The nation’s fastest-growing sport is taking Huntington by storm.
By Jean Hardiman
HQ 118 | SUMMER 2022
As you’re walking through Ritter Park, you can hear it. It’s a higher-pitched sound than that of a tennis ball hitting a racket, but it’s lower-pitched than the “ping” of a ping pong ball against a paddle. It’s often accompanied by laughter and friendly chatter.
It’s the sound of pickleball, or, more specifically, the sound of the whiffle ball used in pickleball smacking against the paddle. And it’s a sound that you hear a lot more than you did 10 years ago, as the sport has exploded in popularity, here in Huntington and throughout the country.
The Sports and Fitness Industry Association named pickleball the nation’s fastest-growing sport in 2022. The USA Pickleball Association reported 4.8 million players in 2021, up almost 15% from 2020, and growing at an average rate of 11.5% over the previous five years.
Some take up pickleball — which is played on a smaller court than tennis — because they can enjoy the thrill of competition without the strain of a full-on tennis match. They get a good workout while meeting other players and making new friends. While most pickleball players are middle-aged and older, the whole mix of local pickleball enthusiasts ranges in age from young adults to seniors and is growing by the month.
Some lean toward serious competition, while others are just having a good time.
“Pickleball allows me to stay competitive and continue playing and recreating and doing the things that I love,” said Linda Holmes, a former volleyball and softball coach for Marshall University who now serves as director of development and alumni relations for Marshall’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. She’s also a lover of tennis.
“I’ve always loved racket sports,” she said. “And this is a great social opportunity. You can meet so many people. I think the wonderful thing about the pickleball community is the varying level of skill it takes to participate and enjoy success. There’s camaraderie, and no age limit. It’s social time, which is so important for people’s well-being. Two-and-a-half years in a pandemic have shown us how important that is.”
Dan Hollis agrees. Also, it’s satisfying just to hear the sound when the pickleball meets the paddle, he said.
“The whack of the paddle — it’s fun,” said Hollis, a journalism professor at Marshall who picked up pickleball about a year ago after working on a story abot the sport’s growing popularity. “I thought, ‘That looks like fun.’ Then I picked up a paddle, and sure enough … Now I play two or three times a week.”
Admittedly, Hollis said, he’s not one of the serious players out there to smear the court with his competition. But fortunately for those new to pickleball, it’s a sport in which players of all levels mix and match on the court for friendly competition. At Ritter Park, you can pick up a game with anyone who shows up, singles or doubles. If the courts are already full, you put your paddle in a rack, indicating that you’re waiting in line to play; when one game is finished, you can take up a game with others who are waiting.
For the more serious players, there are outlets as well.
Ken Pemberton is one of the serious ones, not only in terms of playing at a high level when he gets the chance (he came in third place at the U.S. Open Pickleball Championship in Naples and fourth in the Senior Olympics in Fort Lauderdale) but also in making pickleball a more accessible activity for players around Huntington. He founded the Huntington Pickleball Club (www.huntingtonpickleballclub.com) for folks to have an opportunity to compete in organized games locally and stay informed about opportunities to learn and play more. The club currently has 150 members, including everyone from casual players to others who, like him, are competing and placing at a national level. He also teaches lessons for those who want to up their game.
Pemberton might be one of the sport’s most vocal proponents locally — and he’s only been playing a few years.
“I started playing in June of 2019. I called a friend and said, ‘Let’s play some pickleball so I can lose some weight,’” he recalled, during a break from playing at Ritter Park. “There were not a lot of people here, so I started bugging people to play.”
A longtime — and a competitive — tennis and ping pong player, Pemberton found that pickleball was the ticket to weight loss that he wanted. He started playing every day and lost 35 pounds.
What draws people to the sport is that the pickleball courts are smaller and the ball is lightweight and slower moving. As such, most people get the hang of it easily.
“With pickleball, everyone has success and scores points,” Pemberton said. “It’s success on the very first day you’re out. That’s what brings people back. There’s no question of the exercise you’re getting, and some people come for the fun, social aspect of it. Others are bringing their high school competitiveness out, and they beat your butt.”
Pemberton is also fighting for more courts in the Huntington area. With pickleball being more accessible than tennis, he said it’s time there were more pickleball courts to meet the increasing demand.
Some towns and cities around Huntington are adding courts at a faster rate than Huntington is, said Melanie Gleason, another pickleball regular.
“It’s tough when you have 50 people waiting to play. It’s nuts,” Gleason said. “I never played a sport in my life, but I will play pickleball two or three times a day if I can. It’s a joke now with my kids: ‘Where’s Mom? Playing pickleball?’”
They’re often right.
Holmes is another who’d like to see more courts.
“Getting more courts is important,” she said. “You want people to be able to get out and be healthy and fit, and this gives everyone that opportunity.”
