Cailyn Campbell has been on the pro pickleball scene for more than a year, but she’s still only 15 years old and is rapidly climbing the PPA Tour rankings.

She’s coming off of her best result to date — a bronze medal in women’s doubles alongside Tina Pisnik at the Sacramento Open. To put the accomplishment in perspective: There are only two other players who have won a PPA Tour medal at the age of 15 … Anna Leigh Waters and Jorja Johnson.

That’s pretty good company.

This week we caught up with Campbell to talk about her recent success and development as a player over the past year+. Below is our conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity.

Q: What was your reaction to learning that you’re on a list with Anna Leigh as one of the youngest players to win a medal on the PPA Tour?

Campbell: That was really exciting to hear. I didn’t really expect to get a medal this early in my career, so first of all I was just excited to get the medal. And yeah, my name being next to Anna Leigh, that’s kind of crazy. Hopefully I can get some more this year and in the future.

How did the partnership with Pisnik come about and what was it like playing with her?

Campbell: I think she had two tournaments open, and she asked if I’d want to play them. I was surprised she asked me, because she’s an amazing player and gets really good partners. And she makes a lot of semis and finals, so I was really excited that she asked me. Our first one was Minnesota and we played pretty well together, but I think I was a little nervous because she’s such a good player. In Sacramento I was definitely more loose and confident and able to play my game. So that was a big difference the second time around.

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In Sacramento you beat Lacy Schneemann/Kate Fahey in the quarterfinals and then lost in the semifinals to Parris Todd/Rachel Rohrabacher, who ended up winning gold. All four of those players are having really good years, so what was your takeaway from those two matches specifically?

Campbell: Just knowing that I can do that, and play at that level – it just makes me more driven to want to train harder and keep having good matches like that in the future. Against Kate and Lacy I was playing very free and aggressive, and then against Parris and Rachel I was a little more hesitant I think because they are also really aggressive players and have really good hands. So I think I was a little worried to speed up and worried about missing, but I should have just played my game. My best game is very aggressive, so I think I need to play that way every match – it doesn’t matter who I’m playing against. 

Do you prefer women’s doubles or mixed doubles right now?

Campbell: Actually before this tournament women’s was probably my least favorite, just because I don’t feel as comfortable as I do in mixed. In mixed I feel like I know my role very well – I can dink, hit some speedups and I feel like I know what I’m doing. For a while in women’s I just wasn’t as comfortable, but now I feel like I’ve gotten a lot more experience with good rec games and more matches in tournaments. Me and Mari Humberg made quarters in women’s in Newport, so that was great experience, and since then I’ve started playing better and feeling more confident in women’s.

Now that you’ve gotten a medal, does that change your goals for the rest of the year?

Campbell: Yeah, it definitely changes my goals a little bit. Just knowing that I can do it – I think I’ll start feeling more confident going into matches knowing that I can beat anybody and hopefully have more good results.

The Major League Pickleball season is coming up next month. You’re on the SoCal Hard Eights for the second year in a row. What’s your outlook for the upcoming season and how do you flip the switch from individual PPA events to the team format in MLP?

Campbell: I’m really excited for MLP. It’s a great team, and our whole team has great energy. I really loved playing in MLP last year, but it’s different. You have to come out really strong because it’s only one game to 11, so I think that’s the biggest difference from PPA. We don’t know what our mixed partnerships are going to be yet or who will play which side in women’s, so we’ll have to figure that out and get comfortable with everybody. But I really like our coach, Adam Stone – he’s been really helpful and really supportive, so I’m looking forward to it.

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What does a normal training day look like for you?

Campbell: There aren’t many pros near where we’re at in Miami, so most of the time it’s me and my brother (Cason Campbell) training every day. We usually drill twice a day, and then once or twice a week I will drive up to Fort Lauderdale and get some games in with other PPA players or APP players, because a lot of them live in that area. But we have a court at our house, so it’s a lot of drilling here. It’s definitely helped me in my career to have my brother to train with, and we also play a lot of singles, so that’s helping a lot.

Looking back to when you first started playing at the pro level, was there a specific match or tournament that made you realize that you could compete with the best players in the game?

Campbell: It took me a while to make it out of qualies, but when I finally did that was a big confidence boost. And then at Red Rock last year, I beat Mary Brascia in singles and made the quarterfinals, and I also had my first main draw win in mixed doubles that same tournament. So that’s when I started to feel confident in myself, and my singles game especially. Then I had another good tournament in San Clemente a couple months later – those two tournaments gave me a lot of confidence that I could do this. 

Those results helped you get noticed for MLP, and you ended up on a team in SoCal where you could get into the starting lineup and play a lot. What did that do for your development?

Campbell: It was amazing. Our team last year was probably one of the best just in terms of energy. We had Blaine Hovenier, who is like the biggest hype guy, so he was great to have on the sidelines and be on the team with. And then just getting all those matches in. Mixed, women’s and some Dreambreakers, that helped me a lot with just repetition and experience. And then having Adam also, he taught me a lot along the way, and it was great just having a coach with me for a couple months. MLP also allowed me to play against some people that I hadn’t played yet, like Anna Bright and Hayden Patriquin (St. Louis Shock), JW and Jorja Johnson (Dallas Flash), and a lot of the other top players. And we had some good results against them – we had a game point on Jorja and Tyra Black in women’s, so that was also a big confidence boost knowing that I could hold my own against some of the best players.