I had the opportunity to sit down with Ryan Harwood and talk about the MLP draft, Anna Leigh Waters and why YOU should be a fan of the 5's!. Here's what he had to say:
ONE37pm: Tell me a little bit about how excited you were when you found out the 5's had the 1st pick in the draft?
Ryan Harwood: When I found out I had the number one pick in the draft in the newly merged league, I was ecstatic! It was pretty clear there was a dominant female player and a dominant male player and I had my pick of those. It was just incredibly exciting to be able to build the team around one of those personalities and players.
ONE37pm: With your choice of every available player, you selected Anna Leigh Waters. Tell me what it was about her–besides her obvious talent–that led you to select her 1st overall.
Ryan Harwood: I selected Anna Leigh Waters for a number of reasons. Number one, she’s by far the most dominant female. She triple crowns almost every single time and when I looked at the field of the women's vs. the men's side there’s a pretty big drop-off. There was more depth on the men's side. A wise man once told me “you’re only as good as your weakest link”, so if Anna Leigh Waters is playing the left hand side with a strong male, the sky's the limit. I don’t see them getting beat. It was a no brainer to shore up the female side of the lineup. Also she’s fifteen years old, she has an incredible personality and a great head on her shoulders. Even as dominant as she is now, she has that much more potential for growth.
ONE37pm: How cool is it that pickleball is such an inclusive sport, in all age ranges and genders, that a 15-year-old female was selected with the top pick?!
Ryan Harwood: It’s pretty spectacular that a fifteen year old girl can be selected with the number one pick and then you also have someone in their forties being selected in the top ten. All sizes, genders, races, ages, demographics, it’s such an inclusive sport and the fact they can all compete together is awesome.
ONE37pm: Was the experience in this year's draft more exciting than last year, with a larger pool of players due to the merger with Vibe/PPA?
Ryan Harwood: The experience in this year’s draft was more exciting than last year for a couple reasons. One is I had a year under my belt. Now I understood the sport better and also understood a lot of the players and the dynamics. Who I thought subjectively was underrated vs overrated and that’s fun. I equate this to fantasy football where you get really excited to do that draft, except in this instance there's table stakes involved. Yes, the larger pool of players made it that much more interesting to see how strong the teams are. Every single team is strong because you had the top half of the strongest MLP players and the top half of the strongest PPA players and now all of the sudden every team feels like a super team. It’s gonna be fun and competitive and I can’t wait to see.
ONE37pm: Tell us a bit more about your full roster including the other players you drafted after Waters.
Ryan Harwood: After Anna Leigh I had the 24th and 25th pick. I selected James Ignatowich. I watched James play a few times last year at MLP and I thought he was incredibly exciting as a personality and a talent. Word on the street is that the kid just continues to improve every single day. He works his ass off. I think he’s a tremendous talent. I also know he plays well with Anna Leigh, they practice together and having that chemistry and friendship is important. Lea Jansen, I think she dropped way too far in the draft. She’s a top ranked female player in the PPA and I was thrilled to get her at the 25th pick. The final pick was super interesting. I had the 48th pick and ultimately I had to do what I thought was best and really listen to the players. I gathered as much information as possible and my players were very bullish on drafting Hayden. He’s 17 years old and he’s improving on the daily. He had a great run at the end of 2022 medaling at several tournaments. I think we’re only on the up and up.
ONE37pm: What would you say to a new pickleball fan who is trying to figure out which team to root for? Give us your quick pitch on why the 5's should be that team.
Ryan Harwood: My pitch on why you shoot root for The 5’s is that we have the best owners in the sport, we have the most exciting players in the sport, we have the best social media and content output in the sport, and we care. If you take a look and go to these tournaments, the competitive clowns, from the VeeFriends side of things, come out and cheer. We are building a real brand around The 5’s. We get rowdy, we get live, we like to have fun, so come join us.
