Major League Pickleball (MLP) Draft Results: Teams and Players Decided

I have previously written about Major League Pickleball (MLP) for Pickleball University.  So this article is an update on the league as they held the first Pickleball draft of 32 of the top players in the world last Friday.  As a reminder, MLP consists of eight teams with two women and two men on each team.  Each team is competing for the largest prize pool in Pickleball at $150,000.  The eight teams have an interesting array of owners include former tennis star and current commentator, James Blake, and Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry.

The top women's pick of the draft was a bit surprising as team ATX Pickleballers choose Catherine Parenteau.  Granted Parenteau is one of the top female players, but most people thought 14-year-old Anna Leigh Waters would have been the top women's pick.  Anna Leigh Waters was the second female player selected, however, going to team Chimeras.  Anna Leigh Waters was not the only one in her family selected in the draft.  Her mother, Leigh Waters, was the top female player chosen by Pickle Ranchers and seventh women picked overall.   Two notable female players, Simone Jardmin and Lucy Kovalova, did not participate in the draft for the 2021-2022 season.  Still it was an interesting event and only in Pickleball can you have two players in the draft in their 40's as both Leigh Waters and  Lee Whitwell are in that age group.

On the men's side, the draft went as expected at the top with Ben Johns being selected as the number one player, going to team BLQK.  Riley Newman was the number two pick and will play for the Pickle Ranchers.  That team also had the number seven pick so they could have selected Riley Newman's sister Lindsey. Riley and Lindsay Newman make up one of the top mixed doubles teams.  However, they chose Leigh Waters instead, but surprisingly were able to get Lindsey Newman as the number 10 women's player.

All and all the draft was intriguing and the Pickleball community is looking forward to the inaugural team event at Dreamland in Austin, Texas November 5-8.  Each team will play the other seven in a round robin event.  Games are to 15 and two matches are played days one to three and one match will be on day four.  The top two teams will compete in the finals.

Below are the teams:

ATX Pickleballers

·    Catherine Parenteau (No. 1 women’s pick)

·    Yana Grechkina (No. 16 women’s pick) 

·    Tyler Loong (No. 8 men’s pick) 

·    Patrick Smith (No. 9 men’s pick) 

Chimeras

·    Anna Leigh Waters (No. 2 women’s pick) 

·    Lee Whitwell (No. 15 women’s pick) 

·    AJ Koller (No. 7 men’s pick) 

·    Kyle Yates (No. 10 men’s pick)

Team Rally

·    Jessie Irvine (No. 3 women’s pick) 

·    Susannah Barr (No. 14 women’s pick) 

·    JW Johnson (No. 6 men’s pick) 

·    Dylan Frazier (No. 11 men’s pick)

Team Clean 

·    Callie Smith (No. 4 women’s pick) 

·    Corrine Carr (No. 13 women’s pick) 

·    Dekel Bar (No. 5 men’s pick) 

·    Adam Stone (No. 12 men’s pick)

Discovery Warriors

·    Lea Jansen (No. 5 women’s pick) 

·    Vivienne David (No. 12 women’s pick) 

·    Tyson McGuffin (No. 4 men’s pick) 

·    Zane Navratil (No. 13 men’s pick)

The Lions

·    Lauren Stratman (No. 6 women’s pick) 

·    Michelle Esquivel (No. 11 women’s pick) 

·    Jay Devilliers (No. 3 men’s pick) 

·    Collin Johns (No. 14 men’s pick)

Pickle Ranchers 

·    Leigh Waters (No. 7 women’s pick) 

·    Lindsey Newman (No. 10 women’s pick) 

·    Riley Newman (No. 2 men’s pick)

·    Andrei Daescu (No. 15 men’s pick) 

Team BLQK

·    Irina Tereschenko (No. 8 women’s pick) 

·    Andrea Koop (No. 9 women’s pick) 

·    Ben Johns (No. 1 men’s pick) 

·    Rob Nunnery (No. 16 men’s pick)