Stories about the competitive spirit are best when there are equal parts perspective and passion, athleticism and character in play.
You pursue a challenge because it’s there, because you want to see if you can meet it, because the drive within won’t let you back down. And then, when you earn a view from the top after your climb and soak in the most satisfying of views and vistas, cheers to you for stepping back and embracing what is best for your life.
Welcome to the story of Cameron Andrade and his improbable march to a doubles title in the U.S. Open Pickleball Championship.
That his interest in the sport came haphazardly during the 2020 COVID pandemic, back “when I was really bored” is understandable. We remember the levels of boredom back then.
That Cameron discovered how “pickleball will tickle your itch” can be confirmed by a 2023 APP Tour report that 36.5 million Americans participate in the sport.
That he went from a beginner in 2020 to an avid recreational player by 2022, to someone who in 2023 could only work in a few competitive tournaments around his fulltime job as Territory Manager for Skechers, to a 30-year-old who said on a whim, “what the heck, let’s give it a shot” in the spring of 2024 and won in his first chance at the national championship is pure unfiltered joy.
Heck, even his father, who knows a thing or two about competitive fire as a four-time winner on the PGA Tour, was duly impressed.
“I love how he dove right in and worked at it,” said Billy Andrade. “I had no idea how good he was on the national level (then) he went to the U.S. Open Pickleball Championship in Naples, Fla., and won the whole thing in his division. Pretty amazing.”
Amazing, indeed. But to hear the story directly from Cameron and to smile at the enthusiasm and joy he poured into his pursuit was a treasure. He tells the story of being a young kid getting into golf (surprise, surprise) and so his father sent him to a summer camp at his alma mater, Wake Forest.
“He sent me there to improve my golf. I came back a hell of a ping-pong player,” laughed Cameron.
But he offered the story as a snippet of who he is.
“I always remember my dad telling me, ‘Son, you hooked it in there (the trees), now you have to go hook it out.’ I loved that part – to figure out what to do.”
That explains in part why he got joy out of playing tennis with his mother, Jody, and then improved exponentially at ping-pong after that summer camp. Cameron said he loved the angles, got into the strategy of making one or two shots that would set up that winning shot.
Yes, he played well in competitive golf circles – 2013 Georgia State High School champion; varsity golf at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C. – but what tickled his fancy most about that sport? “I fell in love with the process of improving at golf. I loved to go to the range for hours, by myself, just to study the game and improve.”
Crazy to think how that emotion would be rekindled during 2020 when Cameron and a cousin watched some folks set up lines on a clay tennis court next to where they were living in Bristol, R.I. It was pickleball and what he saw didn’t interest him.
“It seemed kind of tough, the little pickleball just sputtered, did nothing,” he said.
He was told to really see pickleball he should go to Newport, R.I., but when he got there Cameron Andrade was told it was a private game. He shrugged and started to leave when the gentleman asked, “Why aren’t you mad?”
“Because,” said Cameron. “That’s not how I was raised.”
Manners and dignity still work, apparently, because the man changed his mind and asked Cameron “are you any good?”
The kid smiled and said, “I know I will be good” and for less than a minute the two of them hit the pickleball back-and-forth. “You’re good. You’re in,” said the man and Cameron Andrade soaked in his first pickleball experience, totally OK with his discovery.
“I knew the fundamentals of tennis because of my mom, knew about the mental side of golf because of my dad, and I loved ping-pong because it was quick and required you to play angles,” he said. “I told myself, ‘Once I figure (pickleball) out it will be awesome.’ ”
Cameron remembers getting a rush of confidence after losing in a tournament with a random partner he had never played alongside. “I remember thinking, ‘If I could play with a partner I picked, it would be great.’ ”
In Nate Rebello, a former tennis player at Rhode Island Community College, Cameron found just such a partner. “I’ve got like a thousand things going through my head,” he laughed, “and by then I was supremely confident and with Nate we talked strategy a lot.”
Cameron's march to the national championship was shared with his mother, Jody, who flew to Naples, Fla., from the family home in Atlanta. (Billy Andrade was competing in a PGA Tour Champions tournament.)
Nate was committed to the U.S. Open in mixed doubles (with fiancee Christina Pottel) and singles and wanted to add doubles with Andrade. When he asked his boss at Skechers if he could play, the answer was in the affirmative. “He told me he thought it would be cool to have a stud player wearing and competing in our shoes,” laughed Cameron.
Rebello handled the entry and signed on for the 4.5 competitive level for ages 30-39. Andrade, who is 30, had never been in this landscape of competition and concedes that a fellow competitor asked him what his level was, akin to his golf handicap.
“Dude, I don’t have one and it’s the first time I’ve played in this,” Andrade said.
He said 4.5 was “like scratch in golf,” that 5.0 was like a plus-2, and 6.0 “you’re a pro.”
They were in the correct group, insists Andrade, only things got bleak when Rebello ripped a toenail and pulled a hamstring in his other games. “We lost our first game and were down something 6-2 in the next. But I think I really had (those opponents) figured out and we came back to win the second game and in game three we crushed it.”
Round 1 in the books, Andrade and Rebello swept their opponents in Round 2 and in the third-round final to bask in the enthusiasm. “My mom flew down and Nate’s fiancée’s parents and their whole (Naples, Fla.) community were there, plus co-workers from Skechers. It was awesome,” said Cameron.
He will tell you that this is where the story kind of hits a wall, but he is wrong. What comes next is a remarkable sense of maturity and candor because as he stood at the top of the game, Cameron Andrade was blanketed in honesty.
“I now know what skill level it takes if you want to get to the next level and what the commitment is,” he said, adding that there is a pro level that temps elite pickle-ballers.
“If I were eight years younger, maybe. But not now, not at this point in my life. The truth is, I was so injured I couldn’t wait to stop playing (for a while).”
Smart and charismatic young man that he is, Cameron Andrade sees the big picture. “I love my job and don’t want to sacrifice that for the unknown.”
Besides, he still has pickleball at a level that fits his lifestyle, still in possession of that creative shot-making passion that he lives for. And tennis? “I’m back playing more of that, some days in Newport, also in Barrington (R.I.) All of it for fun.”
Golf? Now that’s a different animal. He won’t partake in those six-hour rounds with friends.
“Sorry, can’t do those. But, if Billy Andrade texts me and tells me to meet him at the club on Tuesday for a 2 ½- to 3-hour round, I’m all in.”
See, we told you he’s a smart and charismatic kid. The ball’s in your court, Billy.
