Pickleball, which has been described as a combination of tennis, badminton, and ping pong, has grown throughout the U.S. and locally within Finger Lakes. The sport’s origins date back to 1957, when three dads on Seattle's Bainbridge Island invented modern day pickleball.

 

Pickleball is played with small paddles and a wiffle ball and is revered for its quick-to-learn rules and socialization aspect.

 

In New York, the pickleball trend began trickling in a few years ago. In Naples NY, the Town of Naples just announced the development of six new pickleball courts in the Naples Community Park.

 

Pickleball only recently gained its national attention. A number of factors are behind the sport’s rise in popularity. Social activity of pickleball has pushed the growth of the sport along more than anything. Pickleball, began as a pandemic-era pastime, allowing people to interact outdoors in a safer manner.  The beauty of the sport is its accessibility to people of all kinds - playing with people that are eight or 10 years old, and played with people that are 88 years old, on the same court, and I don't think you could find a sport out there that you can do that same thing.

 

USA Pickleball reports that 4.8 million Americans are now pickleballers, and that number has grown more than 11 percent annually for the past five years now. However, communities will be the ultimate deciders of the sport’s growth.

 

There is a need for the courts in the Naples Community and the Naples Rotary Pickleball Complex at Deusenbery Fields is where the courts are going. Tony Deusenbery, a Naples Rotarian, has been spearheading this along with fellow Naples Rotarian, Marty Gordon.