Meet Pickleball Club President David Wong!

Five years ago, after raising their family, David and Hoa Wong downsized and moved to The Villages. For 40 years he worked in the field of education, first as an educational psychologist, district administrator, and then principal. He ended his career as an adjunct faculty in psychology at Evergreen before retiring June 2024. 

For his first two years at The Villages, he walked their dog, Daisy, twice a day for over three miles daily, passing the pickleball courts on his rounds. He wanted to get back into some type of consistent cardio exercise and decided to try pickleball three years ago. As with many of us, he started out taking a lesson from Mike Walias, then joining the beginner drop-in group play and cycling through the levels. 

As David learned the game, he also found that pickleball was a great way to connect with a lot of very nice people. It becomes a new social group; and helps you develop a strong network of friends and players. Michelle McQuay and Joyce Kludt persuaded him to join the board, he felt it was a way for him to contribute more to pickleball than just playing. He enjoys all the activities and social events and knows how much time, dedication and work that is done by players in the background.

Now we can talk about what he really loves to do—go fishing! Before he and Hoa had children, he went fishing regularly, it was his #1 outside priority for six years, which was set aside when the kids came into the picture. Now he is back with a passion, lake fishing for catfish, striper and trout, shore fishing for perch, deep sea fishing trips for rock cod, halibut, petrale sole and ling cod, and sometimes even going on multi day trips out of San Diego for albacore and yellowtail. 

If you haven’t met David, when you see him, introduce yourself. He is a warm, wonderful person with a wicked sense of humor!