By Mark Dent
mark.dent@indystar.com
The pickleball story begins in a high school gymnasium.
Rick would take attendance and then make us run.
He was the physical education teacher at my high school, the old school P.E. teacher. I suspect plenty of us have had gym teachers like Rick. He owned a dry wit that even British adults wouldn't find funny and almost never called students by their first names.
Rick (I'll keep the last name out of this) made us run laps every day. We ran until we answered one of his trivia questions correctly. It was always something that sounded easy -- Who was the first NCAA Tournament champion in basketball? -- but difficult enough to never get the answer. We ran a lot of laps.
Rick smirked when we ran. He loved knowing the answer and, even more, he loved knowing we didn't. Rick also loved pickleball.
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Rex Lawler is the one with sports goggles the size of magnifying glasses. He's wearing a lime green T-shirt -- make that pickle green -- and right now, as the sun fades on this June night and the cars keep pulling up to the converted tennis courts, he's volleying the plastic ball with his miniature racket for another winner.
"You bring somebody good with you?" Lawler jokingly asks a friend who just arrived.
Lawler loves this. This is pickleball, his game. He's out here at Brittlebank Park in Terre Haute, the capital for Indiana pickleball, with his friends, converted racquetball and tennis players like Paul Barksdale, Mona Drake and Steve Ackman. Some come twice a day, 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., to play their new favorite sport. Tonight, like every Wednesday, they're playing mixed doubles and laughing with good company.
"You got greedy there, Mona," Ackman says after a point. "It looked like a big watermelon in front of you."
Maybe you've never heard of pickleball. Think of it this way: Pickleball is like miniature tennis -- smaller racket, smaller court and a plastic ball that sounds like hitting a pingpong ball in a megaphone when you smack it. You play to 11 and can score only while serving. The best strategy is to rush the net so you can volley the ball at a fast speed. Although the game is popular in physical education classes, senior citizens are most likely to play it.
Lawler, 71, first saw pickleball about five years ago. He was in St. George, Utah, for the World Senior Games. He was a racquetball player then, a good one. Years ago, Lawler won national championships in the sport. But injuries wore him down, he had to get an artificial ball in his shoulder, and racquetball became a grind.
So Lawler watched the pickleball game. He saw the smaller courts and thought it might be a fun way to transition from racquetball.
Barksdale knew about the game, too. He played it in Arizona, where he has lived every winter for the past few years.
One day, back in Terre Haute, he went to Lawler's sporting goods store, trying to introduce Lawler to the game and start a pickleball club. Lawler not only knew about pickleball, but he had just bought rackets and balls, and they were sitting in boxes.
"(Barksdale) about fell over when he saw the equipment," Lawler said.
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There was one way to avoid the laps. Actually, probably more than one. But I remember this one way. If someone in my class beat Rick in pickleball, no one would have to run a lap the rest of the year. It was that easy.
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The two men organized a group. They started by drawing chalk lines on the tennis courts at Deming Park. Then, in 2006, they wanted their own courts. Barksdale and Lawler petitioned the city to fix Brittlebank Park. The city gave the men some money, and last year, Terre Haute had its first official pickleball courts.
The players are making good use of them. They hosted a tournament earlier this summer, and about 45 people play regularly, either in the morning or night. They find newcomers wherever they can.
"Mike Effner works at a funeral home," Barksdale said, "and I recruited him out of a funeral."
"I've been out every day since," Effner said.
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No one beat Rick.
He would stay on the baseline and whack the plastic ball over the net and past any of his opponents. None of us knew how to play. None us had a real chance.
All of us had to run.
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The sun slips down further, until it almost tucks completely behind the nearby houses. Most of the cars have pulled away from the grass, but Lawler still has time for one more game.
He knows pickleball. He knows all the tricks, all the strategies. That's why at 71, he says he can still beat Deli Stinnett, a 19-year-old top racquetball player.
In this doubles game, I watch Lawler, sports goggles wrapped around his head, rush the net and slam the ball for another point, rarely making an error.
Because of this I know. If Lawler faced Rick on the pickleball court, Lawler would destroy him.
Additional Facts
What is Pickleball?
Think tennis with a smaller racket, smaller court and a plastic ball. Games are played to 11 and the best strategy is to rush the net. The sport was invented in 1965 in Washington state and got its name from a co-inventor's dog, Pickles.
Where to play
Jim Thompson leads games at Wellington Northeast in Noblesville most weekdays. If interested, e-mail Thompson at jt9999@prodigy.net
Brittlebank Park in Terre Haute has pickleball games daily at 8 a.m., and on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday at 6 p.m.
More on pickleball
Go to the USA Pickleball Association's Web site: usapa.org.
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