Pickleball: The fastest growing sport in the country

BECKLEY, WV (WVNS) — According to National Public Radio, pickleball is the nation’s fastest growing sport. The city of Beckley can attest as they have seen eight pickle ball courts pop up at New River Park over the past few years.

Pickleball has been described as a cross between tennis, ping pong, and wiffleball. The sport takes place on a smaller court than tennis, but still uses a net.

It uses what appears to be an enlarged ping pong paddle to hit a smaller sized wiffleball across the court. There are 83 members of the Beckley Pickleball Club who play it.

Vicki Stevens has been playing for seven years and it is thanks to her that pickleball came to Beckley.

“We saw it (Pickleball) back in 2017 and went and played on a Friday night, was hooked, and found out one night a week was not enough time to play,” said Stevens. “So, we went to our church parking lot, painted a pickleball court on the church parking lot, and played there for a couple of years.”

Heather Hill, another club member, has only been playing for 3 years, but has helped popularize the sport as Raleigh County’s official ambassador for pickleball.

Both Stevens and Hill said that anyone can play pickleball and encourage people to come check out the club.

That is exactly what Mary Denny did.

Denny has been playing over a little over three months and agreed that the game is truly for everyone.

“There are people out here of all different skill levels. Like you’re going to come out and you’re going to see that some people are just starting, and some people have been playing for three, five years, and everybody’s very welcoming. Like we have a good time out here and our main goal is just to have fun,” said Denny.

Her friend, Zan Hill, has been playing for three years and has competed in several pickleball tournaments in West Virginia and North Carolina.

It is not just different skill levels either.

You will see people of all ages playing pickleball out at New River Park as well. Like Charles Houck, who has been playing for around a year and half. He said that it is a great way to stay active and meet people.

“It’s very social, it is competitive, but competitive in the right way. It’s unbelievable,” said Houck.

The Beckley Pickleball Club can be found on the courts in good weather nearly every day of the week.

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