“Let’s Bring It HOME” Again: Kyle Yates Returns to Lead Team USA Pro Team
By Carl Foster
August 26, 2026 • 9 min read
KYLE YATES HAS spent much of his pickleball career collecting championships.
He won his first USA Pickleball Nationals gold medal at 19. Two years later, he completed a historic men’s pro doubles Grand Slam, winning the US Open, Tournament of Champions and USA Pickleball National Championships in the same year. He went on to win four consecutive US Open men’s pro doubles titles, reach No. 1 in the world and, in 2024, become one of the youngest players ever inducted into the Pickleball Hall of Fame.
Now, at 31, Yates is chasing another championship. This time, however, his biggest contribution may come from the sideline.
Yates has been named head coach of Team USA’s Pro division for the 2026 Pickleball WorQld Cup in Da Nang, Vietnam, where more than 4,000 athletes representing more than 80 national delegations are expected to compete.
His message heading into Vietnam is considerably shorter than his résumé.
“Let’s bring it HOME.”
For Yates, that would actually mean bringing it home again.
From Champion to Coach
The transition from player to coach might appear to be a new chapter for one of pickleball’s earliest professional stars, but Yates has been teaching the game almost as long as he has been helping define it.
When I interviewed Kyle earlier this summer, he told me that although he never really had a traditional coach himself, he learned from players around him and eventually became known as one of the sport’s premier instructors. Today, he owns and operates Picklr clubs in Colorado and remains involved in the game from the grassroots level.
“I’m more focused on grassroots efforts in Colorado and abroad, not getting too caught up in the ‘pro’ side anymore,” Yates told me. “I think the amateur experience and recreational play is really what will keep driving the sport of pickleball.”
Yet the competitive side of the sport has never been far away. Last year, Yates coached Team USA’s Open division at the 2025 Pickleball World Cup in Fort Lauderdale. Sixty- eight national delegations competed, and the U.S. emerged with the gold medal after defeating Hong Kong 4-0 in the final.
The American lineup was young. Nicole Conard, Alia Brown, Django Chassang, Jake Bower and Dylan Lewis were all under 27. For Yates, their chemistry stood out as much as the result.
“Couldn’t have asked for a better group of kids,” he said after the tournament. “Whether they were on court, or watching from the sideline, the support for each other was obvious.”
His work did not go unnoticed. Yates was named the World Cup’s Best Captain for the leadership, respect and sportsmanship he demonstrated throughout the event. Now, he gets another chance, this time halfway around the world.
The World Cup Comes Full Circle
Yates’ connection to the Pickleball World Cup did not begin with Team USA. He was there at the beginning.
In 2023, Yates participated in the inaugural Pickleball World Cup in Peru, an experience that left an impression that went well beyond wins and losses.
“Experiencia inolvidable,” Yates wrote afterward. “Grateful to take part in the first Pickleball World Cup. There were so many amazing people, from all different countries/cultures, brought together by a common passion.”
Peru won that first World Cup, with Guatemala finishing second and Puerto Rico and Chile reaching the semifinals. But what Yates chose to emphasize afterward was the collection of countries and people around him.
He thanked the nations represented and the people working to develop pickleball in their home countries. He singled out strong performances from the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama and others.
“I’m excited to see the growth of the sport around the world and am looking forward to the next tournament,” he wrote.
Three years later, the tournament Yates watched taking shape in Peru is headed to Asia, and he will arrive representing the United States from the coaching box.
The scale has changed considerably. More than 80 national delegations are expected in Da Nang. The World Cup has expanded to five divisions: Kids, Junior, Pro, Senior 50+ and Master 60+. And the host country itself has become one of the fastest-growing pickleball markets in the world.
For a player who has watched pickleball evolve from a niche sport into an international one, the trajectory is difficult to miss.
He Saw the Global Game Coming
When Kyle and I spoke for The Pickleball Weekly in July, I asked him about pickleball’s international growth and whether he could envision the sport eventually reaching the Olympics. His answer was revealing.
“I’m not surprised,” he said. “The biggest hurdle for pickleball in the US has always been the name. In other countries, I don’t think it has the same connotation.”
Then he pointed specifically to Asia.
“The boom in Asia was to be expected, but I’m hopeful that it will catch on more in Europe, Africa, and South America to really give us a chance at Olympic possibilities in the near future.”
Vietnam puts Yates in the middle of the very international growth he was describing. The World Cup will bring national teams from established pickleball countries together with delegations representing markets where the sport is still developing rapidly. For Team USA, that creates a different challenge than simply assembling talented players.
The United States may be the country most closely associated with pickleball’s history and pro development, but the rest of the world is no longer standing still.
Yates knows that firsthand. He saw the competition in Peru in 2023. He coached against it in Fort Lauderdale in 2025. Now he will see what it looks like in Asia in 2026.
A Different Kind of Leadership
There is an interesting symmetry to Yates taking responsibility for the Pro Team. When he began competing seriously, there was no established professional pickleball blueprint to follow.
His uncle, Mike Welter, introduced him to pickleball while Yates was in high school in Fort Myers, Florida. He had grown up playing tennis, soccer, golf, table tennis, basketball and other sports, but pickleball eventually became the one he pursued.
At 19, he traveled to his first USA Pickleball National Tournament and won gold in men’s doubles 19+. By 2016, he had become one of the dominant players in the sport.
The Hall of Fame record that followed includes championships at the US Open, Tournament of Champions, USA Pickleball Nationals and international events. In 2018, he was ranked the World Pickleball Federation’s No. 1 doubles player.
But perhaps more relevant to his role in Vietnam is what came with those years of competition.
Yates played alongside and against generations of the sport’s best players. He watched equipment change, professional tours emerge, prize money grow and the game itself become faster and more powerful.
When I asked him earlier this year what had changed most since his dominant run from 2014 to 2018, he pointed immediately to speed.
“Paddle technology has allowed players to hit the ball harder and still keep it in,” he said. “The chess aspect of the game unfortunately isn’t quite as important anymore as sheer speed and power.”
That perspective gives Team USA a coach who understands not only how the game is played today, but how it got here.
More Than a Résumé
Twelve major titles. Former World No. 1. A historic 2016 Grand Slam. Four consecutive US Open men’s pro doubles championships. Pickleball Hall of Fame. But coaching a national team requires something different. Yates learned that last year.
The Best Captain award he received in Fort Lauderdale was not another medal for his own performance. It recognized what he brought to other players. That distinction matters as he prepares to lead another Team USA roster into a World Cup that is larger, more international and being staged on a different continent.
Yates once told me that becoming a club owner changed the way he viewed his place in pickleball.
“When you’re the athlete, it’s easy to focus on just yourself,” he said. “As a club owner, everything is about the members. Everything is for other people.”
The coaching box demands much the same thing. For someone whose name became synonymous with winning during pickleball’s formative professional years, success in Da Nang will not be measured by a medal hanging around his own neck. It will be measured by what the players wearing USA across their chests accomplish together.
Bringing It Home
Kyle Yates has already experienced the Pickleball World Cup from several perspectives. He competed in its inaugural edition in Peru. He watched countries and cultures come together around a sport that was only beginning to discover its international reach. He returned as Team USA’s coach and led a young American roster to gold.
Along the way, he was recognized not for his forehand, doubles record or championship résumé, but for his leadership. Now comes Da Nang.
The player who helped shape pickleball’s early prol era will lead Team USA into a World Cup reflecting just how far beyond that era the sport has traveled.
More countries. More players. A new continent. A defending champion. And one very simple objective from the man charged with leading the Pro Team: “Let’s bring it HOME.” ●
About Carl Foster
Carl Foster is the Chairman of the World Pickleball Conference and the CEO of Foster Events Group, LLC, where he specializes in the production and management of high-profile sports and entertainment events. With over 50 years of experience in broadcasting, fundraising, and event leadership, he produces Inside WORLD Pickleball and serves as a lead moderator for industry summits. He is a central figure in the professionalization of pickleball, connecting technology experts, organizational leadership, and the player community to elevate the sport’s presence on a global scale.
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