Jackie Redmond’s Pickleball Revolution: Jackie Redmond, NHL reporter and WWE host, has found a new passion: pickleball. Along with her husband, Emmett Blois, Redmond spends much of her free time playing the sport at The Cougar Dome in Truro, Nova Scotia, where it has become a central part of their lives.
Discovery of Pickleball
The couple first discovered pickleball in late 2023 during a trip to Florida. Blois quickly became obsessed, signing up for a membership at a local indoor facility. Redmond recalls calling him from a work trip, only to hear that he had already dived headfirst into the sport.
I remember calling Emmett from a work trip and he was like, ‘I found this pickleball place with indoor courts. I’m obsessed. I got a membership, and we’ll play when you get back. We’re going to learn. We’re going to do it.’ It really started with his obsession. Once I started playing in open play and learning the ins and outs of the game, I was so hooked. It was a very quick obsession. When I’m home, there isn’t a day that I don’t play pickleball. That isn’t an exaggeration.” – (Redmond)
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Good Dink Meltdown and Apparel Line
This love for the game has led the couple to launch their pickleball apparel brand, Good Dink.
“It’s definitely a shared passion to the point where we’re launching a pickleball apparel brand called Good Dink that we hope players will enjoy. It’s become more than just a hobby to us. We are all in on pickleball. We want the sport to grow.” – (Redmond)
Earlier this month, they hosted The Good Dink Meltdown, a local tournament featuring gender doubles and mixed doubles competitions, which also served as an opportunity to showcase their clothing line.
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Reigniting the Competitive Spirit
Pickleball has become a major part of Redmond and Blois’s lives, with Redmond noting how the sport rekindled her competitive spirit.
“I grew up playing a lot of sports. I was a tomboy. As an adult, I went all in on my career and really sunk my teeth into that. No regrets, obviously, but since I was like 18, 19, 20 years old, I don’t think I’ve found something where I felt that competitive spirit again, that I just was so invested in, like pickleball. I was like, ‘I need to get good at this game. For the life of me, I need to find a way to get better at pickleball.’ When I started playing, it re-ignited that competitive spirit for me.” – (Redmond)
“I watch a lot of sports, but pickleball is the first thing I’ve tried as an adult where I was like, ‘Ok, it’s on! I will do whatever it takes to be competitive at this game despite my hectic schedule.’ It just brings me back to being a kid and caring so much about winning, and it’s nice to kind of discover something in life that pushes you to push yourself, that motivates you to push yourself, that makes you want to get better at something.” – (Redmond)
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Avid Fans of PickleballTV
The couple also enjoys watching pickleball events on Pickleballtv. Redmond praised her friend, Michelle McMahon, for her success in the pickleball broadcast world, calling her “the queen of the pickleball broadcast world.”
“We have Pickleballtv on in our house all the time. We watch it a lot. My friend Michelle McMahon actually started in hockey, so I’m very happy to see all the success that she’s had in the pickleball world. I think she’s like the queen of the pickleball broadcast world. She’s crushing it, and I’m so happy for her. I tell her all the time that she’s on in our house constantly. We watch everything. We watch singles, doubles, mixed. We watch it all. We have favorite players and we’re big fans.” – (Redmond)
Redmond and Blois enjoy watching all types of pickleball matches, from singles to mixed doubles, and have their own favorite players. Redmond believes that Pickleballtv is an essential tool for learning and improving her skills.
“I watch because I want to learn, I want to get better, I want to understand the strategy behind pickleball and the things that make the players so successful. It’s refreshing for me as someone who watches thousands of hours of hockey. I love hockey. I will always love hockey. It’s like tethered to my soul. I watch hockey differently, though, because I work in it. With pickleball, I just feel like a fan when I watch it. I love it for that reason. The passion is real. We really love pickleball.” – (Redmond)
Jackie Redmond is known for her work as a reporter for the NHL on TNT, a host for the NHL Network, and a reporter for WWE.
News in Brief: Jackie Redmond’s Pickleball Revolution
Jackie Redmond and her husband, Emmett Blois, have become avid pickleball players. Their love for the sport led them to create an apparel brand called Good Dink. Redmond shared her excitement about the game, describing how it reignited her competitive spirit.
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