The dedication, resources, and time commitment it typically takes to play a sport at an elite level often make it difficult for professional athletes to have full-time jobs outside their sport.
Kelsey Grambeau is not one such athlete.
Originally from Michigan, Grambeau did her undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin and earned a B.S. in Biology - at one point she had plans to go to medical school.
However, after shadowing physicians during her undergrad work, it became clear to Grambeau that medicine didn’t interest her. After a brief moment of panic she decided to continue her education at the University of North Carolina where she obtained a master’s degree in sports management. Following her graduation, she worked about eight months for a youth sports nonprofit in North Carolina.
“I had an awesome time in North Carolina, but I was thinking about my career a lot and the trajectory that I wanted it to go, and I just wanted something where I saw progression and that I was excited about,” recalls Grambeau, now 30. “So I started applying for jobs, really at all different locations, like Chicago, Denver, Seattle, a bit still in North Carolina as well.”
It was at this time that she took an interview for a sales role at LeagueApps, which became the sole reason she moved to New York City in April of 2022.
“I didn't actually know one single person in New York at the time, so it was kind of a scary move,” admits Grambeau. “But like anything in life, if it doesn't work out, you can kind of pivot and adjust. So I had that in the back of my mind.”
Needing to make friends in her new city, Grambeau decided to learn to play pickleball. Already having a racquet sports background - she was on a tennis scholarship at Wisconsin, but rotator cuff surgery led to her being unable to continue - pickleball had been on her radar for some time.
She took to Google to find places to play pickleball in her area, found a group, and a week after she started playing pickleball, Grambeau played the 2022 APP New York City Open. She played 4.5 in singles, 5.0 in mixed and didn't win a single game. But of course the story doesn't end there. She met plenty of people through pickleball that she was able to train with and has been a mainstay on the APP Tour pro scene since the summer of 2023.
As an enterprise account executive at LeagueApps, Grambeau currently commutes from her apartment in Brooklyn to her office in Manhattan four times a week. A typical day in Grambeau’s life is not for the faint of heart, and could very well be sponsored by energy drinks - Celsius is her drink of choice, of which she generally consumes two per day and has a regular subscription for.
Grambeau’s day starts with a 5:50 a.m. wake time. She drinks one Celsius in the morning in lieu of having breakfast. She happens to live above a Lifetime Fitness which makes taking a 6:30 a.m. workout class convenient - the class could either be conditioning, weight lifting or yoga, depending on the day. After her class she’ll pop back upstairs to shower and get ready for the commute into Manhattan, which involves using the subway system. Her goal is to be in the office by 8:45 a.m. for her 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. work day, which consists of many external calls with prospective clients, future partners and people that are looking at LeagueApps software for their needs. A walk to Sweetgreen or Chopped with her fellow sales associates is the regular lunch routine. At 6 p.m. she’ll have her second Celsius of the day, and takes the subway up to Penn Station, where there’s another Lifetime Fitness that has seven pickleball courts. Grambeau will do a bit of weight training before playing pickleball from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Depending on the train schedule, she’s normally home around 9:30 at which point she has dinner. Bedtime is usually around 10:30.
On Saturdays she wakes up at 7:30 a.m. to go for a long run, perhaps hits up the farmers market near her in Fort Greene, and hangs out with friends. Sunday is her day to sleep in and get chores done, including meal prepping, which, for her schedule is obviously important.
“I love to cook salmon, and if I'm feeling fancy, scallops. I'm wildly obsessed with salmon and I probably eat it like three days a week. I'm a big air fryer gal, but I'm not very creative,” explains Grambeau, who ran the New York City Marathon in 2024. “So I think I can relatively cook if I have a recipe to follow, but once I get something down then I kind of stick with it. So usually I do like salmon, rice and butternut squash or broccoli. I love that.”
When Grambeau has an APP tournament on her schedule, she will take Friday off work, fly into the city Thursday, and play Friday and Saturday, typically returning home on Sunday…all to start her schedule over again on Monday morning.
For the average person, just reading that is enough to require a nap. But for Grambeau, this is the norm, and a lifestyle she would encourage others to try.
“You have to invest 100 percent of your time, and it is a very rigorous sport, and there is going to be more separation as [pickleball] gets more and more niche,” asserts Grambeau. “But I would say, give it a shot and try to do both, because you might surprise yourself. For me specifically, I think if I did pickleball full-time that would be great, that would be awesome. But it might also put more pressure on myself, and I may not perform as well in tournaments, whereas right now I play really freely, and I feel like I'm able to enjoy it a lot and have a lot of fun and take it seriously, but lightly, kind of like a little bit of both.”
Not only is Grambeau able have the best of both worlds, but she’s actively thriving in them. She has three bronze medals so far this year on the APP Tour, and has won multiple awards for her work at LeagueApps.
“I’m trying my best to fit in the fitness component, the pickleball component, still trying to get as much rest as I can, still trying to balance my friendships, my family,” Grambeau asserts. “I think life is a balancing game, and you want to give your utmost effort into every aspect that you can but some things at certain points in your life are going to take maybe a little bit more priority or a little bit more percentage of yourself. So let that happen and keep reassessing and seeing what areas you want to push more in.”
Wise words from a woman who is quite literally doing it all.
