Pickleballers relish competition during Homecoming Weekend

10/23/2024

By Ed Brennen

Although she lives in nearby Dracut, Massachusetts, Diane Pitta ’82 had lost touch with her alma mater since earning a bachelor’s degree in health education at UMass Lowell more than 40 years ago.

That has changed recently, thanks to pickleball.

“Pickleball brought me back to college,” said Pitta, who began playing drop-in games at the Campus Recreation Center last year after achieving alumni status.

During Homecoming weekend, Pitta was among 180 alumni, faculty, staff, students and community members to participate in UML’s second annual Pickleball Slam.

Image by Ed Brennen

The daylong tournament, held on the sun-drenched outdoor tennis courts, raised nearly $12,000 for Student Veterans and the Campus Rec Center.

“It’s a win-win for the university,” said Pitta, who teamed with alumna Pat McGuirk ’84 to take second place in their women’s division. “It attracted someone like me who had been out of touch with college for so long, and it raised money, which is fantastic.”

The tournament was organized by Registrar Mai Nguyen, UML’s unofficial pickleball piper, in collaboration with Meghan Jordan, the recreation center’s associate director of competitive sports.

The top three teams in each of the 11 divisions (four women’s, three men’s and four mixed) received medals designed by Patrick Hartman, a sophomore engineering student, and 3D printed in the Lawrence Lin MakerSpace.

Image by Ed Brennen

Tournament sponsors, meanwhile, donated pickleball paddles, sports equipment, gift certificates for medalists and raffle prizes worth nearly $3,000.

The Pickleball Slam was part of a successful Homecoming weekend that saw the UML hockey team sweep Colgate University at the Tsongas Center — 5-2 on Friday’s “Pickleball Night” and 2- 1 Saturday evening. The tournament also coincided with the annual Jennifer’s Run/Walk 5K, which raises scholarship funds in memory of Jennifer D’Amour ’98.

Chancellor Julie Chen is a regular at Sunday morning pickleball games at the rec center, but she was a spectator at the tournament.

Image by Ed Brennen

“It’s great to see so many people here, from the university and the surrounding community,” Chen said. “It’s nice to have all this energy and see alumni coming back to see the campus if they haven’t been back in a while.”

Shauna Salem ’18, ’19, former distance runner for the River Hawks, teamed with her mother, Pat, to win their women’s division.

“I’ve never been to Homecoming before, but it’s great to have a tournament like this where I went to school. It makes it fun,” said Salem, a Dracut native who holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a master’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences and now works at Pfizer.

Image by Ed Brennen

Her fiancé, chemistry alumnus Mike Harris ’18, competed in the men’s tournament later in the day.

Andy Weijer ’94, who earned a master’s degree in education from UML and now teaches math at Lawrence High School, played mixed doubles with his wife, Danielle DeTora. They started the sport last year at the Campus Rec Center.

“We’ve made a lot of really good friends through pickleball, and it keeps me active,” said Weijer, a U.S. Air Force veteran who appreciated that a portion of the tournament’s proceeds went to students veterans.

“We wanted to give back to the young men and women who serve our country,” said Nguyen, who participated in the tournament while leading a team that managed the groups, compiled the results and distributed the medals.

Image by Ed Brennen

Pitta met her husband, business alumnus and retired Lowell Fire Chief Edward “Skip” Pitta ’81, while he was a student at UML.

McGuirk, a retired teacher and administrator at Greater Lowell Technical High School, earned a master’s degree in educational administration from UML. She is married to James McGuirk ’69, a member of the UML Sports Hall of Fame. While the pair played together at the Campus Rec Center on Sunday mornings, Pat teamed up with Pitta for the Pickleball Slam.

“We are here to support Mai and UMass Lowell,” McGuirk said. “It’s a fabulous tournament.”