ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis athlete recently competed on a new pickleball reality television show and is waiting to find out if he will win the opportunity to bring a Pickleball Kingdom franchise to the area. 

Pickleball has become the fastest growing sport in America, including St. Louis, which is among the top five cities in the nation to play.

Sheldon Kolawole, 28, was among 16 participants who were handpicked across the U.S. and Canada to play in “Pickleball Paddle Battle,” a reality show produced by Pickleball Kingdom, a pickleball court franchise company headquartered in Chandler, Arizona. 

Kolawole graduated from Parkway South High School in 2014, where he played soccer and tennis. He continued his athletic career at The University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy. 

He has been a pickleball player for the past four years and has developed a following on social media where posts videos and photos of him playing the sport. 

Kolawole plays in tournaments, teaches pickleball at Vetta Sports and is a pharmacist at a CVS. 

He said he applied on a whim to be on the show after his friend tagged him in a news article.

After sending in his audition tape and his pickleball highlight reel, Kolawole received a follow-up interview and made the cut.

The filming of the show occurred in September at Pickleball Kingdom in Arizona., where players competed in a high-stakes battle for a chance to earn a prestigious one-year pickleball sponsorship contract with Pickleball Kingdom Productions.

One male and one female earned the sponsorship at the end of the show. 

Being in a professional pickleball league can be costly, with entry fees, and traveling and lodging expenses, which can be barriers to players, Kolawole said.

During the course of filming, Kolawole said not only did the contestants play a lot of pickleball, but the reality aspect was genuine. 

“They really just wanted us to be us and to experience these things and roll with the punches and twists and turns,” he said.

The Pickleball Kingdom is a great facility, Kolawole said.

By playing with other aspiring pickleball athletes from across the country and Canada, Kolawole said it was cool to see their different play styles and interpretations of the sport.

“Granted there are some fundamentals and some things that look the same, but each person had their own flair, their own style, their own strategy to how they approach points and how they approach pickleball,” he said.

Kolawole mentioned that he and the other players gave each other tips throughout the show. Their bond has lasted long after production. 

While it was nerve-wracking to be on TV for the first time, Kolawole noted that the staff did their best to make the players feel as comfortable as possible.

His biggest takeaway from the show experience is to say yes to opportunities. 

“Sometimes when you’re given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as cheesy as that sounds, you have to take it because I wouldn’t have traded that experience for anything,” he said.

“Regardless of what the outcome may or may not have been, that experience overall, being able to meet those people, it could potentially open doors that I never would have had opened if I had not gone.”

Kolawole was first introduced to pickleball in his high school gym class and began playing recreationally in college. As his love for pickleball grew, Kolawole started taking the sport more seriously. 

Kolawole enjoys how easy the pickleball is to learn compared to other sports, in addition to the community and social aspects, saying he has connected with others that he would not have previously made without pickleball.

“You continue to not only be taught the game whenever you’re first starting, but when new people pick up the game, and the way pickleball is growing now, you get to kind of give back and help those people find their way in the game as well,” he said.

While pickleball is easy to pick up, Kolawole said it takes practice and dedication to become better.

When the show airs, viewers can vote for their favorite contestant, which will help them earn a chance to win a Pickleball Kingdom franchise in their city. Since the show has not aired yet, this prize has yet to be awarded.

Kolawole said he hopes his family, friends and even his patients at CVS will vote for him to win a franchise of Pickleball Kingdom, which could be more life-altering than the sponsorship prize. 

Eureka native and reality show veteran, Clayton Echard, was chosen to host “Pickleball Paddle Battle.”

Both being from the St. Louis area, Kolawole and Echard bonded over their high school sport rivalries. 

During the taping of the show, Echard explored each contestant’s backstory, interviewed them before and after games, narrated in between segments, and discussed “intense rivalries” that may have happened during the competition. 

In 2021, Echard was the star of season 26 of “The Bachelor,” and a contestant on season 18 of “The Bachelorette.” After playing tight-end at Mizzou and earning a bachelor’s in health sciences, he signed with the Seattle Seahawks in 2016.

Details for when and where “Pickleball Paddle Battle” will air have not been released. 

For more information about the show, click here. For information about Pickleball Kingdom, click here.