2019s new name, image and likeness regulations to become an ambassador for the pickleball equipment manufacturer Selkirk. He initially reached out to around five pickleball equipment companies, and Selkirk sent him two paddles.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also spreading the word about a sport he\u2019s more widely known for, as several skills shown on the pickleball court are transferable onto the ice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I take away from pickleball is the mental side, where if you have a bad shot, you just kind of forget about it and reset,\u201d Driscoll said. \u201cAs a goalie, that\u2019s something I have to do every game, unless it\u2019s a shutout, but it\u2019s about being able to move on to the next play and just focus on what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat, and when you get up to the (pickleball) net, there\u2019s a lot of hand-eye and reaction-time stuff that goes on within a point. When I\u2019m playing and people try to blast the ball at me and I get my paddle on it, they\u2019re like, \u2018What? How\u2019d you get that?\u2019 I just say, \u2018I\u2019m play hockey, and I\u2019m a goalie.\u2019 They\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, yeah, that makes sense.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Niagara felt that way last weekend, when Driscoll made 18 saves in both games of a UND sweep in Grand Forks. On Saturday, he stopped every shot he faced in a 4-0 win.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard for any college hockey player to know how much further their on-ice careers will take them. Whenever Driscoll hangs up his skates, though, he sees himself playing pickleball competitively. Top older professional pickleballers aren\u2019t unheard of, and even beyond that, Driscoll sees himself as one of those older players showing newcomers the ropes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m convinced that pickleball will be an Olympic sport,\u201d Driscoll said, \u201cAnd it\u2019s a lot easier on the knees playing doubles in pickleball than it is to play goalie in your 40s.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We can\u2019t all be the Tom Brady of our sport, but North Dakota goaltender Zach Driscoll feels he has a couple of irons in the fire. A graduate student who played the last three hockey seasons at Bemidji State, Driscoll in the summer of 2020 was introduced to the sport of pickleball by fellow Twin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":129611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5,4,1],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[810],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThis Week in NCHC Hockey: Away from the rink, North Dakota's Driscoll finding pickleball a rewarding, humbling experience - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We can\u2019t all be the Tom Brady of our sport, but North Dakota goaltender Zach Driscoll feels he has a couple of irons in the fire. 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