It was the summer of pickleball in Iowa, and courts are popping up all over — even on farms

The plastic pop of a pickleball was a familiar sound this summer. Players across the state paddled the hollow, perforated balls in parks, recreation centers and even sports bars fitted with their own set of courts. They laughed, shouted and careened across tennis courts freshly painted with additional pickleball lines, their arms outstretched to make match point across the lowered nets. They joined leagues, took classes and made friends to the satisfying crack of the ball connecting with their paddles, available in countless different colors and designs.

Over the past few years, pickleball has exploded across the country, and it’s maintained its reign as the fastest-growing sport in America . While the game — an addictive and fast-paced cross between tennis, badminton and table tennis — is not new ( it was invented in the ‘60s ), its sudden surge in popularity has led to courts popping up across Iowa to meet the demand of the players, young and old, who have flocked to parks and recreation centers to get their fix.

“It can be competitive. It can be social. It can be kind of anything you want it to be,” said Stephanie Mehmen, general manager of Pickle Palace , which opened in Cedar Rapids’ developing Kingston Yard area in January.

The restaurant and event space is suited with four indoor and two outdoor pickleball courts, and Mehmen said the business has been "wonderful" through their first summer. Their leagues fill up quickly and their location is buzzy, with a new Big Grove next door and a green space for live music and entertainment right outside.

Mehmen said while there was a general understanding that pickleball was already popular among senior Iowans, they've also seen more young people coming in than they anticipated.

“We thought, initially, it was going to be an older demographic, that that older generation would come in and play during the day. We have found that it's a lot of younger people, young business professionals, a lot of families that want to spend their weekend here,” she said. “I think it's a younger demo than what we thought, but we're definitely, thankfully, as busy as we'd hoped.”

She attributes the sport’s recent spike in popularity to how easy the game is to pick up. It appeals to people of all age groups and athletic abilities, it's fairly affordable to start playing and there’s been an increasing number of low-stakes social environments, like Pickle Palace, serving as spaces to learn how to play.

As summer fades, indoor spaces will become even more popular. Dinks Pickleball in Des Moines opened last fall with 13 indoor courts to help meet the need. Indoor courts can also be found across the state in rec centers and clubs. However, these spaces are overwhelmingly only available for a fee, often with a waiting list, and only in abundance in urban areas, like Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Davenport.

But pickleball has taken hold in rural Iowa, too, where older Iowans are keen to find fun ways to stay active. As winter approaches, retired phone line installer Dave Flexsenhar and his wife Mary Beth will soon stop their weekly visits to the courts at the park, three miles away from their farm in Winthrop.

In the early 2000s, the farm was home to 100 head of cattle, kept by Mary Beth's brother, and the barn was full of hay. Now, the estimated 75-year-old barn's lower level and neighboring shed are museums of dusty relics: fences, equipment, Flexsenhar's old running medals and winter sleds, guarded sleepily by three female farm cats (Peanut Butter, Fluff — and Carl). But up the narrow steps and through a trapdoor Flexsenhar's fashioned, the upper hay loft has been cleared of old cupboards and four-wheeler parts and fitted with a regulation-sized pickleball court. In the wintertime, the couple plays at least once a week with a small group of friends.

"It's a fun way to get exercise, interact with your friends," Flexsenhar said from the edge of the blue court, his voice echoing beneath the barn's high, vaulted roof. There's a basketball net hung above one end of the space and a collection of balls in the corner for his 12 grandkids to play with when they visit.

And sure, there's an indoor court a town over in Manchester. Make the ten mile drive, and there's another in Aurora. But those courts aren't always free, and Flexsenhar says it's more convenient this way.

"When we have to do that, we have to set up our net. We don't have the permanent boundaries. We use temporary markers," he said. "This way, it's all right here, and it's simple."

Flexsenhar says he's not the only one to think of converting his barn into a court, and he's happy to share it with his friends. When they get together, the loft fills with yelps and grunts, tennis shoe squeaks and plenty of good-natured cursing. They've even made their own shirts poking fun at themselves and their most popular phrases on the court — "Were you [server] one or two?" "What's the score?" and "Who just served?"

"We play for fun, but we play seriously," Flexsenhar said. "But when it's over, you don't remember if you won or lost."