Searcy (LP) You may have heard the word “PickleBall,” but have you understood the meaning or the passion of Pickleball? Many have heard it, few have felt it.
Pickleball, one of the sports played in Coach Leonard’s glorious physical education class, is a sport that captures the cravings of whomever may grasp a Pickleball paddle. 
Pickleball is a gladiator’s racquet sport that combines elements of badminton, tennis, and table tennis. Two, three, or four players use solid paddles made of wood or composite materials to hit a perforated polymer ball, similar to a wiffle ball, over a net. The sport shares features of other racquet sports, the dimensions and layout of a badminton court, and a net and rules similar to tennis, with a few modifications. Pickleball was invented in the mid 1960s as a children’s backyard pastime, but quickly became popular among adults as a fun game for players of all levels though mostly the strongest of P.E. warriors.
The game started during the summer of 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington, at the home of then State Representative Joel Pritchard who, in 1970, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for the State of Washington. He and two of his friends, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum, returned from golf and found their families bored one Saturday afternoon. They attempted to set up badminton but no one could find the shuttlecock. They improvised with a wiffle ball, lowered the badminton net, and fabricated paddles of plywood from a nearby shed.
Although some sources claim that the name “Pickleball” was derived from that of the Pritchard’s family dog, Pickles, other sources state that the claim is false, and that the name came from the term “pickle boat”, referring to the last boat to return with its catch. According to Joan Pritchard and his wife, the name came from “the Pickle Boat in crew where oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of other boats. Somehow the idea the name came from our dog Pickles was attached to the naming of the game, but Pickles wasn’t on the scene for two more years. The dog was named for the game.”
Pickleball is a sport of Spartans, gladiators, Aztec Jaguars, Green Berets, the hardest of men, and not the faint hearted. If you think you are hard enough for the trials of the Great Pickle, then stop by Coach Leonard’s P.E. class and ask him for the opportunity of participating in a glorious game of Pickleball. Hold on to your paddle.
