Danny Jensen was a beast on the soccer field during his 4-year career at Ohio State University. The former Buckeye still ranks in the school’s Top 10 for goals, assists, and points. He was already training with professional teams during the summers and in talks at the professional level when he suffered a major concussion in his senior year. It was the fifth time in his college career he had such an injury.
“I got kicked in the face and had a lot of damage. I had to get facial reconstructive surgery. It ended my soccer career,” Jensen said.
Jensen would finish college and try to readjust to life without the rigid schedule of a competitive sport to play. He graduated with a Business degree and worked in sales in Columbus, Ohio when Covid began to shut things down.
“I got an opportunity right in the middle of Covid to move down to Phoenix Arizona, where my family had just recently relocated. I decided I was going to move down there. I’ll be closer to family,” he said.
He arrived in Arizona in January, and the sun was a welcome friend to Jensen, who admittedly had not been a fan of the winters in the Midwest. He settled into his new job and enjoyed the weather and being near his loved ones, but he still missed athletics.
“I was just doing my sales job and nothing else. It was July 5, 2021, when that changed. I stepped on the pickleball court for the first time,” he said.
A friend mentioned the game at work, and Jensen showed up alone at Herberger Park. He had never played tennis or any racquet sport, and the result on the court was humbling. The experience still led him to fall in love with the game.
“Pickleball is so fun in that you can just join random games. You just put your paddle up, and you can just join a game. I spent the first week just getting annihilated. I was this former Division I athlete, probably a little overconfident, and I was probably even like, these guys aren’t going to beat me. Well, my eyes got opened fast. These people knew everything. They were working me,” he said.
After spending that first week most often confused and humbled he saw pickleball as a wonderful challenge and decided he wanted to learn everything he could to play better.
“I don’t know if it’s a positive or negative quality of mine, but I don’t do anything halfway. When I jump into it, I go all the way. So after that first week, I booked a pickleball lesson just because I needed to figure out what the heck was going on. I bought a ball machine for $1,000 and 200 balls. This was after one week solid of getting slaughtered,” he said.
Jensen developed friendships and partners fast. He traveled for work so he took his ball machine everywhere, training if he couldn’t find a game. As a result, he was getting better fast.
“So quickly, I realize I love this game. I genuinely love it. I think it’s so much fun. I’m meeting some amazing people through it. And I’m thinking I’m getting good as time passes,” he said.
He turned his attention to how to play more through group chats and drilled when he could, eventually getting invites to private courts.
“I sat down and created more of a training schedule to where I would play all the time, as much as I possibly could, upwards of 6 to 8 hours a day. I woke up at 5 a.m. to get on the courts, which you can do in Phoenix. I was going back to the courts at night,” he said.
His hard work paid off, and he was soon connected to groups that pushed him to a high level. Jensen took second place at the 4.5 level within one year of starting pickleball. He judges his progress beyond DUPR or self-assessment. He pays close attention to who is willing to work with him and asks him to play.
“It’s hard to judge your growth at a certain point. You’re like, am I getting better? Am I not? But I always say, which partners are asking you to play in tournaments? That’s a good indicator that you’re getting better. People, as better players, love playing with better players. Also, our group in Phoenix is crazy serious. We travel around the country, and we play. And on Sundays, we watch championships. Right now I would choose to watch pickleball over any sport,” he said.
It is the mindset of a young player hungry to be a champion and obsessed with growth that the soccer star has connected to pickleball. There is little time for other things. If he isn’t playing, he is practicing. If he isn’t doing that, he can still watch video. Jensen is also to the point where he can consider the next level.
“I wouldn’t consider myself to be a pro yet. My definition of pro is that you have more money coming in than going out through pickleball. It’s going to take me a bit longer for that. I wouldn’t say I need a living to be considered a pro, but I would want more money coming in than going out,” he said.
Jensen believes one must win professional prize money to be defined as a pickleball pro and has set that goal for himself.
Things have been moving in the right direction. He was recently asked to partner with Craig Johnson, who he considers one of the best players in Arizona, and he has a sponsorship with Apollo Performance Socks. He wants to defeat a Top 8 team in the world within the next year and play pickleball full-time at some point.
He realizes he has set the bar high for himself, but he also will not stop practicing and playing, even if it means hitting balls against the outside wall of a hotel when he is traveling for work. He loves the game, the people, and having a competitive purpose.
