Regina athlete excited to play in Canadian National Pickleball League

Anna Dyachenko will soon be facing the best pickleball players Canada has to offer.

The 36-year-old athlete, who calls Regina home, was selected in the second round of the 2025 Canadian National Pickleball League’s draft by the Vancouver Rush.

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“It’s very exciting. I’m going to be dedicating time to practice and training to make sure that I am as ready as I can be. Very often we focus on the physical part of the game, so getting your body ready physically to compete, but a lot of it is going to come down to mental toughness as well,” Dyachenko said.

“I’m not used to seeing so many good players in one spot at the same time, so I might find that it is overwhelming at times to be competing with that skill level. But I feel that with each time I step on the court and I face that stiff competition, it’s gonna make me a better player.”

The CNPL, which was created in 2023, features eight different teams. The 2025 season starts on Saturday as the Rush takes on the Montreal Lions.

Dyachenko is originally from Kazakhstan, and before pickleball she played semi-pro basketball for Royal Holloway University. She met her husband Mark McCulloch while she was in Europe, resulting in the move to Regina.

Anna Dyachenko has won plenty of gold medals at pickleball tournaments in Canada and in the U.S. (Britton Gray/980 CJME)

But her pickleball journey actually started in Phoenix, when she was visiting her husband’s family.

“Eleven years ago I went to check out the local community, and they had pickleball as one of their clubs. My mother in law was actually interested in it more so than me, and she said ‘Why don’t you go check it out? You let me know if you like it, and if it’s worthwhile, I’ll come and join,’” Dyachenko said.

“I think it took her the next seven years to actually come out, and I got hooked and never looked back.”

So what was it about the sport that she fell in love with?

“It’s the fact that you can pick it up very quickly, so you can understand the rules. It doesn’t take a whole lot of athleticism to be a good player, and because you can learn the basics of the game fast, you get going very fast,” Dyachenko said.

“Getting better, though, at this game, it will take a lot of practice times and a lot of skill, but the fact that you can learn the game in under 20 minutes, that’s awesome.

Dyachenko said she enjoys the social elements of the game as well.

“Honestly, sometimes when I come here and I watch people play, they probably visit almost as much as they play,” she said. “It’s a very social aspect.

“For me, after I moved to Regina, I met so many people through pickleball. I think I know a majority of people in Regina through pickleball. We’ve got such a welcoming, friendly community that it’s just awesome to be a part of.”

Dyachenko has seen the sport go from about 25 people playing at the city’s leisure centres to exploding in popularity with the creation of the Regina Pickleball Hub. She’s started to coach players as well.

“I started coaching at about the same time that I started playing it more competitively. So I started playing 11 years ago, but for the first six years it was very recreational – coming out once, twice a week, and playing with just recreational players,” Dyachenko said.

Then four years ago, a friend convinced her to try and give the competitive side of the sport a try.

“As I started getting more competitive and pursuing becoming a better player, all of a sudden, people started asking me for help and for advice as to how they could become better players. And so my competitive player journey and my coaching journey started at about the same time,” Dyachenko said.

She has won gold medals at plenty of events, including Canadian nationals.

The CNPL was created in an effort to replicate the success of Major League Pickleball in the U.S. and to get the top players from across Canada to compete against each other.

“All our good players are scattered, and we only ever get together at certain tournaments,” Dyachenko said.

“But even then, the country is so big that players from Quebec don’t always travel to B.C., and then B.C. doesn’t always make it to Ontario. So the idea was to bring the best players together and organize them into teams.”

She was asked to participate in the league’s inaugural season, but decided against it in order to stay at home with her son Kai.

“Too many responsibilities, too many commitments. I had a young child that I felt guilty leaving at home and just juggling a handful of jobs, so I kept telling myself that I have too much on my plate. Until this year, I just decided to go for it and do it nevertheless, because it’s a great opportunity to see the best of the best in Canada,” Dyachenko said.

The league now pays for travel for the athletes, and the teams can earn prize money depending on how well they do at the events.

“It all comes down to the final event, the playoffs, so we’ll see which team will come up on top,” Dyachenko said.

She said she’s excited to get the season underway.

“Some people don’t even take it seriously because of the name, but the sport is exploding,” she said.

“It’s the fastest-growing sport in North America, and it’s awesome. Another great thing about the sport is that the average age of a player is going down fast. The youngest player that was drafted into this season is 13 years old, so that’s just outstanding.”