October 3, 2023 (Gold Coast, Australia) – Serial entrepreneur and founder of Virtual Pickleball Fest 2023, Sange Carter has made her mark in the pickleball space since entering in 2022. Carter’s role as a mother to a 16-month old girl opened her eyes to a gap in Australia’s pickleball landscape and set the stage for the creation of her first pickleball endeavour, Mumarama.
After teaching physical education for nearly a decade, Carter felt a disconnect in her position and began looking beyond the education system for a job that would be more fulfilling.
“At the time, I was playing beach volleyball,” said Carter. “That’s my original sport. I was playing beach volleyball quite full-on, traveling a lot throughout Australia and playing on our national tour.”
Carter decided to commit fully to volleyball, dedicating more time into both playing and coaching and eventually establishing her own beach volleyball coaching business in Melbourne. Carter split her summer time between coaching and playing on Australia’s national tour and when winter hit, she would head overseas with a group of young players.
After moving up to the Gold Coast in 2016, Carter continued to rise the ranks in Australian volleyball, working notable roles with Papua New Guinea that was highlighted by an opportunity to help the country deliver their beach volleyball program at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. In a surprise turn of events, however, she found herself back with teaching shortly thereafter.
“I was just looking for some stability,” explained Carter. “After awhile, it starts to wear you down. So, I went back to teaching for a couple years and then, actually had my little baby girl. Having a child made me realize that my time was even more precious and valuable and going, well, where do I want to spend those hours away from my family doing something I wanted to do?”
Enter pickleball.
“Pickleball kind of came along really accidentally as it does through a lot of people,” said Carter. “I just started playing pickleball to get back to moving.”
Pickleball in the mornings at Carter’s local courts—some of the only dedicated pickleball courts in Australia at the time—were just over a kilometre from her house and became the location for her ‘Mother’s Group’. This collection of primarily masters-age athletes who would look after her five-month-old while she hit the courts to learn the ins-and-outs of pickleball.
Through her newfound ‘Mother’s Group’, Carter identified a gap in the pickleball space for women. In particular, moms involved in playing pickleball who wanted to connect with something beyond the traditional parenting duties, such as chasing down children. The recognition led to the creation of Mumarama in May of 2023, an event championing moms and putting them centre-stage.
“It was the week before Mother’s Day and an amazing event,” said Carter. “I think we had 80 players come and play. We had some amazing sponsors come onboard and it was such a fun day celebrating all the women. We had mums playing with sons. We had mums playing with partners. We had pickleball mums. We had gym mums.”
After the success of Mumarama, an inspired Carter and her team decided to launch this year’s inaugural Virtual Pickleball Fest (VPF), after recognizing that there was a abundance of fellow pickleball enthusiasts who wanted to learn and play the game, but lacked the access to resources required to accelerate their progress in the sport.
“We’re really lucky here on the Gold Coast,” explained Carter. “We have a really talented bunch of players. We have probably more coaches in this area than probably most other capitol cities in Australia. But, as I met more and more people through sport, they’re like ‘We just don’t have coaches here. We don’t know how to improve. We don’t know how to train’ and there was all these gaps.”
Once again, Carter decided to jump on the opportunity, creating VPF 2023. She attributes the support and impressive lineup of speakers at the inaugural event to a combination of community building and pickleball’s supportive network of like-minded individuals who want to help one another and contribute to the growth of the game.
Virtual Pickleball Fest 2023 is set for October 12 and is a one-day, virtual conference. Sign ups have seen registrations from Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines. The conference will feature a number of live sessions with Olympic coaches, trainers and pro athletes sharing their knowledge and resources with participants.
“Hopefully the festival will help grow the sport in a couple different areas,” added Carter. “From the technical side and then the community side and hopefully everyone’s network. We’re building, a stronger pickleball community there as well.”
Last but not least, Carter recently assumed the role of community director with Pacific Pickleball, adding to her impressive list of roles within the pickleball space and placing her as one of the—if not the busiest—interviewee Haus Pickleball has spoken with to date. With VPF 2023 just weeks away, Carter found herself travelling to Atlanta for her first Major League Pickleball event following Pacific Pickleball’s recent alignment with the league.
“After I ran the Mumaram event…It was like trying to come up for air because it’s kind like, what’s next,” said Carter. “For Pacific Pickleball, I think it’s just that settling of things now and delivering great events this year. Then, working towards solidifying our teams for 2024 and moving through that space. It’s really cool and it’s just focusing on one thing at a time.”
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