Teri Clemens won seven national championships in a legendary 14-year span as a Washington University volleyball coach. Then she had to retire as her health deteriorated. But that wasn't the end of her sports career. Instead, at 67, she returned to become a national champion in pickleball.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
I went from athlete to coach to athlete. This is kind of crazy, but when I was a kid, even in high school, I remember having a recurring thought that — "Oh, no, what's going to happen to me because when I get "old," all the other women aren't going to be playing sports." I was looking at my grandma at the time, and she wasn't playing sports. And I thought, ‘What am I going to do? Because I'm going to still have this competitiveness inside of me, and I'm not going to be able to play.’ It really struck a nerve back then. Now I am 67 and the age my grandma was at the time, and I'm highly competitive and able to play. Thank God for the medical society because I was so sick for so many years.
What happened when you were sick?
When I was young, I drank turpentine by accident, and it scarred my lungs, and it came back to haunt me with repeated pneumonia — and not just light pneumonia but very serious. I was on a respirator 13 times and [had] 24 blood clots. You name it, I had it. I had pulmonary embolisms. I had massive blood infections, MRSA infections — too many for me even to remember. I'm gonna guess I spent 135 days a year in the hospital for about eight years. I finally had to retire from coaching because of my health. Otherwise, I'd probably still be coaching and not playing pickleball.
Pickleball was a blessing for me because I always missed coaching. Something in my blood, you know, I'm a coach. "I'm born to coach" is kind of how I feel. I love competing. I love coaching. When I lost coaching, a part of my heart went with it. I was fortunate — I had six kids, and now I have a lot of grandkids, and that was all really important to me. But I also lost a part of my heart when I lost that. Then to find pickleball, many years later, is just an everyday joy for me.
How did you become able to play competitive pickleball?
When I got at my very worst, my doctor found a medicine in [Canada], like an [IV administered] chemotherapy-type drug, that was having a good effect. I had to go to Canada because it wasn't FDA-approved here. I was on it for a year. During that year, it really wrecked my body so much that I had to still be on really high steroids. The combination of it all made me not be able to walk for almost a year. I was in a wheelchair. At one time, they did a muscle biopsy of my leg and told me I would never walk again.
Well, long story short, obviously they were wrong. I was learning to walk, and they were like, "Don't stop once you learn to walk." I was afraid to stop. So then I started running. Since I love to compete, I ran 5ks, then 10ks, then I ran four half marathons. I was like, "I'm gonna run a marathon." I'm not a runner by any means. But I wanted to achieve it. When I ran the [Cincinnati marathon nine years ago], that was when I said, "OK, I can compete again." That's when I knew I was OK, and I was an athlete.
So you're retired, right?I'm retired except for I've been teaching pickleball at Missouri Pickleball Club for the last seven months. And I just told them, I'm going to hang it up. Because I want to focus more on my playing than my teaching, but I will still serve as an advisor to coaches.
What’s the difference between casually playing and really competitively playing like yourself?
Pickleball has a rating system, so if you're just casually playing, you could be 4.0 or under. So it goes — 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5. So you could enter a tournament at 3.0 or you can enter a tournament at 4.55 and that's really competitive — the pros are 6.0. So I play at 4.55. There are a ton of us nationally but not a ton of us in St. Louis, at that age, that play at that level. It's a sport where 20-year-olds can play 60-year-olds. I'm 67 now, and I can play 20 and 30-year-olds because you don't cover as much court as you do a tennis court. And the strategy is all-encompassing. You've got to have quick hands and hit the shots but you have to be a strategist also. When we play a young team, we like to say it's wisdom versus youth.
Is the goal professional? Or what's the goal?
For me? No. No, not at my age. If I was 20, oh yeah, I’d have those aspirations for sure. But I found the sport late and so, no, I don't have professional aspirations. But my goal is to compete at the highest level I can and win nationals. That's really been my goal — to maintain that level.
Do you have a trophy case?
No, I'm not a real big displayer of my history. I have a nice ring box with seven rings in it [from volleyball]. I willed one for each kid. I have six kids, and I had one made for my husband. If you walked in my house, you wouldn't know I was a coach. You would know I was a grandma.
Really? You don't show your competitive side in there?
Nope. I probably have over 100 metals from pickleball. And they’re in a trash bag in the garage.
Like going into the trash?
They’re not going to the trash. But they're hanging on a peg in the garage, and I just add to it.
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