By Toni-Elena Gallo
It has a funny name and it was not something most of us grew up with. Now pickleball has gained the “likes” of the world.
A sport developed to happily pass the summer days has become an international phenomenon. Despite its similarities to tennis and ping-pong, pickleball has a rule set all its own. Time has seen the creation of the International Federation of Pickleball as well as the World Pickleball Federation, and there has even been talk of it becoming an Olympic sport.
Long Island is no stranger to this relatively new sport’s growing influence. The Town of Brookhaven installed its first 11 outdoor pickleball courts at Centereach Park over the last two years and has recently brought that number up to 22.
When asked if pickleball has become a trend among Brookhaven residents, town Supervisor Dan Panico (R), simply replied, “It is.”
Origins of pickleball
Pickleball originated on Bainbridge Island, Washington, in the summer of 1965. Joel Pritchard, a Washington State legislator and future congressman, with his close friend, Bill Bell, stumbled upon Joel’s 13-year-old, Frank, in a very annoyed mood.
He told the two men that he was bored on his vacation and had nothing to do. When he sarcastically told his father to “go make up a game” for everyone to play, his father took the words to heart.
Pritchard, Bell and their friend Barney McCallum, developed pickleball out of a rag-tag assortment of ping-pong paddles, the perforated, plastic ball of a kid’s bat-and-ball set and a badminton net. The name was coined by Pritchard’s wife, Joan, in reference to the mish mosh of people delegated to the sport of rowing’s “pickle boats.”
And, so was the beginning of pickleball, a game that since its infancy has been all about family and community.
Pickleball in Brookhaven
“Around the town, there has been an impetus to install more pickleball courts, because the popularity of the sport has exploded,” Panico said. “The existing courts were so heavily utilized that we put additional monies in the budgewt to double the number of courts townwide.”
He added that three existing courts, located at the Brookhaven Aquatic Center in Mastic Beach, will be resurfaced.
Panico said that the sport’s popularity is not only talked about, but visible: “When I left my house this morning, I went past the Moriches Athletic Complex, and I was pleased to see that the courts were full. And that was early in the morning, so people are utilizing them and that’s what we want them to do. We try to meet the needs of our residents to the best of our ability.”
There are new courts at the Moriches Athletic Complex, Sylvan Avenue Park in Miller Place and the Medford Athletic Complex. “So, you have South Shore, the middle of the town and the North Shore [covered],” Panico said.
The mass popularity of the game has caused courts to pop up throughout Long Island, including at Port Jefferson, Smithtown and Huntington.
