Are You Ready for Pickleball? Sturtevant Has a Court for That

Pickleball is coming to Sturtevant's South Park.

Members of the village's Community Events, Beautification and Cultural Committee last week approved using the east tennis court at South Park, 95th Street between Hulda and Mt. Pleasant Streets. New lines will be painted in the next few weeks to provide a regulation court, according to Trustee Linda Busha.

If you've never heard of pickleball, it's a game played on a court with a net, like tennis, but more compact. The ball, though, is more of a heavy-duty wiffle ball, and instead of tennis rackets or ping pong paddles, players use a larger, square paddle and swing it like a racket.

If necessity spurs invention, then do does boredom. According to the USA Pickleball Association, two families were vacationing together in 1965 and several people were sitting around with nothing to do. Joel Pritchard, former Washington State congressman and businessman Bill Bell cobbled together some paddles made from old rackets and ping pong paddles and started volleying a wiffle ball back-and-forth over a badminton net.

The ball bounced well, though, so they lowered the net and the game took off from there. Pickles, the family dog, also took off with the ball whenever it bounced near him so the game was named in his honor.

The USA Pickleball Association website claims the game is one of the fastest growing sports in North America.