Top pickleball pros bring their game to Sussex County

Pickleball professionals Ben Johns, a University of Maryland student, and Christine McGrath, of Temecula, Calif., could fill a room with the hardware they have won – and they are relative newcomers to the popular sport, playing about three years. They have won as a team as well, taking mixed-doubles gold in the 2018 Golden State Championships. The two have dominated action in the U.S. Open in their respective age groups. Both come from tennis backgrounds.

Johns, 19, and McGrath, 32, offered a series of clinics Aug. 13 at the indoor complex at Sports at the Beach in Georgetown. They played an exhibition match the next day at the courts in Lewes Canalfront Park. The event was organized by Jeff Sozio, who lives in Colorado and has relatives in Lewes, and Sue Ingram Keller, his mother, and Bert Keller. Sozio, also a newcomer to the sport, won a gold medal in the 2018 U.S. Open in the nonprofessional division.