Faces of Southeast Missouri: Charlie Cai

Connect the world through pickleball.

That’s the motto of Charlie Cai’s organization Pickleball Lovers, which he founded in 2021. Through the organization, he organizes teachers and lessons for people who want to improve their game, as well as organizes events for pickleball players to meet and play the sport together. He has also traveled to Poland to share the game of pickleball and connect with leaders to find ways the organization can assist Ukrainian refugees. The group also sponsors professional pickleball players Sarah Ansboury and Riley Newman.

Cai says through the organization, he hopes to help people become a family.

“Our mission is to create peaceful, harmonize, healthy community. That is why I teach these events,” Cai says. “[We] can make the world peaceful, harmonize and healthy through this.”

Cai first started playing pickleball in 2019 through the invitation of a friend. Although reluctant at first, he says he soon discovered he enjoyed the skill and camaraderie of the game, and there were many things to “discover and explore” within it. He decided it would be his “last new sport,” and so he wanted to master each aspect of the industry.

As the first step in this process, Cai received formal training in playing pickleball at the Callahan Pickleball Academy in St. Louis with renowned pickleball coach John Callahan. While working with Callahan, he convinced Callahan to write a book for beginning pickleball players, and Cai, a businessman, hired the ghost writer, edited the book, found a publisher and wrote the foreword.

Pickleball player and coach Charlie Cai stands on a pickleball court at the Cape Girardeau Country Club. Photo by Aaron Eisenhauer

Next, he began organizing events for people to come together to play the sport. He also became a certified pickleball coach through the organization Professional Pickleball Registry. He has a YouTube channel on which he shares tips for strategy and techniques of the game, and among many awards, he has won Silver at the U.S. Open in the Men's Doubles 3.0 Division, Silver at Nationals in the Mixed Doubles 3.0 Division and Bronze at Regionals in the Men's 4.0 Division.

He says his No. 1 success, though, is his marriage; he and his wife, Laura Cai, have been married for 27 years. His second success is parenting their daughter and two sons, who are grown now. His No. 3 success is finding faith in God. Next, he says is his health. And then, his fifth success is business.

Because he says he had a “very rough childhood, youth and middle life” until the past 15 years when he has been able to enjoy success and give to others, he loves to mentor the people he coaches, giving them perspective on their struggles in life. His focus now is on giving.

“I always say, ‘Spend time and money and skills,’” Cai says. “You devoted, you contribute or you share. You give time, money and skills.”