Nine teams and eighteen young players spent a Saturday afternoon on four courts at an event organized and run by student volunteers
By Ethan Zhao — CYOC Volunteer | Capital Youth Outreach Club
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — The first match of the day and the last match of the day had the same two teams in it.
On Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026, under clear skies and warm afternoon sun, eighteen young players came out to four pickleball courts in Montgomery County for a doubles tournament organized by the Capital Youth Outreach Club. Play started at 2 p.m. and finished at 6 p.m.
By the end, RayRay Zhou and Alexey Lotov had won the tournament. Jeffrey Zhang and Aidan Gohn finished second.
The two teams were actually in the same group at the start of the day. They were also scheduled to play each other in the very first round, on Court 7A. Four hours and many matches later, the same four players ended up across the net from each other again, this time with the title on the line. Nine teams entered that afternoon. Those were the two teams left standing.
How the Afternoon Worked
The tournament used a setup called pool play. The teams were split into two groups first, and every team played several matches in its own group before the playoff round. This meant that nobody showed up, lost one match, and had to go home. Every team got to play more than once, no matter how the first match went.
The nine teams were split into two pools. Pool A had four teams and Pool B had five. Matches were played at the same time on four courts, labeled 7A, 7B, 8A and 8B. That meant eight teams could be playing at once while the ninth team waited for its turn to rotate in. After pool play, the results were used to determine the playoff matchups and final standings.
The nine teams were Alexey Lotov and RayRay Zhou; Kyle Lee and Triston Yang; Nikko Seiler and David Felix; Joe Rodriguez and Lee Schoenfeld; Jeffrey Zhang and Aidan Gohn; Jack Mckinnon and Connor Mckinnon; Lucas Chen and Aaron Chen; Bradley Chen and Michael Suteerachai; and Sophia Zhu and Jina Dai.
The players ranged from middle school age to high school seniors, roughly twelve to eighteen years old. That mix showed up in the matches. Pickleball is one of the few sports where younger and older players can compete against each other and still have a close game. The sport rewards ball placement, patience and communication with your partner. It does not depend as much on size or strength. Several matches that afternoon had players of very different ages facing each other, and the scores stayed close.
The Work Behind the Courts
A tournament with nine teams, four courts and four straight hours of play does not run by itself. This one was not run by paid staff. CYOC student volunteers organized it and helped run it from start to finish.
Volunteers arrived before the first serve to set up the courts, organize the equipment, and get the group assignments and match schedule ready so play could begin on time. Once the matches started, volunteers kept score and worked as referees. They tracked points on all four courts and made calls as the matches went on.
That job is harder than it looks. In pickleball, the scorekeeper has to call out three numbers before every serve. The rules also include a zone near the net where players are not allowed to hit the ball out of the air, so someone has to watch for that too. A scorekeeper cannot really look away from the court.
Volunteers also handed out food and made sure players had enough water during an afternoon of back-to-back matches in the sun. When the last point was over, they stayed to clean up the courts and pack up the equipment.
Volunteers at the event included Ethan Zhao, Bryan Zhong, Raymond Zhou, Daniel Liang, Derek Liang, Emmanuel Chen and Luc Lugez, along with others who helped during the day. Together, they handled setup, scorekeeping, refereeing, food, the schedule and cleanup. Basically everything except playing.
Why an Afternoon of Pickleball Matters
It would be easy to call this four hours of a small sport at a county park. But there was more to the afternoon than just the matches.
Doubles pickleball forces two people to work together. Two players share a small court, and a team that does not communicate can lose to a team that does, even if the individual players are better. Over four hours, teams that were barely talking at the start of the day were calling out shots and communicating with each other by the end. That is a skill that is useful far beyond a pickleball court.
The volunteers had to work together too, just in a different way. Keeping four matches running on schedule, making close calls fairly while both teams are watching, and making sure eighteen people are fed and the courts get cleaned takes patience and organization. It also means being responsible for other people, not just yourself. The players got a tournament out of it. The volunteers got experience running one.
There is also something to be said for getting everyone in the same place. Eighteen young people from different schools and different neighborhoods spent a Saturday competing hard against each other, then packed up together at the end. Events like this can be a good way for those connections to start.
Final Results
● Champions: RayRay Zhou and Alexey Lotov
● Second place: Jeffrey Zhang and Aidan Gohn
A Note From a Volunteer
I want to finish in my own voice, because the part I will remember is not the final score.
It is the regular work around it. Setting up before anyone showed up. Watching a scorekeeper my own age make a close call correctly with both teams staring at them, and then stick with it. Handing food to players who were so focused on their next match that all they said was thanks. Sweeping up at six o’clock with the courts empty again, looking about the same as when we found them.
Volunteering with the Capital Youth Outreach Club has taught me that most of the work behind a community event is meant to go unnoticed. If everything runs smoothly, nobody thinks about the people who made it run smoothly. That is part of the point, and getting there takes a group of people willing to do unexciting jobs carefully.
I am glad I got to be part of it, and glad the other volunteers gave up their Saturday to put together an afternoon that belonged to someone else.
CYOC plans to keep running events like this one. If Aug. 8 was any sign, there will be plenty of young players who want a court, and plenty of students willing to run one.
Website Editor: Lily Xu
华府青年 CYOC 
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