Vinnie Brascia is the proud father of Mary, Maggie, and Molly Brascia.

Mary and Maggie play on the PPA Tour, while Molly is a diver and pursuing her undergraduate degree at UCLA. And while the Brascia sisters are incredibly accomplished in their respective pickleball careers, it’s their dad who plays a special role in their success.  

Vinnie is consistently traveling on tour with Mary and Maggie, managing what he calls a “delicate balance” between both the father and coach role.  

“I’m a dad first. I love my girls and I’m so proud of them for putting themselves out there. But, it’s a balancing act because we want to support all the kids. On some weekends, mom’s back home with Molly at her swim meets, and I’m with Mary and Maggie at tournaments. You’ve got to divide and conquer,” said Vinnie. “What’s great about being their coach is that I get to share this experience with them. Nobody cares more about their successes than me, so everything I try to do is to help them reach success both on and off the court.” 

Vinnie was an athlete and taught tennis before he discovered pickleball.

But once he found it, he became addicted to the sport.

“I played pickleball so much that I threw my back out and I couldn’t play for three months. That’s how much I loved it,” he explained. “When COVID hit, the girls were tennis players. Maggie was the only one who was really like, ‘Dad we gotta get the net out,’ and we would play for a couple of days every day. It was a lot of fun and it was a real blessing during those days to make lemonade out of lemons. During that lockdown period was when the girls really developed their skills.”

Vinnie then shared an anecdote from Mary and Maggie's childhood that gives some insight as to where their careers in pickleball were headed. 

“When the girls were little, they each had a Roger Federer mini tennis racket and they would play with foam balls. They would fight to see who could have time to play on the wall with the mini rackets. Looking back, I realize they were literally playing pickleball, they just didn’t know it,” he described. “Their whole life they just kind of did things where they were dinking and hitting balls against a wall and stuff like that, so they took to pickleball pretty quickly in terms of figuring out and understanding the game.”

It’s no surprise they grew up to be pros.

“We played our local tournament and after that we went to PPA Las Vegas that first year in 2020 - and that opened our eyes up. We thought this sport could be really big and the girls said let’s go for it,” he mentioned. “It’s a blessing and a real treat to get to share this with them, and I’m lucky enough that they will have me along this journey.”

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