Local Couple Begins "Just Playing For Fun" Divorce Proceedings During Mixed Doubles League

GREENWOOD — What began in January as a “healthy shared hobby” officially entered what league members described Tuesday as “an administrative separation phase” after local couple Brian and Melissa Kearns requested placement on separate mixed doubles rosters for the upcoming summer session.

League organizers confirmed the request arrived less than twelve hours after the couple lost a three-game semifinal in which witnesses reported “multiple incidents of corrective mid-rally communication.”

“Melissa has a very active pointing style,” Brian Kearns explained after the match. “At one point she pointed before I hit the ball. I still don’t fully understand the timing of that.”

Melissa disputed the characterization and stated that Brian “continues to struggle with anticipatory movement despite repeated discussions.”

Players on adjacent courts confirmed tensions escalated late in the third game after Brian attempted a speed-up directly into the net before announcing, “I thought you were shifting.”

“No one was shifting,” said teammate Carla Mendez. “The point had barely started.”

The couple, married 19 years, began playing pickleball together in 2023 after what Melissa described as “a difficult Peloton phase.” Since then, league records show the pair has:

• withdrawn from one tournament mid-bracket,
• stopped carpooling to rec play,
• and separately requested not to partner with each other during randomized round robins.

Brian maintains the issues are strategic.

Melissa maintains they are “much larger than that.”

At press time, both players had independently signed up for Tuesday intermediate open play and listed “competitive communication” as an area of personal growth.