In this episode of The Joy of Pickleball, host Caitlin Kerr (Pickleball Chick) tours Down the Line Sports Center (DTL) in Annandale, Virginia, showcasing its 12 premium courts, high‑tech Pod Play Pro monitors, restaurant, golf simulators, locker rooms, massage chairs, and community spaces. She highlights the facility’s design choices—color palette, lighting approved by pro Ben Johns, and easy‑to‑see court walls. The segment then introduces the founders of Morlo, an athleisure pickleball apparel brand, who explain their origin story: a desire to inject fun into racket‑sport clothing, a “Play Happy” ethos, and a unique partnership with brain‑health philanthropy (BrightFocus Foundation and Hilarity for Charity). The founders discuss their brand name, tagline, and how wearing Morlo sparks conversations about brain health. Community members—including veteran Craig, longtime player Lindsay, and Jenny Bey’s father Mr. Lee—share why DTL’s environment fosters social connection, active retirement, and family‑friendly experiences. The episode wraps with a look at DTL’s restaurant (Crossport Kitchen & Bar), menu highlights, and a preview of an upcoming advanced moneyball tournament with an $800 prize.
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Bag winner! Let's go!
What's up guys, it's Caitlin Kerr, AKA Pickleball Chick, and I am here outside of Washington, D.C. in Annandale, Virginia at Down the Line Sports Center. They have 12 courts, they have a restaurant, they have golf sims. It's one of the best facilities in the country. Come on in and check it out.
We have our retail space and this is where everyone comes, gets green seated and they get to check in.
Love the tile floor.
Yes, thank you.
Who thought of that? Right here.
This is our opening reception area. Pot Play has this cool new feature where you can scan yourself in now, which is great. I love it.
I love the colors that you've used throughout the facility. They say premium. Yes, in a way that like makes it very beautiful. The court colors are easy to see. The backdrop— not only did they include a lot of spacing on the sides of the court and the baselines, but they also included dark walls so you could see the ball. You're not having trouble with the view. They have Pro Pod Play monitors on every single court. They have pickle tile separating each court, bringing that premium aesthetic. Like, it was really all thought about.
And the lighting—
we've got the Ben Johns approval.
You need that.
If you have the Ben Johns approval on the light, that is impressive. Okay, we have Pod Play Pro monitors set up on every single court here, and this is the phenomenal button that you press when you hit an awesome shot. Want to get your replay on on the screen as well as in your email. I'm sweating, I'm hot, but it's been awesome and I've hit this button a lot because I've been hitting a lot of awesome shots to get the replay so I can share it to all my friends and family on social media and make them jealous that I'm playing here at DTL on a beautiful Sunday.
Ah! No! Ah! He got me back.
We have some special guests in the building, the 3 female founders at Morlo. Let's go meet them. Morlo is an amazing athleisure pickleball apparel brand. It's so premium and gorgeous. I'm wearing a beautiful dress right now, and I am sitting here with the founders Holly, Brooks, and Sandra. Thank you guys for coming today.
Oh my gosh, thank you for having us.
You guys started this not too long ago. Can we talk about the inception of the brand, how Morlo came to be?
One of our big things is Play Happy. We say it all the time, right? And our whole brand is about joy, movement, and meaning.
The clothing in tennis and racket sports in general is really kind of uninspired, and there wasn't much fun, you know, clothing out there. Holly being in the news for 30+ years was hearing all the narratives on pickleball. Pickleball was everywhere.
I was like, every other story— I don't know what we do, but every other story on the news right now is pickleball, right? And Brooks, who has been in the brain health space for, you know, nearly 15 years now, she She's like, well, you know, the number one concern that people have, their biggest fear is losing their memory, right? And brain health is finally a part of the national conversation. And as we were sitting there, all of a sudden we're like, wait a minute, aha moment. Yeah, that's what pickleball is, right? It's exercise, it's super social. And we're like, so here we have pickleball, here we have brain health, let's marry those together. And that's really how Morlo was born.
We really do every single thing with intention and, and with our core values, and we wanted philanthropy to be part of our brand from day one. Out of the gate, we were talking and said we wanted to have a donation back to charity, and it was Holly that said, well, in pickleball you have to win by 2, so let's do $2. And then I said, let's do 2 charities. So we actually identified 2 fantastic charities. One is BrightFocus Foundation. They invest in scientific research. 60% of their scientists are women, which we love. And then Hilarity for Charity, which was founded by Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller Rogen after they cared for Lauren's mother who had Alzheimer's disease. And so we do that as part of our mission from day one, and we think our customers really feel good about it.
And then Sandra was the brilliant mind that came up with our tagline, which is, "Let's make fashion fun and health the point." Can you talk a little bit about the brain health being intertwined with the M and being intertwined with Morlo and the whole brand?
We came up with a mashup of our three maiden names— Morris, Pryor, and Barlow. And as soon as we saw the M in writing, that was another aha moment. It was the of a pickleball and the brainwave. And so that became integral to our brand.
Yeah, really want everyone to feel confident and knowing that what they're wearing is really making a difference.
We have a friend who wore Morlo to a tournament actually in New York, and she came back and said it sparked a conversation about brain health. Someone asked her what she was wearing, she told them about the brand. That person actually had Alzheimer's in their family, and so after the tournament they spent a lot of time just talking about brain health and what you can do to improve your Because now the science has caught up. There are 14 lifestyle risk factors that you can actually take actions to improve your brain health and prevent cognitive decline. So that story is meaningful to us because it's our mission in action.
If Morlo had a theme song, what would it be?
We thought a lot about this. Morlo, the name, is a mashup. So we actually think the Morlo song would also be a mashup. Like, think of a DJ on the ones and twos mixing it in.
Okay!
Together, right? And of course he's starting with Pharrell's hat.
—obviously. But then—
'Cause I'm happy I belong if you feel like a room without a roof. Yes.
Then it leads off to Beyoncé.
Who run the world? Girls, girls, girls. I mean, because clearly we're doing that. Yes. Then it goes right into— wait for it, wait for it—
Journey's Don't stop believing, hold on to that feeling.
Because you know what?
Being an entrepreneur and starting your own business, it's hard. We just believe in it that much. And so yes, you know, we get set back, but you know what? We get right back up.
Oh my gosh.
And we go up there and we dink it.
All right guys, I'm here with Craig. Craig has been one of my biggest and best supporters of Pickleball CHIX for a very, very long time. You also served the country, you were in the Army. Yeah, thank you for that.
This is a great outlet for veterans, uh, just to keep them healthy and playing and staying active.
I am here with Lindsay. She is an OG member here at DTL.
I took one clinic, came home, said I'm a pickleball player now, and yeah, I joined right then that day.
Okay, your favorite part of pickleball?
The people, the people, 100% the people, especially here. The community we've built, it's special.
I kept saying, like, God, I need to find like a community of people. Yes. But there was nothing at the time. Yeah. Until Jenny came along. So I was her first member.
Something we can do into retirement. Yes. That's what's good. Yeah.
We were thinking about trying to do golf, but this is much better.
You're more active. Exactly. You're more social. You're more like, it's so much more joyful. Jenny's daughter's over there. She just got some food with a friend and it's like the cutest thing ever.
Perfect place for playdate. Hi!
Oh my God, she's adorable.
So let's walk in here. I'm going to show you guys through the middle area. We have two very nice locker rooms set up here. We went kind of for that Lifetime feel.
I actually saw a woman when I was in here curling my hair. She just got done playing and she was like, I got to go pick up my dad like an hour and a half away. And she basically was like using the shower and got like tidied up. Yeah. This is so convenient. Yeah.
Honestly, you could camp out here all day with the Wi-Fi and do your work here if you're working remotely. I'm going to show you our golf bays. And again, my last name is Bey, so we would be remiss not to do a little play on words. So here you can rent out space for you and your friends, have your own private area. So this golf simulator is, it's pretty amazing. The entire ground will tilt with you depending on the course. And then, you know, because you don't want to bend over, the balls will come out automatically. It has an entire golf system here. Wow. These two golf bays are more open, so instead instead of your own private space, you can actually hang out with a larger group over here. We put in a small private gym here, and again, this is for just a couple levels of membership. We modeled it for that premier feel, but with the intention of having everyone feel welcome here. With our premier members, we have an exclusive lounge.
This is insane.
We have massage chairs, foosball tables, some extra refreshments. I have plenty of people who come hours before their session and will camp out, sometimes fall asleep on our massage chairs and then go play.
Okay, we're going to meet the legend, which is Jenny's dad, Mr. Lee.
Hi, how are you? Hi.
All right, Mr. Lee's got some game here.
Oh, one of the biggest reasons I continued to play pickleball and even kept it in my life was because my dad became so obsessed with it. I think, you know, just being able to connect with him and spend time with him in, um, this recreational, like, avenue, I mean, it, it really, it makes it They're different. What?
Oh, he got it! He literally doesn't miss.
We have a full restaurant and bar here, a full menu from breakfast to dinner. I like to call my bar Crossport Kitchen and Bar, a little play on our Down the Line name. Oh my—
okay, what? Sweet potato fries?
Sweet potato fries. You have to have the bulgogi tacos, so some Korean spin to our food here.
Oh my God.
This is my favorite one.
Guys, can other people help me?
Okay, this is unbelievable.
Everyone loves the food. There's not a single person who walks away complaining about the food.
This is bomb.
The churros are so good.
Yeah, so good.
I'm obsessed. What has been like the biggest challenge or your biggest surprise?
This was a huge risk for me. It was, um, first time doing anything, you know, on my own like this, a small business. I don't have any experience running a pickleball facility or opening a new business And everything in my pickleball journey really kind of came to be all at the right time.
I mean, this speaks for itself.
I hope so. When people walk in, this is— they see it, they see the outcome and the product. Yes.
Yeah.
So love it. Yeah.
Okay, he returned the ball and he put so much spin on it that it actually hit over his opponent's net and came back on the other side of his net, so he didn't even have a chance to hit the ball. And he was able to get the replay because of Hot Fudge.
People know me for my cookies and my backspin.
Oh, that That is a combo that I want. Let's first see your backspin. All right.
Oh! Great setup! Look at the replay! Right here. Whoa!
So we host tons of different events and tournaments and leagues here at Down the Line. Tonight we have an advanced moneyball. There are $800 on the line. It's going to be exciting to see who wins. Let's go!
Oh yeah, come at me right now, baby. Have to get over the net. We just had an absolutely incredible day here at Down the Line Sports Center in Annandale, Virginia. We were able to meet the founder of DTL, Jenny Bey, the founders of Morlo. I am rocking their beautiful dress here. Holly, Sandra, Brooks, thank you so much for coming out. And a big shout out to the entire DC pickleball community for coming out here. I had an amazing day and we definitely shared the joy of pickleball. Make sure to check our next episode out. We'll see you soon.
