Pickle Yard Conference League Opens Season 2 with Eight Franchises and An International Roster
The Pickle Yard Conference League (PYCL) is back for a second season, and this time its talent pool reaches well past Metro Manila.
PYCL Season 2 opens on October 24 at The Pickle Yard SOMO. This year’s league has eight corporate franchise teams, newcomers from the Visayas and Mindanao, and players from the United States, Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore. The season will run for about two and a half months.
Eight franchises, six of them new
Two teams return from the inaugural season: the Cebuana Lhuillier Gems and the Dentacare Pearly Whites.
Six new franchises join them: the Cartivo Movers, Thrifty Drivers, Dreamskin Radiants, Konjac Zero Phoenix Force, Black Mamba Aces, and GFOXX Paragon.
Six new corporate backers in a single offseason shows how fast pickleball has caught on in the country, and how much the business side wants a piece of it.
A national tryout to find new names
Before the season, Pickle Yard took its talent search on the road with the PYCL National Tryout. It was run with more than 16 pickleball court partners around the Philippines.
The point was to give players outside the capital a real shot at a league spot. Several of those finds from the Visayas and Mindanao will now share the court with established local players and foreign imports. The league is pitching this as the first step toward a truly national competition.
International players join the field
The US group is the largest in the international pool. It includes Amore Joelle Cook (Florida), Nicolas De Jesus Almeida (Delray Beach, Florida), Cody Ryan Temple (Phoenix, Arizona), Roberto Alexander Guzman (Huntington Station, New York), Noah Michael Torres (Lauderhill, Florida), and Jonas Valdez (Oregon).
Rounding out the roster are Aaron Johnson of New South Wales, Australia, Malaysia’s Sabrina Gee, and Singapore’s Ben Ngoi.
For Filipino players, especially the tryout graduates, it’s a chance to test their game against players from bigger pickleball scenes without leaving home.
Crystal Mildwaters and Mikar Fisher named Pickle Yard ambassadors
Season 2 also launches Pickle Yard’s brand ambassador program. Both picks came over from tennis with serious résumés.
Crystal Mildwaters, a Filipino-Australian based in Queensland, is the league’s brand ambassadress. In ten years of competitive tennis, she won the Australian Grasscourt National Championship and two Philippine Andrada Cup national titles, and earned her first WTA point at 15.
She switched to pickleball in January 2025 and turned pro right away. In about 18 months she has:
- won two National Pickleball League (NPL) titles in Australia
- been named the NPL’s Most Improved Player for 2025
- gone first overall in the shuffle draft of the 2025 MLP Australia Challenger
She also captains the 2026 Opals and holds a 5.128 doubles DUPR rating. Off the court, she teaches high school English full time and runs her own overgrip brand, Choice Pickleball.
Mikar Fisher, a British-Filipino pro who trains in Vietnam, joins as brand ambassador. He played tennis for 20 years, was a two-time Collegiate All-American and a 2022 collegiate national champion, and earned ATP ranking points before moving to pickleball.
He turned pro in February 2026 and has 16 podium finishes this year. They include three APP medals, a bronze at PPA Tucson, and a silver and a bronze at PPL Visayas.
Where to watch
Games will be played at the league’s two home venues, The Pickle Yard SOMO and The Pickle Yard Pasig North.
The season will air on GMA Pinoy TV, so Filipinos abroad can follow along. Live games, highlights, and player features will also run on the official PYCL and Pickle Yard social media pages, with SPOTV as the league’s official digital media partner.
With six new franchises and talent coming from both the provinces and overseas, Season 2 will show whether the PYCL can grow into the national league it says it wants to be.
