Mary Schlichte and Vickie Kriz have grown a group of Mount Vernon and Solon devotees to the sport of pickleball.
“It’s been a great way to stay active and engaged,” Schlichte said. “It’s a sport almost anyone can pick up and learn and you don’t have to be too athletically inclined to enjoy.”
The only things really needed are good balance and good hand and eye coordination. That, and the paddles, net and a court to play at.
The sport has been picking up interest nationwide as well as locally.
Schlichte said she encountered the sport in her retirement years at a park in the Quad Cities roughly six years ago.
“I was interested in the sport and the rules of the game, and those playing encouraged me to check out the club in Johnson County, where they have a more devoted club to the game,” Schlichte said.
She’s been playing since then.
Kriz said she was invited by a friend to one of the events held by Johnson County’s club, as there weren’t many pickleball games in the Linn County area.
“There are just so many venues in Johnson County that play pickleball,” Kriz said. “After those first few games, it just hooked me as an activity.”
For Schlichte, the sport can be best summed up in three words – Fun, fitness and friendship.
When the Lester Buresh Family Community Wellness Center was first built, the duo decided that was a time for the sport to get a chance to flourish here in Linn County. Previously, the game was played at the Rockwell Collins YMCA, but as its popularity has grown, other athletic facilities in Linn County offer the sport.
The sport has proven so popular at the Buresh Center that they’ve added Thursday hours to their Mondays and Wednesday days of play.
The group at the Buresh Center had more than 15 players show up to play Wednesday, Feb. 2.
That’s a far cry from where the sport was when Kriz and Schlichte first started playing at the Buresh Center. They had two or sometimes three players for games, in a sport that requires four. They’ve increased the numbers of the sport at the center by getting people interested in playing and offering beginners courses.
Now players who know the rules of the game routinely show up for play. For members at the center, it’s easy to rent a court for a half hour if no one else is using the indoor courts. For non-members and members, the devoted times for the sport guarantee a time when other players can be at the center as well.
Now the issue is players might have to wait for a chance to play on the courts, but Schlichte, Kriz and others are interested in making sure everyone gets equitable playtime if they show up between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. ready to play.
“We’ve seen a lot of great recreational friendships made because we’re playing here at Mount Vernon more frequently,” Schlichte said.
People who really get into the sport can grow into more competitive players, taking part in tournaments and other events, too.
Now Schlichte and Kriz split their times with friends they have made in Johnson County as well those in Mount Vernon.
The court size for pickleball is smaller than a tennis court, and the net sits a few inches shorter, but players will use tennis courts outdoors if there are markings that denote a pickleball court’s sizes.
The play is similar to that of badminton or tennis. Earlier in the sport’s history, paddles were wood. Today, most paddles are made out of fiberglass or other materials.
The ball used is a whiffle ball, and there are variations of the whiffle balls used indoors and outdoors. The outdoor whiffle ball has smaller holes or openings, as competitors are facing a variable they routinely don’t encounter indoors – the wind.
And that’s the one thing that the club is looking at as things warm up this spring and summer. While the Buresh Center has the ability to house indoor courts, there are currently no outdoor pickleball courts in the Mount Vernon community. It’s something the group would like to see develop.
For those who might be interested in learning about the sport, Schlichte and Kriz will be holding another introductory clinic in early April at the Buresh Center. The duo also recommends checking out YouTube videos from the USA Pickleball Association to get a clearer understanding of the rules before that.
“While it is easy to learn, the rules are different than some of the other sports played with a paddle,” Schlichte said. “As we get more and more players in this area, we expect to see our Monday, Wednesday and Thursday drop-in players increasing.”
Schlichte and Kriz said that depending on interest, evening leagues might be started if people routinely working in the mornings show an interest in using courts at those times. The duo knows the courts get busy in evenings with other activities at the Buresh Center, including basketball and adult volleyball.
Still, for a group that started roughly a year ago, to have four or more teams routinely show up to play is a good problem.
Ruth Horton and Sue Noll play Kathy Andorf and Linda Noll in a pickleball match at the Lester Buresh Family Community Wellness Center Wednesday, Feb. 2.