National Pickleball Day 2025 With Its Founder Dee Morris

Dierdre “Dee” Morris invented the day several years ago, and now it has caught on nation wide.

Dierdre Morris

Happy National Pickleball Day! Today, August 8th, 2025 marks the celebration of the 5th annual National Pickleball Day here in the US.

When I wrote about the 4th annual National Pickleball Day last year, I did not know the backstory of the day nor much about its founder, Dierdre “Dee” Morris. However after an email conversation post publishing I promised to do a more proper interview with her for the 2025 event. And here we are. So, let’s get to know Ms. Morris a little bit, hear about her backstory, and hear about the creation of the day we now recognize.

Morris lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, on the east side of the bay in the suburbs north of Oakland. She is a Certified Pickleball instructor and USA Pickleball ambassador for her area. She works with Pickleball Organized LLC. She teaches at the youth level (elementary and middle school aged kids) and coordinates group events out of her home club, which is called the Walnut Creek Pickleball club based out of Redgear park in Walnut Creek, California. She’s also done some tournament direction. She used to do all of this on the side, but she retired last year, so now Pickleball is her “retirement job.”

How did she get introduced to the sport? Morris was an early adopter pickleball, in comparison to the wave of those who (like myself) learned the game in or around Covid in 2020). “I’m celebrating my 10th year of playing this year; I started in 2015. My sister had started playing and urged my cousin and I to try it, saying this is a fun sport, you have to play. So I went out, played for the first time, and fell in love the minute I started. It’s fun, competitive, and was like nothing I’d ever done before. I didn’t come from tennis or racquet sports; it was just a totally new experience for me.”

Morris’ love for the sport led her along a familiar path as she got more involved. Says Morris, “I’ve met hundreds of people playing throughout the last ten years. I’ve furthered my pickleball travels by becoming a USAP ambassador. Eventually I became a certified PPR coach in 2019 and began teaching.” Eventually, Morris noticed that there was no official “day” designated for the sport.

So, I asked the big question: Why August 8th? Here’s the real story as told by Morris:

“When you go to apply for an official ‘day’ for something, it is done through the National Archives. When I went to apply, I had to make sure there’s no one else with that day. As it turned out, there was already a ‘Pickleball month,’ and a ‘World Pickleball Day,” so I did some research and the Canadians were set to celebrate on August 8th of that year [in 2020]

, which is my birthday, so I applied on that date. To be an official day for something, you have to have a logo, so we designed a logo with a friend, paid the application fee, and that was it.”

Indeed Pickleball Canada also has a “National Pickleball Day,” which is set to be the second Saturday of August annually, so the day moves yearly. This year that falls on 8/9/25. Here in the USA we just designate the August 8th day irrespective of when it falls on the calendar.

Why did she create National Pickleball Day? Says Morris, “It’s meant to be a day to bring awareness to the sport, to give back by teaching or hosting a party, plan an event,
collect equipment for donation to schools or clubs. Do something for the sport on the day; that’s the goal.”

When did Morris notice the day starting to get recognition? “I had an actual sanctioned tournament in Concord in 2023 to celebrate it, and it was starting to get some growth then. However, it really blew up in 2024 in terms of awareness. This year the Walnut Creek club is having a pizza party to celebrate. We’ll have Pizza, socialize, and play some pickleball.”

This year, to commemorate the event, Morris produced a video celebrating National Pickleball day, filming it with her pickleball playing friends in California. She released the video on August 1st and its available on YouTube.

So, there’s the story. Thanks to Morris for taking the initiative to create National Pickleball Day, and honor its purpose by playing, teaching, or giving back to the community today.