Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of Cooper City
Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
EP #303 - John “Pickleball Cowboy” with Greek Pickleball
From law enforcement officer to pickleball evangelist, "Cowboy" has transformed his unexpected passion for the sport into Greek Pickleball, a thriving nonprofit training academy. During this energetic conversation, Cowboy dispels common misconceptions about pickleball, revealing that despite its recent surge in popularity, the sport actually dates back to 1965 when a Washington state family created it using a paddle and wiffle ball.
What makes Cowboy's story particularly compelling is his rapid journey from complete novice to respected coach. Just three years ago, he stepped onto a pickleball court for the first time and faced immediate rejection—"Nobody wanted to play with a 6'2", 240-pound beginner," he laughs. Rather than giving up, this former college football player applied the same analytical mindset he used when studying game film, meticulously learning techniques through YouTube videos until those same players who once avoided him now actively sought him as a partner.
Greek Pickleball's mission extends far beyond typical sports instruction. Cowboy created the organization specifically to bring pickleball to communities lacking access, with special emphasis on youth programs. "The younger people are who's speeding the game up," he explains, though his coaching spans generations—his youngest student is 8 years old, while his oldest is 89. Throughout the conversation, Cowboy shares a profound personal story about overcoming a catastrophic football injury in 1987 that doctors believed would end his athletic career entirely, illustrating the resilience that now defines his approach to business and coaching.
Ready to experience the fastest-growing sport in America? Connect with Greek Pickleball through their website, social media, or by texting Cowboy directly at 305-300-1677. Whether you're a complete beginner or looking to improve your skills, his inclusive philosophy ensures everyone feels welcome on the court.
For more information visit http://www.greekpickleball.org/ or call (305) 300-1677. Stay up to date on our socials at https://www.instagram.com/greekpickleball/ and https://www.facebook.com/greek.pickleball/.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello, friends, family, wonderful community and great universe. We are back with another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. You know, pickleball is the new craze. I keep hearing about pickleball. I've tried it a few times, but I know that people are really fired up about it.
Speaker 2:So today we have an interesting guest here. I'm with the cowboy, right, we got John Pickleball. Cowboy Weich, did I get it right? I screwed up, that's correct. That's correct, nailed it and John or I'm just going to call you Cowboy Got it. I'm not going to do John, this is the Cowboy and we're going to refer to him as such. And the Cowboy has started Greek Pickleball, which is a nonprofit training academy, if I understand correctly, for pickleball, and I'm interested to get into this. So, cowboy, thank you for joining us today. Glad to be here, all right. So why don't we start with some basics here for those out there that have been living under a rock that maybe don't know? Maybe they've heard the term pickleball, but they don't really know exactly what it is. Why don't you tell everybody a little bit about what pickleball is and then we'll proceed from there?
Speaker 3:okay, ironically, pickleball has been around since 1965. It's been around a long time. It has been 1965. A family in washington state, uh, wanted to do something for their family on the weekends and they came up, they had a paddle and they had a wiffle ball and, and that's what pickleball was developed. It only became hot and everybody wanted to play it during the pandemic. There was nothing for some people to do, so it started in the pandemic and the young crowd started to play. Once the young crowd started to play, it became very fast, motivating and became that sport that we all know now today as pickleball.
Speaker 2:And that's one of the things I did notice about pickleball it's extremely accessible Like whereas with tennis, which a lot of people kind of draw parallels between the two, it's not so easy to hit the ball back and forth over the net because you know, it's just it's a little more difficult. Pickleball it's really kind of like a cross in my mind between ping pong and tennis, Any paddle sport.
Speaker 3:It will help you in pickleball, from ping pong to badminton to bracket ball and, of course, tennis, because tennis gives you all the top spin and the slices you already know. So you bring that over to the pickleball. You'll be a better player.
Speaker 2:Okay, so how long have you been playing pickleball? I'm guessing you haven't been playing since 1965.
Speaker 3:No, I was only born in 1968, because that probably would be impossible. But I've been playing for over three years. I started in the pandemic era as well, okay, and once I started it was, you know, I tried one time and I was hooked. I was one of those football players that say pickleball, what is pickleball? I'm not going to play no pickleball. But then I tried it and from there I was hooked. I really was. My motivation basically came from I will put my paddle down, you have three paddles, I'll put my paddle, and when I look up again those other three paddles are gone. And I quickly realized that people don't like to play with. At the time I started, people did not want to play with beginners. So that basically was my motivation to learn the game of pickleball, because people wouldn't play with me. I was 6'2", 240 pounds and a beginner pickleball player, so that didn't look too well.
Speaker 2:Nobody wanted to play with the cowboy, no, but you roped him in. You roped him in?
Speaker 3:Yes, I did. In the beginning I wasn't really the cowboy. I like that punchline, though I wasn't a cowboy. I had to basically become the cowboy because, again, I was just a six foot tall, six foot two tall person playing pickleball and I started on the beginner's court. Like, everyone should start on beginner's court if you don't know how to play. Once you think you're past that point, that's when you go on to the intermediate court and that's when I realized that they don't like to play with beginners.
Speaker 2:So how does one go from three years ago, complete beginner, never played, nobody wants to play with the man and now fast forward three years sitting here today. You made a business out of this, a nonprofit and Greek pickleball. Tell us a little bit about that transition, how you got from beginner status to, dare I say, master status at the training academy. Tell us a little bit about Greek pickleball.
Speaker 3:The main thing how I got there was I was motivated by the fact that people wouldn't play with me. I'm an athlete by nature, so I did the track, I did basketball, I did football, I played football to the highest level and that motivated me to learn the game. So I literally went to YouTube and, because I play football and we watched a lot of film and broke down a lot of film, I did the same thing for pickleball and basically taught myself how to play pickleball to the point where those people that didn't want to play with me now want to play with me. So it worked out pretty well to the point where I thought I was getting. No, I became very I would say, semi-good at it, to the point where I started teaching people, my friends and trying to do this, try this at it. To the point where I started teaching people, my friends and trying to do this, try this. I saw this on a video two years ago try this. And I basically broke it down to the simplicity that you learn the game of pickleball, you'll be able to play pickleball, and that's how pretty much Greek pickleball was established.
Speaker 3:The name Greek. Everybody asked me where it came from. I'm a member of a mega sci-fi fraternity and my first idea was to get all the Greeks, all the sororities, all the fraternities, to play pickleball. I have yet to do that yet, so I still kept the name, and now I'm just going around everywhere teaching, doing corporate events, doing tournaments. I host tournaments, we have we work with Special Olympics, we have youth programs and I'm doing what I love.
Speaker 2:That's good stuff, man. Now, do you have any background in racquet sports at all? I know a lot of folks that play pickleball now were former tennis players. Or did you kind of pick this up completely from scratch?
Speaker 3:I was a racquetball player. I played in many racquetball tournaments.
Speaker 2:You weren't a complete, complete beginner. I mean, you got a background in racquet sports, right, I had some kind of background in racquet sports.
Speaker 3:The first time I went out there I realized that you had to hit the ball over the net and not at the corner like you're doing bracket ball. So I found that out quick.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it was a uh a pretty quick transition because I had paddle sports before now you mentioned this is a non-profit, or I think you told that, told that to me before and I mentioned it. How did you decide to make this business? So this isn't, this is, I'm guessing this is a side project, or is this your full-time thing? What do you? This is full-time for me. I did Okay. So what was your background before doing this in a professional sense, I was working with the government.
Speaker 3:I was in the government. Can't tell you exactly what I did, but I was in the government.
Speaker 2:Very secretive. Can you give us a clue? At least Like CIA stuff, no no, that's just me.
Speaker 3:I was a little small. I was in law enforcement. Okay, I was in law enforcement.
Speaker 2:Yes, Okay, cool. So you started this business. You went from law enforcement to basically entrepreneur starting this business. I guess what made you open it start. Do it as a nonprofit as opposed to a regular for-profit business.
Speaker 3:I wanted to take pickleball to communities that don't have it. That is not familiar with pickleball, and that's what we've been doing since we started January of 2024. We try to go into neighborhoods that do not have pickleball and introduce it to the younger, the youth, because that's where this game is going. It's no longer someone my age I'm 57. It's nice to play, but the younger people are who's speeding the game up? So I want to get the younger kids involved in it. We have several, actually a lot of youth programs where we're teaching. My youngest person that I teach is eight years old and the oldest is 89. So it's a large range on how you can, you know, teach the game of pickleball.
Speaker 2:And where? Where do you typically do the games? At what? What pickleball courts or center or location do you typically, or do you travel around to different locations?
Speaker 3:I travel around to different locations. I call my home base Miami Gardens. They gave us the first opportunity. They have six beautiful brand new courts and that's where I host my tournaments at, in Miami Gardens, and we do youth programs with them, and actually in North Miami as well, in north miami as well. North miami beach as well. North miami, do you have?
Speaker 2:any youth youth programs? Uh, locally closer to cooper city, because I I have a 10 year old son who took a liking to pickleball and we haven't played. Recently there was a youth program available for him here through your program.
Speaker 3:I would definitely take him by well, I would do, we, we can definitely talk. I travel to every court, from Weston to Cooper City to Plantation, cbs Park. I go to all the parks. I go as Cowboy. People remember the name Cowboy. I think it's a challenge where everybody wants to beat Cowboy in playing pickleball Not that I'm that good, but everybody wants to beat me because it's the image I beat Cowboy. I think it's a challenge where everybody want to beat cowboy and playing pickleball Not that I'm that good, but everybody want to beat me because it seems I beat cowboy. So I think we've developed a brand. The kids, all ages, love the name cowboy but they don't have to say, hey, cute because a cowboy. So I think we've branded something real good. We just have to get it to different locations and I'm open to any locations in Miami-Dade County or Broward.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, it's good stuff. Man, it's got me thinking, now that we're on the call, I haven't played in a while. Talking about it, I have that competitive spirit within me as well. Hearing you talk about people wanting to beat the Cowboy, I'm thinking to myself I want to go play this guy. Let's go. I don't have much experience, but I think I can take it down.
Speaker 3:Of course everybody does. I have a 99-year-old. The first thing he said was I can beat you. Okay, let's do it, but it's all in fun. I tell people I play for tomorrow. What do you mean by that? I say you can beat me, today I'm going to take everything that I did not do correctly and tomorrow I'm going to be a better person. Most people stay the same, so that's what I mean by learning the game, and that is we take the from, no matter what age. We take you step by step how to learn the game of pickleball, because you learn the game. Playing is going to be easy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wanted to ask what. This is an interesting question. I often ask entrepreneurs that start a business that come from a background of typical like nine to five type employment maybe not so much in the law enforcement space, but you know what I mean what has been one of the biggest challenges in that transition.
Speaker 3:And on the other side of that spectrum, what has been the biggest reward for you in this venture? I think that the challenging part is to get people to believe in you and when it comes down to coaching, you can like some. If you don't like your coach literally don't like your coach it's going to be hard for you to learn. If I have a student, that is just they love the game of pickleball. They want to learn every single thing that's in my head that I can show them. I will spend any time. They may pay for an hour, but we're on a quarter hour and 45 minutes. I look down at the clock and I don't know, because I'm having fun with it.
Speaker 3:The key to being an entrepreneur or being a person starting a business is love what you do. Fortunately for me, this is what I do and I love doing it, so the challenge is not more so whether I like what I'm doing or whether it's as long as the student. My ultimate goal is the student has to learn pickleball. The challenge is if they don't, it's on me, not on the student. And if I look at it that way, every student will get 120% from me every single time.
Speaker 2:Indeed, I love that, love what you do. That's so important I tell it to my kids all the time is to try to figure something out that you can do with your life, that you're passionate about, because it can be very, very challenging and a grind. So many people go through that in life and they never really tap into their true passion, their true potential. But it's a fine line too, because a lot of people you could take something that you really enjoy and take it over the edge and turn it into something that creates stress for you, and you could actually take something that maybe you don't enjoy so much and, with the right mindset and putting the right attitude towards it, it could turn into something that you actually love. Yeah, so it's an interesting juxtaposition, I agree, but I like that. I like that.
Speaker 2:So, speaking of challenges, this is something I always like to ask guests and I think it's something that's come more to light in my life the older I get and when I was younger, I used to go through difficult experiences and I would kind of ask myself in the experience like why is this happening to me, why me, why this, why that?
Speaker 2:And I would have a really hard time navigating these difficult experiences but then fast forward years down the road. I would look back at these things and realize that they were very powerful, transformative times in my life that really impacted me in such a way that brought me to where I am today. So often, the most trying experiences in life are the things that make you better. Right the uncomfortable situations, the pain that's what really helps you to grow, as opposed to just all positive things. So, looking back through your journey, is there something that comes to mind personal, professional that you've been through in your life that really at the time you were going through it, it felt like the end, felt like there was no coming back from it. But sitting here today looking back at it, you're like man. I'm so grateful for having gone through that experience. I wouldn't be where I'm at today had I not gone through that.
Speaker 3:Right. I would have to say the number one thing would be in 1987, I was playing. I played football for Florida State University and I was a safety, strong safety. In 1987, against the University of Florida in Gainesville, I broke my leg in seven places, my fibula and my fibula. All the doctors said I would never play again. Got to the point where two weeks, three weeks into the hospital, they came by my bedside and told my mom that they will have to basically cut my leg off because the blood was not circulating correctly. My mom is a very strong person and she said you're not cutting my son leg off. You do whatever you have to do, but you're not cutting my son's leg off.
Speaker 3:Fast forward, maybe a month later I was in hospital, like a month, 45 days or something like that. I was able to come back. I was in a wheelchair and a wheelchair or cast for almost a year and I think everyone had written me off, even the I wouldn't say the coaches did, I wouldn't say the trainers did, but they wanted me to go home to my mom because my mom of course A lot better than they could, and I was on the phone in my room talking to my mom telling my mom. You know, the coach said I can come home. I was happy to come home. I'm a country boy, so Tallahassee was the biggest place that I've ever been in my life. So I knew I was excited. Yes, I'm going home. I'm going home. And I never told the story before. But Deion Sanders was in the room at the time and he heard me tell my mom I was coming home and he said what did you just say? I said the coach said I can go home. He got on the phone and told my mom that no, crusher they called me Crusher Crusher is not coming home. We will take care of them. We will take care of him. He's not coming home.
Speaker 3:And I think that was the turning point of my life, cause I know if I went back to that farm I would have never came back to the school, I would never graduated with an economics degree, I would have never got a master's in public administration. So I think that was the turning point. So I look at those two instances my mom saying no, you're not turning, not turning, cutting his, you're not going to cut his leg off, and dion saying you're not going home. And they literally I don't know what he told the coach. I don't know what he told the trainers, but it worked. They didn't send me home, they had trainers come to my my room. They brought me food every day and I think that was a life. If I had to look at something that changed my life, it would be that, because I know I would have went back to the farm and I would have still been on the farm today.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks for sharing that. I know that will be inspirational for listeners. You hear that out there whatever you're going through, there's always light on the other side of it. So it's something I have to remind myself always now when I'm going through a challenging experience, and the sooner I realize that, the sooner my mindset shifts and the sooner I'm on the other side of it. So good stuff. So okay, cowboy, yes, listeners out there, maybe they got kids, maybe themselves they've been hearing about pickleball. They want to get involved. They just don't know where to go. You know, sometimes it takes a little spark. Hopefully they hear this conversation and that is that spark. How can they get involved? How can they reach you? How can they contact you for coaching sessions? How can listeners learn more?
Speaker 3:I think the easiest part is go to wwwgreekpickleballorg. Greekpickleballorg. That's wwwgreekpickleballorg. You can always text me. I'm a text kind of person. I'm trying to learn how to text more, but that's at. 305-300-1677, 305-300-1677. We're on all social media, from TikTok to Facebook to Instagram. Just type in Greek Pickleball, find the guy with the cowboy hat on and you will find Greek Pickleball.
Speaker 2:Perfect, and we will, of course, drop some links in the description to all of your contact information so everybody could check that out. Well, cowboy, it was an honor and a pleasure getting the opportunity to meet you and learn a little bit about your story and the wonderful good you're doing in our community. So our, our hats off to you. Thank you for the all the good you're doing, brother, thank you, thank you Appreciate you, yes, yes, and to our listeners, thanks so much for tuning in and we will catch everyone next time on the next episode of the good neighbor podcast. Everyone, take care and have a wonderful day. Thanks for listening to the good next episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Everyone, take care and have a wonderful day. Thanks, jared.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Cooper City. To nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to GNPCooperCitycom. That's GNPCooperCitycom, or call 954-231-3170.