Geeking Out With...Haley Talbert
November 3, 2025
Abigail Arnold
Geeking Out With…is a feature in which we talk to graduate students about their passions. You can check out past installments here.
Haley Talbert is a master’s student in Teacher Leadership who completed the Advanced Graduate Studies program this summer. She teaches eighth grade English at a Jewish day school in Irvine, California. In her studies at Brandeis, she focuses on student discussion skills and how to help students ask better questions during discussions. She has also focused on students’ character development and incorporating this into the English classes she teaches. She joined Geeking Out With… to talk about her newfound love of pickleball.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
How did you get into playing pickleball?
I’ve never considered myself a sporty person – I was always more into music, musical theatre, reading, and writing. I hated PE in middle school and never joined a sport in high school. But two summers ago, my parents, who are also not sporty, started playing pickleball and said it was the best game in the world and that I should come try it with them. So I tried it out, and I was terrible at first – I wanted to give up and saw it as another sport I was not good at. My parents encouraged me to keep at it, though, and I started signing up for ladders, a set of different games with different opponents played in sequence, where you move up and down depending on how well you do. Games in ladders are usually between eleven and thirteen minutes – sometimes a game isn’t finished at that point, but whoever’s in the lead moves up the ladder. I’ve now been playing for a year and a half, and I play about three times a week. I love it and would play every day if my schedule allowed.
What changed for you from your first encounter with the sport? Was there a moment where things clicked for you?
I played the whole summer I first started and then felt confident enough to go to some of the ladders on weeknights, which are more competitive because of limited time slots. I went to one and felt I was doing pretty well, but then I went to another one and the person who ran it emailed me afterwards and said, “You’re not good enough for this ladder; please don’t come back.” That lit the fire under me, and my competitive side kicked in. I said I was going to be good enough and took more lessons. That moment where someone told me I wasn’t good enough was what made me get into it more. It’s about mindset – I could have let that email make me stop playing, but now, when I lose, I tell myself there’s always another game. At first, when I would lose games or miss shots, I didn’t know what I was doing wrong; now I have a reflective process where I can think about what I was doing and my mistakes, and it helps me want to get better.
Where and when do you play these days? What kind of people do you play with?
I belong to the same club as my parents, a city over from where I live. I mostly do one ladder on Mondays and Wednesdays and then two ladders back to back on Saturday, which is twelve games in a row. It’s a really good workout! I usually end up playing against my parents in the ladder a couple times a week, so it’s a good way to bond. I also play at my school – our PE teacher hosts games after school on Friday for the teachers, and she’s trying to encourage more people to join.
People of all ages play at the club; the oldest person I’ve met so far is eighty-five. You play against people with a similar level of experience to you (I usually play with intermediate or intermediate/advanced people), regardless of their age. It’s nice to meet people from all walks of life and see people still engaged and moving throughout their lives – that’s what I aspire to! The older retired people are the ones you have to be afraid of since they have lots of time to go to lessons and practices.
Why do you think pickleball has this broad appeal?
I think it has a broad appeal because it’s not as physically demanding as some sports – you don’t have to hit the ball a great distance, like in tennis, or be especially tall, like in basketball. There are many spaces to play and people you can play with, and the equipment you need to start is not difficult to get. The community aspect of the game has also made it popular. Once you find people to play with, you get to know them and have a standing appointment to get together. It can be competitive, but it’s also a fun, social sport where you can talk and laugh while playing. It might be a bit more popular than elsewhere here in California because we have great weather all year round, so we can play in all seasons.
Besides your parents, are there any other people who have been a big part of your pickleball journey?
The people I’ve consistently played with! In particular, I want to shout out Sep, who runs a lot of the ladders and is very encouraging, and Patty, a great coach for beginners who helped me a lot at first. She runs ladders for beginners, which really helped me get into the sport, and walks around and gives tips as you’re playing.
When you’re not teaching or playing pickleball, what do you like to do?
I have two doodles, Ruby (who is two and half Aussie doodle, half labradoodle) and Riley (who is three and half goldendoodle, half labradoodle). They have the same mom but different dads. I moved to a new neighborhood with lots of areas to walk in, so I do “urban exploring” and take them walking and see where I end up. There are a lot of cool old houses to look at. We also live close to the Bay, so I’ll sometimes walk them there.
What advice do you have for other students exploring their passions?
If someone suggests something to you and you’ve never done it and don’t think you’ll be into it, don’t knock it till you try it. Trying something once never hurts. If you’d asked me two years ago, I would have said that teaching was my one passion, but now I have another because I tried something I didn’t expect I’d like. So try that new thing!