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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Pickleball grows in popularity

Patrick Slack
Posted 7/6/15

ELY - Five years ago, Mary Mills tagged along with some friends from Tower playing pickleball.

She enjoyed it, but, not wanting to drive that far every time she wanted to play, decided to try and …

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Pickleball grows in popularity

Posted

ELY - Five years ago, Mary Mills tagged along with some friends from Tower playing pickleball.

She enjoyed it, but, not wanting to drive that far every time she wanted to play, decided to try and start a club in Ely.

So she set up a time and location through community education. “The only time I could get was the gym in the high school at 7:30 p.m.,” Mills said.

One person showed up.

However, times quickly changed.

Now, pickleball is one of the fastest growing sports in the nation, with over 400,000 people actively playing according to the U.S.A. Pickleball Association. 

And Ely is expanding rapidly right along with it. The club even hosted world champions Pam Cechini and Jackie Faegre for a clinic on Friday.

So what exactly is pickleball?

Pickleball is a relatively new sport created in 1965 that is a hybrid of tennis, badminton and table tennis. 

The sport can be played indoors or outdoors on courts that are the same dimensions as badminton, with a modified tennis net.

Players use an oversized table tennis paddle to hit a plastic ball with holes, similar to a wiffleball.

The court is split down the middle for serving as in tennis, and can be played as singles or doubles.

One of the reasons for the pickleball boom is that it causes less wear and tear than having to cover a full tennis court, said longtime club member Jon Moe.

“Tennis courts are being changed over to pickleball,” Moe said. For many people, “it is more popular and easier on the body than playing tennis.”

That process began in Ely just three years ago on the old tennis courts near the high school.

After several years of going unused, Ely Community Education helped fund an effort to convert the courts over to pickleball.

All of the lines were repainted for pickleball play and nets and backstops were installed. A lot of work was done to fix the cement and dig out weeds as well.

The Ely club plays year-round on Mondays, Wednesday and Friday, starting at 9 a.m.

When the weather is nice during the summer, play is held at the high school courts. All other times it is played at Vermilion Community College.

Vermilion is where the group started outdoor play, albeit under less than ideal circumstances.

“We’d use the college courts, tape them and chalk them,” Mills said. “Then it would rain and that would take care of that.”

If you have never played the sport before, don’t worry. You will fit right in. Only one player had experience before joining.

“Everyone else started from scratch,” Mills said. “This is something people can pick up really fast. We have people who have played here less than a year and doing well.”

“There are a lot of summer people playing,” she said. “People going up to the Boundary Waters will see us on the Internet and stop by and play.”

The club also offers opportunities for competition.

In addition to being a great group for beginners, players also can progress and compete against other players from surrounding towns, club member Ted Schlosser said.

“Virginia has a really active group,” he said. “There are groups in Duluth, Tofte and Grand Marais. They have 60 in their group in Cohasset.”

Some club members will be competing in Mountain Iron on Aug. 1.

“We try to hit a few tournaments throughout the season,” Schlosser said.

Not bad for being only a few years removed from simply searching for a place to play. And hope it didn’t rain.