No Expiration Date: Nicole Pitts on Competition, Community and Austin Ignite’s Dallas Win
The Austin Ignite Prime 40+ team arrived in Dallas with momentum after an undefeated opening event in Chicago—and left with a first-place finish in their division.
For Nicole Pitts, the weekend was about more than adding another win to the season. A former professional tennis player and pediatric sports medicine physician, Pitts brings a unique perspective to competition, recovery, and what it means to continue performing at a high level. Following Austin Ignite’s win in Dallas, she reflected on the pressure of competing as an undefeated team, the support she’s found within the Champions Series, and why being an athlete doesn’t have to come with an expiration date.
Coming into Dallas, I was excited and definitely more confident than I was at our first event in Chicago. Before Chicago, I had been out of tournament pickleball for about four months due to an ankle injury, so there were some unknowns about how I would feel getting back into competition.
Photo Credit: Brad Evenson
Chicago went about as well as I could have hoped. I went undefeated in my matches, and our team went undefeated as well. But success changes things a little. Coming into the next event undefeated, people know your team and how you’ve been playing. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a target on your back, but you know teams are coming for you—and you place higher expectations on yourself.
We felt some of that right away in Dallas. We lost the first game of our opening women’s match. First matches can always be challenging, but we stayed positive, came back, and played well.
Those are the moments when I think my background in professional tennis helps me most. Years of competition teach you how to persevere when matches get tight, when you’re tired, or when you simply aren’t feeling your best. You learn how to find a way through.
Photo Credit: Brad Evenson
One of my favorite parts of the Champions Series, though, is that you’re not doing it alone.
After spending so many years competing in an individual sport, I love having an entire team around me. Our 40+ team may only have four players, but we’re part of a much larger group across the age divisions. Our Premier 50+ and Masters 60+ players have been incredibly supportive, watching our matches and cheering us on. Our Masters team staying even after their own event has finished. Special shout-out to Jamie King, who hasn’t missed one of our matches!
Dallas was even more special because I was playing in my own backyard, at facilities where I normally play. Having family and friends there to watch made competing at home that much more meaningful.
The weekend also brings together the two sides of my life. I work full-time as a pediatric sports medicine physician at Cook Childrens in Prosper Texas, while training and competing myself. With multiple matches each day, recovery between matches and proper warm-ups become critical for both performance and injury prevention. Experiencing those demands as an athlete gives me another perspective on the same training, recovery, and injury-prevention principles I discuss with my young athletes and incorporate into our pediatric pickleball medicine program.
That’s what has made this experience so rewarding. We all want to compete and win, but we’re also getting the opportunity to continue doing something we love at a high level.
Looking around at athletes competing in the 40+, 50+, and 60+ divisions, supporting one another and still loving competition, is a pretty great reminder that being an athlete doesn’t have to have an expiration date.
Nicole’s experience in Dallas captures what the Champions Series is all about. Yes, the competition matters—and Austin Ignite’s first-place finish is certainly worth celebrating—but so does the opportunity to build a team, challenge yourself, and keep competing at a high level alongside athletes who share the same passion for the game.