It’s 5:30 p.m. on a Wednesday and after working a full day for an alcohol distribution company, Will Howells is just getting to his neighborhood pickleball courts to begin his training for the day.
After three months of training with no days off and six grueling weeks that included three APP Tour events and the Minto US Open Pickleball Championships, this is Howells’ first day back to the courts after giving his body a mandatory three days of rest. His weeknight practices run about three hours on average and, depending on the day, include drilling and playing with other Boca Raton locals. Dinner will be consumed after practice around 9:00 p.m. and tomorrow, just like every other day during the week, will be the same. On the weekends, Howells typically doubles up his practice schedule, getting time on the court once in the morning and again in the evening.
“I’m a little psychotic about that,” Howells admits, regarding his rigorous practice schedule. “I feel like someone else could be doing it and getting better while I’m not.”
Training every day isn’t necessarily abnormal for a professional athlete, but the obvious anomaly with Howells is his day job.
Howells graduated from Notre Dame in 2021 with a degree in finance. Upon graduation he was recruited by the E. & J. Gallo Winery into a leadership development program where he worked as a sales representative, and was based in Milwaukee for two years. Wanting to return home to Florida, he was granted a transfer in February of 2023 and has been working as a field sales manager for Breakthru Beverage, based in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Howells oversees five area sales representatives and holds a WSET Level 2 Award in Wines.
“I saw myself in sales for sure. Maybe not necessarily the wine industry, but I think it’s a good path and they were always good to me,” comments Howells on his career path thus far.
Upon returning home to Boca Raton, he was introduced to pickleball by a friend, Marshall Rickey, who dragged him to Caloosa Park in Boynton Beach where he met Andrew Loftin. Loftin introduced Howells to Marisa Ruiz who eventually became his first mixed doubles partner, and the two began playing local tournaments together.
Pickleball wasn’t a far stretch for Howells after playing tennis for almost 20 years.
Originally from Richmond, Virginia, and the youngest of four siblings, Howells was four years old when his older sister was taking tennis lessons at the club the Howells belonged to. One day, he decided to hit tennis balls against a wall while waiting, and his parents, Elizabeth and Hank, decided to get him lessons. His talent was apparent quickly and soon he was traveling for 12-and-under tournaments. When he was 12, he gave up other sports to pursue tennis more seriously, and a year later, moved to Florida to live with a host family so he could attend an elite training academy. Elizabeth and Hank moved to Florida a year after that so Will could continue his training, and in 2015 he was a men’s doubles finalist at the 16-and-under USTA National Hard Court Championships.
Howells earned a tennis scholarship and played all four years at Notre Dame, where he was twice named the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Week and was ranked in the Top 50 in singles by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. By the time he graduated in 2021 though, after a broken ankle sidelined him for part of his senior year, Howells knew he was done with tennis.
“It takes a lot to play the same sport for 15 years in a row, four or five hours a day. It makes it tough,” explains the 25-year-old Howells. “You need to make sure you don’t burn out and that you’re still loving what you do. So I’m happy with pickleball because I feel like I’m enjoying playing again and competing.”
The 2023 APP Sunmed St. Louis Open in August was Howells’ first introduction to the APP pro scene and he finished in the top 10 in both singles and men’s doubles, which gave him the confidence to know that he could compete at the top level. In men’s doubles, he and Nico Acevedo lost to CJ Klinger and Andre Mick, who eventually won gold, 14-12 in a third game.
“I was looking at this and I was like, I’ve only been playing this for six months, and this is the pro level. I’m basically at the level where I can win tournaments, and that’s how I felt,” Howells concedes. “I lost by two points to these guys and they ended up winning the tournament. So it gave me a lot of confidence going into the next few.”
Howells continued to make progress on the APP Tour during the later part of 2023, with fourth and fifth place finishes in men’s pro doubles, in addition to gaining confidence from being able to go the distance with Andrei Daescu and Rob Nunnery, arguably the top men’s pro doubles team at the time.
In 2024, it didn’t take long for Howells to start seeing his long days and practice hours start to pay off. He and CJ Klinger won gold in men’s pro doubles at the 2024 APP Punta Gorda Open, the first APP Tour stop of the year, where he also took home a bronze medal with Bobbi Oshiro in mixed pro doubles.
“I had a month-and-a-half off in between tournaments at the end of December and January, and came into that tournament pretty fired up and ready to go and knowing what I was capable of,” Howells recalls. “I felt really confident with CJ and knew that the dynamic we had was really good, and I got to play with Bobbi Oshiro for the first time - she’s a great player and an awesome person.”
At this point, managing a full-time job and professional pickleball is beginning to resemble a juggling act. Howells only has 15 days of paid time off at work each year and every tournament he plays, depending on the number of events he participates in, subtracts from that number. Being that for the pros, singles is typically played on Thursday, mixed doubles on Friday and gender doubles on Saturday, Howells hadn’t played singles since St. Louis because singles qualifiers are played on Wednesday and that would mean taking off work starting Tuesday for travel purposes.
It doesn’t take a finance major to figure out that this wasn’t making a ton of sense.
A big break came for Howells when he was awarded a wild card entry in singles for the 2024 APP Sacramento Open, which meant he didn’t have to play the qualifier on Wednesday and was entered into the main draw on Thursday. Howells made the most of the wild card and converted it into his first pro singles title when he beat Jack Foster in an electric three-game Championship Sunday match in front a standing-room-only crowd at Johnson Ranch Pickleball Complex.
Howells also won a silver medal in men’s pro doubles in Sacramento with JW Johnson, and since then added another silver with Ryler DeHeart in Miami, and won a bronze in singles at the 2024 APP Vlasic Classic - Delray Beach in front of a hometown crowd.
Four tournaments into the APP season, Howells has medaled in each one - six total medals - is closing in on a Top-10 APP singles ranking, and is no longer in need of any wild cards.
Instead, he holds his own cards and has decided to play a new hand. He submitted his resignation just after winning bronze in Delray Beach, and May 3rd will be his last day at Breakthru Beverage.
“I’ve just been performing really well. I feel pretty confident performing at the highest level every time and I wanted to be able to devote more time to being able to play and to be able to practice and really hone in on developing my game and the best way to do that is to be able to go all in and only have to focus on playing,” expresses Howells on his decision to move to pickleball full-time.
Being surrounded by a supportive cast will be hugely beneficial for Howells as he begins this new chapter. His boss, whom Howells considers a friend, knew this time would eventually come, and has been understanding, not only in losing an employee, but also over the past eight months with allowing Howells the time off that he needed to compete. Hank and Elizabeth, who have always stood by Will’s decisions and have been present at all the Florida APP Tour stops this year, are also in his corner and have made it clear that they will support their son in whatever he decides is best.
Raised in a close-knit family, in addition to being a top-level athlete for most of his life, Howells already has the professionalism down, which is evidenced by his on-court etiquette. No matter the outcome, he’ll remove his hat prior to post-match paddle taps, and he always shakes hands and thanks the referees after every match. He is also prepared for the mental battles he knows he’ll inevitably face.
“Learning how to lose is a big thing,” asserts Howells, who’s gained discipline and time management skills from playing sports. “In team sports, you don’t lose nearly as much as you do in tennis and pickleball. In tennis you’re losing like every single week and same with pickleball, you’re losing almost every week. You have to learn how to take that, use that, and grow from that. That’s probably the biggest thing.”
There are only a few more of these post-work weeknight practices left, because after May 3rd there will be a lot of change in Howells’ life with respect to time, focus, and training. One thing that is certain, though, is that he’s already taken the first - and perhaps the biggest - step in ensuring success as a professional pickleball player.
Will Howells bet on himself.
