Pickleball: A new game in town

LYNN – For the uninitiated, it?s a silly name that draws quizzical looks the first time it?s heard. For the initiated, pickleball quickly becomes a way of life.Pickleball is a growing trend among people of all ages, and Ward 1 City Councilor Wayne Lozzi is joining in. Lozzi has gotten the city to paint a pickleball court on the under-utilized street hockey surface at Gowdy Park, and also purchased a net and equipment to help get people started.An avid tennis player who has played in a men?s league in the past, Lozzi had hip replacement surgery in September that forced him off the court. He discovered pickleball after his surgery, and he fell in love right away. While very similar to tennis and pingpong, pickleball is played on a smaller court with a plastic ball and wooden or composite paddles.The sport has been around since the 1960s and has had a tremendous surge in popularity in recent years. The USA Pickleball Association calls it a “highly contagious, progressive and incurable disease.”The game got its start in 1965 on Bainbridge Island near Seattle as a backyard family game at the summer home of Joel Pritchard, a congressman from Washington state. Looking for something the entire family could do, Pritchard and his family started improvising on an old badminton court with pingpong paddles and a plastic ball, eventually devising rules.And that silly name? Well, there are several versions as to its origin. According to the USAPA website, Pritchard?s wife, Joan, said “the combination of different sports reminded me of the pickle boat in crew where oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of other boats.”Another, more colorful, version ascribes the name to another member of the Pritchard family. The Pritchards had a dog named “Pickles.” And as dogs are wont to do, Pickles would chase after the game ball and run off with it.?You?re having fun at a party, right?” said Barney McCallum, who was at the Pritchards? home for one of the early games. “So anyways, what the hell, let?s just call it pickleball.”And a sport was born.Pickleball is one of – if not the – fastest-growing sports in the country, according to athleticbusiness.com. Naples, Fla., will host the first U.S. Open Pickleball Championships in April. More than 1,000 athletes, including the top pickleball players in the world, are expected to compete for prize money in the six-day event. The USAPA also hosts a national tournament each year in Arizona.The ball, a smaller version of a Wiffle ball, travels one-third the speed of a tennis ball, and the paddles are usually made from wood or composite materials, according to the USAPA website. The game can be played indoors or outdoors.The game is played on a badminton-sized court that is 20 feet wide and 44 feet long. The net is very similar to tennis, except lower, measuring 36 inches high on the ends and 34 inches in the middle. Rackets range in price from about $25 for wooden styles to $60-$80 for graphite or composite models.?It?s a wonderful sport,” Lozzi said. “You still get a great workout, it?s just not as intense as tennis.”Lozzi was introduced to pickleball by a colleague and friend. After playing on lunch breaks and weekends for a while in Wilmington, Lozzi decided to bring pickleball closer to home.?I recognized that, unfortunately, this court doesn?t get much use,” he said. “So I suggested to the Department of Parks and Recreation and Andy Hall (the city?s Department of Public Works commissioner) that maybe we could paint a pickleball court here and get some use out of it.”While a pickleball court has been painted over the street hockey court, some of the boundaries and markings for hockey still remain.?It?s still perfectly suitable to play street hockey on as well,” Lozzi said. “So we?re going to see some use out of this court that we didn?t see before.”When asked if he would like to get some kind of pickleball league or tournament organized in the city, Lozzi was enthusiastic about the idea.?I would love to jump-s