Pickleball picks up steam in Homewood

One of America’s fastest growing sports has found a new home in Homewood and is expanding.

The Homewood Community Center in October began offering pickleball as an option for people to play, and while it’s still fairly new in Homewood, it’s catching on, said Jakob Stephens, the Homewood Parks and Recreation superintendent of athletics and aquatics.

Recreation officials initially put down lines for three pickleball courts on the basketball courts at the Community Center but more recently added lines for four more courts in the gym at the Homewood Athletic Complex in the western part of the city, Stephens said.

Those courts should be available for pickleball by this summer once spring basketball is over, he said. Additionally, recreation staff are exploring options to build outdoor pickleball courts and hope it will work out, he said. “We have a lot of people that would like to come and play.”

For people that are unfamiliar with pickleball, it often is described as a blend of tennis, badminton and table tennis.

While it has some similarities to tennis, there are some differences. The court is smaller, the paddles are smaller than tennis rackets (more like large ping-pong paddles), and the ball is plastic with holes in it like a whiffle ball and therefore doesn’t bounce as much.

Games usually are played to 11 points, and you must have a two-point lead to win. The games usually take about 10-20 minutes.

According to the USA Pickleball Association, the governing and rule-setting body for the sport in this country, 4.2 million Americans were playing pickleball in 2020, an increase of 21.3% from 2019.

Participation in tournaments is growing, new leagues are forming, and communities, country clubs and fitness centers across the country are converting hard-court surfaces for pickleball use and building new courts dedicated to the sport.

The Austin Pickle Ranch, a private club in Austin, Texas, has 32 dedicated pickleball courts, while The Villages near Orlando has 214 pickleball courts. One of the larger complexes in Alabama is at the Opelika Sportsplex, which has 12 pickleball courts.

There is not yet any official pickleball league in Homewood, but recreation officials are considering whether to start one. For now, the city is just making the courts available to anyone who wants to come play. On a typical day, about 30 people show up, but the number sometimes is higher on cold and rainy days when people who play outdoor pickleball are looking for an indoor spot, Stephens said.

The courts at the Community Center are available for pickleball between about 6:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., with 8 a.m. to noon being the busiest time, he said. There are a lot of regulars who come four to five days a week, he said.

Most of the people who come to play in Homewood are in their 60s and 70s, but it’s really a sport for all ages, Stephens said.

Graham Holmes, a 60-year-old Homewood resident, is one of the regulars and said there are younger women who come to the Community Center to walk who also have started playing pickleball. And once you start, it’s hard to stop, Holmes said. “It’s really addictive.”

He grew up playing tennis in Homewood and first saw pickleball while on vacation in Hilton Head, he said. There were easily 100 people playing on 10 courts. He thought it looked like a foolish sport and dismissed it, he said. Then, in May 2021, he had a friend invite him to see the pickleball courts at Heardmont Park in Shelby County.

“I just went to see what it looked like, but within a couple minutes, they had me on the courts to play,” he said. “It’s the most welcoming, friendly community of people anywhere. You can go to any city, any place, and they just welcome you.”

Scoring can be a little tricky to understand at first, but it’s an easy sport to play, and the regulars are quick to explain the rules and help introduce others to it, he said.

Every venue has its own rules to follow for use of the courts, but in Homewood, people frequently play doubles, and the winning team usually splits up and takes on new partners, Holmes said. That keeps people from dominating and allows you to meet new people, he said.

Holmes said he has made more friends since he started playing pickleball than he has in a lifetime of tennis.

Massey Gentry, a 77-year-old Homewood resident, said he grew up playing tennis and started playing pickleball a little over a year ago. “It’s great. I love it. I play every day,” he said.

While it’s for all ages, “it’s much more accommodating for people that are a little older,” he said. “It doesn’t require the physical acumen that tennis does — not as much running. It’s more of a net game than a baseline game, and the court is not as big.”

But it’s still a competitive game and great exercise, Gentry said. And he likes the co-ed nature of it. “The women I play with are every bit as good or better than I am.”

To learn more about pickleball, go to usapickleball.org.