Shrewsbury Pickleball star offered the chance to train as a pro in the US

Jason Edwards Pereira, who is the top-ranked player under 19 in the UK, has been offered a place to train as a professional under Ken Herrmann and his Next Gen Team. 

Pickleball has been described as the fastest growing sport in America and the sport is continuing to grow at a fast rate with over 800 venues in England now offering the sport and over 50,000 people now playing.

Since joining Pickleball Central UK in Shrewsbury in 2022, Edwards Pereira has won a host of competitions - scooping gold in the Singles European Championship coupled with gold in the Mixed Doubles alongside his sister Sabrina in 2022. 

He repeated the feat in the Singles in the under-16 category the following year and struck gold again in the Doubles alongside Ewan Skilicorn 

Hailing from a tennis and footballing background, Edwards-Pereira has trained under Pickleball Central founder Fiona Edwards for the past four years. 

"It's fantastic to be behind someone who has got that sort of talent," Edwards said. 

"He has got natural and athletic talent, and he has just found something that he really loves. I've just helped develop that really. 

"The club has been behind him and he has always been around older adults playing whether that's tennis or pickleball. 

"So as a community that's really brought him on. The group is thrilled that he's the first person to be offered the opportunity to go and train as a pro." 

Pickleball Central have helped launch a GoFundMe page to help support his journey to the USA in 2025/26, which can be found here.

Councillor Susan Coleman HAS supported the project to set-up The West Midlands Academy in order for athletes like Edwards Pereira to have access to dedicated pickleball courts to train.

Edwards-Pereira will also competed alongside a number of his fellow Pickleball Central members at the Pickleball English Open last week.