Pickleball veteran Marcin Rozpedski played an integral part in helping the Coachella Valley Scorpions claim the 2025 National Pickleball League (NPL) championship.

It was an especially meaningful victory for Rozpedski, who made a triumphant return to the court after taking an extended break due to injury.

We caught up with Rozpedski to learn more about the Scorpions' success this past season.

Talk about reaching the top of the NPL mountain by defeating top-seeded Seattle on their home turf. How does it feel?

I hadn't played pickleball in a long time because of my knees. I really took five to seven years off. I played a lot from 2014 through 2017, and then stepped away for medical reasons and because I started to teach a lot of tennis and opened up my own high-performance junior tennis academy, so health-wise and business-wise, I just couldn't play pickleball. This year, though, I turned 50, and my friend, Kim Jagd said, ‘Hey, I own the team. Do you want to play with us?’ It was kind of like we were getting the band back together with her and my best friend, Scott Burr. I said, ‘Let me try it!’ I didn't know what to expect because I was off for a long time. I remember walking into the very first weekend of the NPL, and it was just bizarre chaos with it being so loud indoors. I was also looking at the players, and they were all very good players. I thought that I was just going to be a superstar right away, but that wasn't the case because these guys were good athletes, good players with two-handed dinks, topspin forehand dinks, big deep serves, and great hands at the net. Everybody was moving so well. I was in awe and in shock for the first weekend, and then I said, ‘OK, I’ve got my work cut out for me.’ With that in mind, I trained, I played, and I was able to come out with a very good record with my partner, Cord Robbins. In the end, I was played at a high level, and I competed against the best players in the league. But in the beginning, it was a very different and a very humbling experience, which is great. That's what we want. We want the sport to grow and get better. I don't care if you’re 19 years old or 50 years old, playing well at a high level is always great, so this was a great experience for me.

Is this title extra significant because of everything you went through medically?

I had to step up. I had to be pickleball-shape ready. Obviously Kim and Scott and the whole team helped me kind of ease myself into it, but I knew that it wasn’t going to be an easy task. This was my very first NPL experience, my very first team experience in pickleball. I always played singles, doubles, or mixed, and never played in a team competition. Obviously when I played tennis at UCLA, that was a team, but that was 150 years ago, right? I didn't know anything about Pod 1, Pod 2, Pod 3, how intense it gets, how all the points count equally, so I had to get into a leadership position right away and support every single teammate like they were your brother or sister. I think everybody else did the same. We had 14 people on a team, and maybe only four from last year's team, so we were all kind of in the same position - all rookies, didn't know what to expect, great athletes with a lot of talent, but kind of finding our own little spot on the team - and we did that with Kim's leadership and Andy's leadership. We found that very quickly, which is pretty amazing.

What was it like navigating the championship weekend bracket? 

I don't want to say we struggled, but the teams are so close in talent and skill. For example, our very first match was against Austin. We lost to them in the preseason, and then we beat them very handily in our first match last weekend. And then the very next day, our Pod 2 player, David Katz, got injured, so that put a lot of stress on us. That took a lot of motivation and positivity out of us. We go, ‘Well, this is going to be tough playing against the Columbus Hotshots.’ That’s a very strong team, but we beat them as well. And then against the Seattle Tsunami, for some reason, we walked inside the venue on Sunday and we felt so relaxed. We felt almost like, ‘You know what? Whatever's going to happen is going to happen.’ We knew that we battled before, and we were ready. Everybody stepped up. Everybody was capable of playing an incredibly high level of pickleball. We didn't stress. We were happy. We had big smiles on our faces. In the end, we played very well. Our No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 pods stepped up. We beat them 7-2. It was an incredible experience. We knew that they were such a tough team. They had confidence coming in because they almost lost in the very first round against Boca, but they pulled it off, so we knew that they were capable of playing incredible pickleball. We knew that they weren’t going to just let us win. They were going to fight for every point. But, we came in with huge energy and huge motivation, and it just showed. We showed up as a team and played great pickleball.

After enjoying success this past year, are you thinking about playing again next season?

I honestly don't know. My academy, Rozpedski Performance Tennis, at Desert Princess Country Club, is a priority. For those young players attending, it's their dream. I'm changing their lives, and they need me. Their parents and their families are also changing their lives by sending their kids to us, so for me to focus on something very different like pickleball, it's very difficult. But, I know how fun pickleball is, I know how good I am, and I know how good the team is, so I’m still figuring things out right now.

Tell us about your pickleball background. Pickleballtv broadcaster Dave Fleming says you’re an “OG of pro pickleball.”

I’ve played so much pickleball over the years. In 2014-15, I won the U.S. Open in singles. I won Nationals three times in singles. I played a lot of doubles with Dave Weinbach and Kyle Yates and Daniel Moore and Tyson McGuffin. I beat Ben Johns in singles. I played men's doubles at my tournament at the Lakes Country Club with Ben Johns in 2017. I've seen pickleball grow. I've seen the transition from just maybe 10 to 15 to 20 tournaments a year into 300 tournaments a weekend. The game has progressed so nicely with TV and money and sponsors. Honestly, being called an “OG of pro pickleball” sounds good. The new wave of pickleball is such a beautiful game. It's great to see it evolve. It’s kind of like tennis. It went from wooden rackets to a complete equipment transformation into this brutal topspin, very physical game. I'm pretty convinced that pickleball is doing the same thing.

Speaking of tennis, you coached some accomplished players over the years, right?

I coached and trained with Ana Ivanovic. In 2008, she became the No. 1 female tennis player in the WTA. I trained with her during that time. Right after that, I trained with Victoria Azarenka, also No. 1 in the world, and then the Williams sisters when they were both No. 1 and No. 2 in the world. I also coached Anna Kournikova when she was No. 1 in the world in doubles. I've trained Justine Henin-Hardenne as well. I worked with a lot of the girls on tour as a coach and as a hitting partner. I myself was in the Top 200 to Top 250 in the world on the ATP tour, and I was about Top 20 in juniors. I played all the Grand Slams on the ITF Tour’s junior circuit.

What are your overall thoughts about the NPL? 

The competition is there. Absolutely. I think that the top men's pods can be national champions at any point in time. I know that the DUPR level is there with 5.8s, 5.9s, and 6.0s. There are 10 guys that can easily be national champions. But, I also want to talk about the quality of the NPL organization itself. There are top-notch human beings running the program. They really think about us as players. From the hotels to the dinners to the goodie bags to the practice courts to the quality of the venues, all those little things make sense. When you’re 50-plus, you don't do it for the money, you do it for the quality of the experience. That's important for them to be successful. That's what it's all about. They’re adding more divisions and more teams, so it shows that they're doing something right.

If this triumph with the Scorpions was your final pickleball experience, it’s quite a finish. Wouldn’t you agree?

Of course! To do it with a team with such great human beings is special. To do it with my very good friend, Kim Jagd, who worked so hard, means a lot. Seeing the joy in her face was completely worth it. It's beautiful. We really played quality pickleball. We didn't win it because the other teams didn't play well. They played extremely well, but we played a little bit better. To do it with those guys, that I will have as friends forever, that's what it's all about. At the end of the day, it's about human beings, being kind, being awesome, and helping each other out. Pickleball is secondary. For that reason, it was a beautiful way of winning and being on top. Chemistry, teamwork, kindness, that's what being teammates is truly all about. When you don't play well, they pick you up. If they don't play well, you pick them up. We grow that way. Everybody raised their level together, and that’s why we accomplished our goal.

The NPL is the premier professional pickleball league for pros in the 50-plus age group. The third season featured 12 teams representing cities across the U.S. — including Austin, Boca Raton, Coachella Valley, Columbus, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Naples, Oklahoma City, Princeton, and Seattle — with approximately 200 players competing.

Click here to learn more about the NPL's expansion in 2026.