East Bay’s pickleball evangelist inducted into Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame

Most days, the distinct “pop, pop, pop” of balls bouncing off pickleball paddles echoes endlessly inside the tennis courts at Oakland’s Bushrod Park.

Players immediately fill all four courts when the nets go up, while a dozen others line up on the sidelines waiting their turn and a group of first-timers start learning the rules of the “kitchen” — what players call the zone closest to the net — and how to avoid tripping over their own two feet.

One voice can be heard above the commotion.

“Oh, that was a beaut!” Darlene “Dar” Vendegna bellowed in between volleys on a recent February afternoon, grabbing another ball from her fanny pack full of extras. “But please be careful of that backpedaling.”

She has been a community staple at pickleball courts across the East Bay, teaching and evangelizing the sport ever since playing her first game in April of 2017.

“I was hooked immediately — immediately,” Vendegna said in an interview. “I bought a paddle the next day. A week later I bought a net. And then, as is part of my personality, I didn’t shut up about it and was telling everybody and their mother about this game.”

Fittingly, she quickly became a professional coach of the up-and-coming game, and Oakland’s USA Pickleball Association Ambassador, working to help others fall in love with pickleball, too.

Within just six years, the 66-year-old who grew up in the suburbs of Chicago estimates she’s taught more than 2,500 people to play the sport. She has helped form, play in and support a vast number of community meet-ups that have exploded across the East Bay — from Oakland to Walnut Creek to Berkeley to Alameda. In one 690-member MeetUp group alone, she organizes a calendar chockfull of $2 public pick-up games each week, in addition to the private lessons and beginner crash courses she schedules on the side.

“I love to bring different groups of people together who didn’t know each other before, especially during COVID when people didn’t have the opportunity to really meet others because everyone was so isolated,” Vendegna said, adding that she’s been called everything from an “evangelist” to a “matchmaker” of pickleball. “Nobody cares about your politics, sports team you root for, income level or your nationality. They just want to play, and it’s such an easy game to learn. It’s not unusual to see a court that has an African American 10-year-old, a 75-year-old country club dude, a housewife and a college kid all playing together and having a good time.”

On Saturday, Vendegna was inducted into the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame at the Greek Orthodox Temple in Oakland for her work in sports and athletics. During the event, which resumed for first time since 2020, she joined 12 other women celebrated for their contributions to the local environment, youth, health, justice and education.

Joining hundreds of other inductees since the Hall of Fame began in 1993, the county has credited Vendegna with “providing mental, emotional, and physical support to countless residents of Alameda County and beyond,” especially at a time when the tide of pickleball has divided communities over new courts, and injuries seem to be on the rise, particularly among senior players who take advantage of the easy-to-learn game.

That’s why Julie Li nominated Vendegna for the award within months of meeting her on a warm Tuesday evening at Bushrod Park last year. Despite stepping onto a pickleball court for the very first time, Li said hearing Vendegna’s voice in the background — coaching her through each play, clipboard in hand — gave her confidence to fully pursue something new.

“It was Dar who took it upon herself to provide thorough, in-depth live feedback, having realized that I was greener than green,” Li said, adding that by the end of the night, Vendegna’s guidance, patience and discipline made her feel decent at the new sport. “I’ve spoken with a ton of players within the region — many who can attest that Dar is the reason why they were on the courts to begin with. Dar’s the community coach.”

Li wanted to return the praise and recognition she felt playing pickleball, especially seeing first-hand how Vendegna’s grassroots engagement amassed a community following.

“She wears her heart, soul and passion on her sleeves,” Li said. “From teaching young children the sport to advocating for city-sponsored courts to organizing event after event, Dar’s impact on the pickleball community has echoed far and wide.”

But beyond Vendegna’s impact on the local community, working as a pickleball ambassador and certified coach has also provided her an opportunity to become the P.E. teacher she never got to be.

Despite graduating high school two years after Title IX promised in 1972 to eliminate sex-based discrimination in educational programs and activities, she said changes were slow to materialize. Additionally, people around her discouraged her from pursing a degree to teach P.E., telling her she would be publicly labeled a “lesbian,” even though she didn’t understand what that meant at the time.

In the years after she went to college, become an accountant and eventually moved to California in the 1990s, Vendegna’s love of sports never waned. She eventually found herself working at the West Oakland YMCA as a spin instructor, a coaching cycling for the triathlon club or instructor hosting free pickleball lessons.

“I was always a sporty kid, but there was not a lot of opportunity for girls who liked to hit a ball,” said Vendegna, who has been with her now-wife for decades. “My advice (to young women today) would be don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. Be interested in everyone you meet and listen to their stories. To me, the most important thing is making people we come in contact with come away from our encounters feeling seen and valued.”

Pickleball has taken the country by storm, with courts, clubs and tournaments popping up not only in the East Bay, but throughout the South Bay and Peninsula. Whether the future of the game expands into more community leagues, professional sports teams or even a creative business venture or two, Vendegna looks forward to helping players across the Bay Area take advantage of every opportunity pickleball serves up.

“I wish I could do it all, but I can’t,” Vendegna said. “That’s why I’m teaching so many people, because I want some of them to step forward and run more leagues. I don’t have the bandwidth, but I do have the energy to train other people who can.”