People Who Are Making a Difference in Racquet Sports

David Johnson - Pickleball Pioneer

Retired Pickleball CEO, Pickleball industry consultant from Seattle, WA

When David Johnson informed me that there are currently 500 manufacturers producing Pickleball paddles, I was quite surprised. At the RacquetX conference in Miami, I learned that the number is closer to 600 now. Based on my own estimate, I would have guessed no more than 40 or 50, especially considering that I am only aware of a dozen tennis racquet manufacturers. Additionally, he mentioned that this number is continually increasing. This revelation certainly caught my attention.

David was introduced to Pickleball 20 years ago and subsequently became a co-founder of Pickleball Central. Throughout his involvement, he played a key role in all aspects of the company's growth, contributing to its emergence as the largest online pickleball reseller. Moreover, David played a significant part in facilitating major acquisitions, including Pickleball Inc. and Pickleball Tournaments. His expertise extends to pickleball facilities, ratings, product development, tournament software, and e-commerce.

After the sale of the pickleball entities to Dundon Capital Partners in 2022, David retired. Currently, he works as a consultant for pickleball businesses and spearheads the production of the publication titled The Business of Pickleball. For additional information, please visit  www.pickleballconsultinggroup.com.

Recently, Davis posted on his LinkedIn page: One of the first closures of a recently opened indoor pickleball facility - Volli Bellingham (WA). The 4 court facility is transitioning to go carts. Our experience with Pickleball Station suggested that 4 courts is tough to make work from an economics standpoint. Will we see more recently opened pickleball facilities close because the economics don't work? Details here: Volli Bellingham to close pickleball courts, shift to go-kart racing

Tim Schnaible - Match Tough Tennis with proven results

Owner of Match Tough Tennis Academy from Woodland Hills, CA

In late 2015, we first became aware of Tim Schnaible when Jack Broudy, a former SoCal teaching pro who now resides in Colorado, delivered a presentation at the 12-court facility located atop a parking garage in Woodland Hills, in California’s San Fernando Valley.

In October of 2022, we reported on Tim's journeys as Sam Querrey's coach shortly before Sam made the decision to retire. COACHING ON THE TOUR: THREE MONTHS WITH SAM QUERREY. Sam was a former student of Tim's from the ages of 10 to 17. They maintained contact over the years, and Sam eventually extended an invitation for Tim to join as a coach for the grasscourt stretch, including Wimbledon, and the subsequent hardcourt stretch, culminating at the US Open where Sam announced his retirement.

Today, Tim's Match Tough Tennis Academy has established itself as a year-round training center that specializes in the development of junior players. It is regarded as one of the busiest programs of its kind in Southern California, attracting aspiring young athletes from a 20-mile radius around the valley. The majority of participants are either beginners or at an intermediate level. Tim proudly states, "We have an average of around one hundred kids enrolled in our programs on a weekly basis."

Tim Schnaible commenced his coaching career at the age of 22 during his time at Cal Lutheran. Since then, he has dedicated himself to the training and progress of junior players.

Match Tough Tennis Academy

Cracking the ‘code’: CourtReserve’s Ashley Owens blazes trail for women in tech

Ashley Owens, co-founder of tennis club management software CourtReserve, is proud to create a space for women to succeed in the sports and technology industries.

As a premier software solution for tennis and pickleball club management, CourtReserve has been a pioneer at the nexus of sports and technology since its inception in 2016. For co-founder Ashley Owens, her leadership position at the growing company also provides an opportunity to trailblaze in a different way.

In sports and tech, two fields historically dominated by men, Owens—through her own role and her efforts in creating a team that is more than half female—is doing her part to change the status quo.

Owens primarily handles sales and marketing for CourtReserve, while her husband and co-founder Tim Owens focuses on the coding and software development side. But every step of the way, Ashley has been an important part of conversations surrounding all aspects of the business, educating herself so that she can troubleshoot their product just as confidently as she can pitch it. 

CourtReserve tailored its software for the unique needs of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in 2020 and began working with the USTA National Campus soon after, again integrating new features to meet the requirements of the bustling facility. 

Since 2023, CourtReserve has been an official partner of USTA Connect, joining forces with the USTA and aligning in shared efforts to advance the sport of tennis in America. The collaboration has also helped CourtReserve to make further strides in enhancing its software to support clubs in attracting more players and optimizing operations. Today, the company serves almost 1,500 global customers.

This Women's History Month, USTA.com caught up with Owens to discuss her business and her work to help other talented women progress in the sports and technology industries.

What led you to co-found CourtReserve?

It was the lack of technology at our own tennis club that led us to the idea of building CourtReserve in 2016. We were playing lots of tennis at the time. Tim and I were taking classes and lessons, then we began to play in the leagues at that club, as well as within the Charlotte area. We were coaching our own kids, and we even started captaining teams and traveling to play at USTA tournaments.... We were all in!

But the lack of technology at our home club meant there was no way for us to see the club’s availability. Our club didn’t even have a phone number. There was no way to sign up for a lesson, other than in person. You had to drive 20-plus minutes to see if the courts were available. And so the only way you ever knew that classes were happening is if you located the flyers on the cork board. We knew there had to be a better way.

Once we built the first iteration of CourtReserve, Tim thought it would be a great idea to just put a couple of Google ads out there to see if it clicked for anybody. We thought we had a pretty good product, but we needed to get it into the tennis world. So we went to a USPTA conference in Palm Desert and we put a six-month subscription to CourtReserve up on the silent auction. Jason Spears from USPTA Eastern came by our booth and spoke to us for a while about our new technology company. He bid $75 on CourtReserve and got it for six months and was our very first customer! That was back in 2016. And today, he’s still a paying customer. 

We just took a chance. We had to take a chance to see if we could get it out there. I had my sales and marketing background; Tim had his background in software development. It was easy for me to be like, OK, I’ll go do this sales and marketing part of it. You keep coding and building it, and then I’ll go and I’ll try and make relationships and see if we can get our name out there, as far as conferences and things like that.

What are some of the innovations you are most proud of with CourtReserve?

I would say the mobile app is probably one of my favorites because it makes it super easy for a player to go and make a reservation, sign up for a lesson, book a court, and more. Our team is working on a complete refresh of our mobile app right now, too, and we are so excited about that. It’s sleek and we’ve added a lot of exciting features like your local club's weather and announcements. We’re also introducing a branded mobile app offering for clubs who want to utilize the CourtReserve mobile technology in their own branded apps.

I also love our point-of-sale system because it’s super easy to use and you don’t need to buy any additional hardware to use it, as it’s web browser-based. There's also our stringing module. That’s been a game-changer for our tennis facilities to keep track of their stringing jobs. You can accept and complete the job easily, charge the player's account and then the system notifies the client when the job is done. We’ve received a lot of great feedback on it.

What does it mean to you to have an important role in the tech and racquet sports industries, where men have historically dominated?

I’m grateful that I can be empathetic in my role as a co-founder, but at the end of the day, I just try not to let anything get to me emotionally. I'm really good at relationships, and so I knew the most critical way to deliver education and information was to have a relationship with people, regardless of whether they were men or women. 

To be taken seriously and to have a seat at the table, you need to know what you're talking about. And so there were things that I had to learn to be able to confidently speak to our product. In the early days of CourtReserve, Tim and our now-CTO, Nic Janga, were constantly working together on developing the product. And I was constantly raising my hand saying, “Hey, I need to be a part of this conversation. I need to understand what we are doing.”

I may not be able to write code, but I sure do understand what our product does and how to troubleshoot for our team and our customers.

How have you been able to support other women in the tech and sports spaces?

It’s also been really important to me that, as a leader at CourtReserve, we create a space and opportunities for women to enter tech. A little more than half of our team is made up of women. We have been selective about the people we hire and we just so happened to have had the opportunity to hire and work with some incredibly talented and intelligent women, whom I believe have bright futures in tech and the racquet sports space.

To know we are giving valuable opportunities to women to grow in a space where men have historically dominated is incredibly rewarding and is another part of why I love my job.

Reflecting on the challenges I've faced as a woman, mother and wife, I think there's a shared understanding of the balancing act required to navigate daily life, especially with career aspirations in the mix. It's a journey, but it underscores our strength and resilience. Every woman has it, whether visible on display or quietly tucked away. I am amazed at the accomplishments of all of the women I work alongside.

To learn more, visit CourtReserve's official website.