Macomb Township

Pickleball grows popular nationwide and in Macomb

By Robert Guttersohn
C & G Staff Writer

» click to enlarge « Photo by Erin Sanchez Donna Beski and Paul Kilimas, both from Macomb, play Pickleball at the Macomb Township Recreation Center. Photo by Erin Sanchez Donna Beski and Paul Kilimas, both from Macomb, play Pickleball at the Macomb Township Recreation Center.

MACOMB TOWNSHIP — While growing up, Kathy Western, 59, said she was never really athletic.

When she retired, she was looking for an easy way to stay in shape. So she joined the township’s recreation center, where she was introduced to the sport Pickleball.

“The first hour I played, I knew I was hooked,” Western said.

Now, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday she is one of dozens of senior citizens packing into the gymnasium where the Pickleball courts are housed.

She is a part of a growing number of Macomb Township senior citizens — and seniors nationwide — using the sport to keep both mentally and physically fit with a game that requires both hand-eye coordination and side-to-side agility.

The United States of America Pickleball Association proclaims the sport’s popularity to be growing fast among senior citizens across the country. The association’s website says the name comes from the founder’s dog Pickle, who repeatedly stole the whiffle ball used in the game.

Connie Schultz, a Macomb Township resident, brought the game to the township after she fell in love with it in 2009. A friend of her and her husband taught them how to play. “He took us outdoors one day and showed us how to play, and we were hooked immediately,” Schultz, 63, said.

The easiest way to describe the sport is that it is a life-size version of ping-pong.

“It’s scored like ping-pong,” said Phil Ciaramitaro, 70. “You play it on a badminton-size court and you use a solid paddle versus a webbed paddle, and you use a whiffle ball.” He too became addicted to the game at the recreation center and has become one of its main enthusiasts in metro Detroit. He’s even gone as far as starting his own Pickleball paddle business and has become one of many who sell the customized paddles to new players.

“It’s a very addicting sport,” Ciaramitaro said.

Despite its similarity to other racket and paddle sports, Pickleball enthusiasts say it is easy for those who have never played tennis or badminton to pick up.

“I’m one of them,” Ciaramitaro said.

After retirement, Ciaramitaro played 35 to 40 rounds of golf every summer. Then he discovered Pickleball at the recreation center.

“I have not played a single game of golf this year,” Ciaramitaro said.

Like Western, he joined the recreation center in order to stay in shape.

“As you can see as you walk down this hallway, you have to pass this gym,” Ciaramitaro said. “And each time I walked by, I walked a little slower. And before you know it, I got my nose pressed against the window and somebody in there invited me in.”

And the rest is history for him.

Now he is playing Pickleball five days a week at the recreation center and all over Macomb County.

He and Western have become official ambassadors for the sport, setting up courts in Ray and Washington townships, plus Eastpointe, and he’s now trying to make it a sport in high school.

But it’s more than just the fun of the sport that draws him to it.

“I have found a brand-new family,” he said. “We are just so close that everyone is legitimately concerned about everyone. And I like that.”

The Pickleball court is 20 feet by 44 feet. It is played with four people, two to a team. A non-volley area, known as the kitchen, near the net prevents taller and more agile players from simply blocking the ball.

It’s a game of honesty, Ciaramitaro explained. Outside of tournaments, there are no line judges. The team closest to where a ball lands close to a boundary line is responsible for judging whether the ball is in or out of bounds.

“And what they say goes,” Ciaramitaro said.

“There’s a variety of physical abilities,” Schultz said while inside the gymnasium, where four Pickleball courts are filled with people 55 years and up. Bleachers behind the courts are filled with gear and people waiting for the next open spot. And the gymnasium is filled with a rhythmic paddle smacking sound, like a metronome.

“The court is smaller; it’s great exercise; and you come here to play leisurely or play competitively because we have a large range of skill levels,” Schultz said.

The game is continually growing in Macomb.

The recreation center has been forced to increase hours designated for senior citizen Pickleball in order to fit the demand.

Organizers say the sport’s best advertising tool is curiosity toward the game.

“Sometimes in the locker room I’ll come in with (one of the paddles) and people will say, ‘Oh, you’re one of those Pickleball players,’” Western said.

The sports growth is nationwide.

Schultz said the USAPA keeps track of all Pickleball courts around the country.

“It seems like every week, some place in the country, they’re making notice that there are new courts being made,” Schultz said.

In the future, Western would like to see more outdoor courts in Michigan, while Ciaramitaro sees even greater things for the game.

“I firmly believe in enough time it will be an Olympic sport,” Ciaramitaro said.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Robert Guttersohn at rguttersohn@candgnews.com or at (586)218-5006.