After obtaining a bachelor's degree in physical education and health from the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater, KaSandra Gehrke thought she had life figured out. She was teaching physical education and coaching volleyball and basketball in Mazomanie, Wisconsin, not far from the town of Marshall where she grew up. One of the sports she discovered and subsequently began teaching her students was pickleball.
“I became obsessed with it, just like everybody else does,” recalls Gehrke, who ended up winning her first-ever pickleball tournament she entered at the local YMCA.
In 2018, three years after her teaching career began, she quit her job to become a full-time pickleball pro.
At the time, quitting a regular job to become a professional pickleball player wasn’t a decision that many people were making. But Gehrke made it work for herself. She taught clinics all over the United States and played in as many pro tournaments as she could. She won a bronze medal at the US Open in 2019 and has added a couple of APP women’s pro doubles bronze medals to her collection.
In 2022, Gehrke found herself going through a rough time in her personal life. Aside from teaching her own camps and clinics she was also assisting other pros with their pickleball camps, but she was ready for more from the sport.
“I was down in the dumps and I’m like ‘I need to do something different. What can I do in this pickleball space that is going to make me happier?’” Explains Gehrke, now 35.
That’s when she came up with the idea to create a women’s only pickleball brand, and in January of 2023, Empowher Pickleball was born. Boasting an impressive calendar of pickleball retreats, camps and clinics exclusively for women, Empowher is a community for players of all levels, and the transformative events are tailored to each participant. Each event is designed to improve not only a participant’s pickleball game, but also create lasting memories.
“We have two-day camps that we do and then we also do week-long retreats,” says Gehrke, who manages a staff of 10. “We have eight retreats next year and probably about 30 camps.”
Continues Gehrke: “It just goes by, the minutes, because you know how it goes when you’re hanging out with your girlfriends, it’s a blast and it’s awesome. It’s a different vibe and I had no idea how much I truly needed it. So funny enough, here I am, let me empower women, and they’re actually doing that for me as well.”
Gehrke prides herself on making her retreats not just about pickleball, but more the entire experience. It’s important to her that at her events, women are in a safe space where they can be themselves, share their vulnerabilities, and leave with new friends.
“It’s making women better on and off the court,” asserts Gehrke, who is just fine with the fact that she now has a little less time to train and compete professionally in tournaments.
When Gehrke heard about the APP Women’s Open Presented by The James, she knew she had to be involved in this first-of-its-kind event that was created exclusively to ignite the growth of the women’s game, and connect women in support of a common cause – breast cancer awareness.
“Just combining a space where these women are going to be able to come in and have this type of experience, whether it’s on the tournament side, whether it’s the vendors, whether it’s the activities that are ran there - and on top of that you have all your bad-ass women of pickleball like Melissa McCurley and the people that have been around the space for a while involved in this - I think it’s going to be very inspiring for anyone that shows up,” gushes Gehrke, who is bringing all 10 members of her team to Columbus, Ohio for this unprecedented event.
Gehrke reached out to the APP and requested to be involved in any way possible, and is now an official ambassador for the APP Women’s Open Presented by the James. Thus far she has collaborated with the APP on social messaging and will also promote women in the sport during the event.
The split age event at the APP Women’s Open Presented by the James is one that many participants are looking forward to as it’s a rare opportunity to play with partners that are normally inaccessible due to age differences. Gehrke is no different, and she is particularly thrilled about being able to play with one of the coaches on her staff, Cristie Sharpsteen, because playing at that level together isn’t something they get to enjoy often.
The Empowher staff is spread out all over the country, and while they will all be on-site in Columbus, only about half are competing in the tournament. They have an AirBnB that will function as home base for a week of bonding, and the ladies are pumped about getting to cheer each other on, producing content, welcoming autumn with flannel shirts, and basically just celebrating ‘girlhood,’ as they say.
One of the most special parts of Gehrke’s Empowher endeavors is that she gets to share everything with her mom, who learned to play pickleball so she could spend more time with her daughter. Wendy Mattie is quite the entertainer and known to be the life of the party. She and Gehrke share a close bond and are able to have fun together on the Empowher trips. Mattie is also competing at the APP Women’s Open Presented by the James with Julie Germann, Empowher ‘s retreat coordinator.
At the conclusion of their time in Columbus, part of the Empowher team will leave directly for Turks and Caicos, the site of their next two week-long retreats, where they will continue to share their passion, their sport, and their message.
“The main thing that I like to portray with Empowher is to just be you, whatever that looks like. Don’t worry about what anyone else thinks because at the end of the day no one else’s opinion matters more than your own, so if you like what you’ve got goin on, spread that love everywhere.”
