The Fortis Academy is excited to announce the creation of a pickleball league for competitive youth and high school athletes called the Athletes That Pickle (ATP) League. The benefits of playing pickleball as a cross-training sport for serious hockey players are many. Pickleball is a fun, engaging, and it is not as hard on the body as other sports or training programming, making it an ideal activity for hockey players to use to complement their summer training schedules. The game works on hand/eye coordination, quick feet, communication, and conflict resolution skills, all of which will translate well to hockey and other team sports.  

“Our goal as an organization is to promote multi-sport athletes that take a long-term view of their athletic development,” says Josh Levine. “Pickleball has become incredibly popular and as we incorporated it into our off-ice programming last year, we noticed how beneficial the game was to the athletic gains of our players.”

The ATP league is for athletes that participate competitively in hockey and other team sports who want to compete seriously in pickleball. There are two divisions – High School and Youth. High school athletes must be entering 9^th-12^th grades next school year or have graduated this year. Youth athletes must be entering 5^th-8^th grades next school year. Each division will have 24 teams of two players. Athletes can sign up individually and then be placed with a teammate at each training session. The league will take place at the St. Louis Park Outdoor Rec Center on Wednesdays June 14^th – August 9^th. High school games will be played 430-530pm and youth games will run from 530-630pm.

The eight-week summer league will consist of six weeks of league play, followed by two weeks of division playoffs to determine the Summer ATP League Champions! Athletes will compete individually and if they sign up with a buddy as a team, as a team too.

To learn more about the program, go to athletesthatpickle.com.