Founder & Chief Pickleball Officer
My name is Jeff Matusow. I grew up in New Hampshire playing soccer, water polo, skiing, and a lot of tennis. After college I moved to NYC and spent 30 years on Wall Street. When the pandemic hit my family relocated to Sherman, CT on the shores of Candlewood Lake.
During Covid I discovered pickleball and quickly traded my tennis racquet for a pickleball paddle. I fell in love with the sport and opened The Pickleball Barn in Brewster, NY in the fall of 2022. In June, 2025 we moved to our current location in Somers, NY.
The Pickleball Barn is a thriving hub for pickleball players of all ages, sexes and abilities to come together to enjoy the greatest game on Earth. See you on the courts!
Program Director & Instructor
I grew up in Connecticut, where I was always outside and playing sports, especially basketball. When I was 16, I moved to Utah and eventually attended BYU, where I studied English teaching. After college, I spent six years teaching before moving into the world of after-school programs and summer camps.
After spending years out West, I decided it was time to get back to my East Coast roots and moved back two years ago. That’s when I found The Pickleball Barn and met Jeff, who was kind enough to bring me onto the pickleball team. What started as a new adventure quickly turned into something I really loved!
Today, I help plan and run the Barn’s programming and became a pickleball instructor in 2025. Teaching has always been something I’m passionate about, so getting to combine teaching with pickleball has been a perfect fit.
I love pickleball because it has a little bit of everything—it’s social, competitive, fun, and no matter how good you get, there’s always something new to learn and improve!
Instructor
My name is Kristin, aka Coach Kiki. I grew up splashing around Candlewood Lake and playing every sport I could—soccer, swimming, baseball, and softball. Eventually, I fell in love with basketball and played for four years at Salve Regina University in Newport, RI.
After college I spent eight years in San Diego, where I rediscovered my love of surfing and signed up for just about every road race, half marathon or triathlon I could find. My husband and I moved back to CT, and in 2021 we signed up for our first pickleball tournament— I was hooked! I loved the competition, the strategy, and the feeling that I was back on the basketball court again.
One of the things I love most about sports is that improving yourself as an adult can bring you right back to your childlike self. Pickleball is fun, competitive, challenging, and incredibly social, making it a sport that truly has something for everyone.
When Jeff opened the Pickleball Barn, I found myself playing more and more and quickly realized I wanted to share my passion for the game with others. I knew I would make a great coach! I continued refining my own skills through drilling and competitive play while also taking courses to deepen my knowledge of the sport, its strategies, and its rules.
Today, I love teaching others how to play pickleball, build confidence, and develop a strong, effective soft game—while still embracing the power and athleticism that make pickleball so much fun. My goal is to help players improve their game while making sure they enjoy the process!
Eat, Breath, Dink!
Instructor
My name is Ed Yee aka Coach Ed. I grew up in West Haven, CT and attended Cornell University to get an engineering degree. For most of my life I worked in the field of computer systems and technology at major corporations including General Motors, IBM, NBC, National Semiconductor and PepsiCo. After college I learned how to play tennis and eventually became a teaching pro at two tennis clubs in Michigan. I also played on two USTA men's teams at the National Championships in Arizona after winning the Eastern Sectional Championships two years in a row. When I'm not on a court, I also enjoy golf and bowling.
After retiring from PepsiCo in 2020, I became a certified pickleball instructor for the Pickleball Barn. I teach private lessons and clinics focusing on strategy as well as technique in my lessons. My experience teaching tennis allows me to evaluate a person's technique and then choose the proper drills and words to bring about improvement. But most of all I make my lessons fun and comfortable for my students, so they can enjoy the experience.
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.