»ANNOUNCER: Last time on I Heart Pickleball we met Pickleball Ken in Colorado.
This time we travel to the San Diego area to meet the Dawson family,
and hear how pickleball has breathed new life into the Bobby Riggs Tennis Club.
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»I Heart Pickleball is powered by Hyland's Leg Cramps, proud supporter of pickleball players
everywhere. »STEVE DAWSON: Bobby Riggs was the former
#1 tennis player in the world, famous for being the only person
ever in the history of tennis to win Wimbledon in singles and doubles
and mixed doubles the same year. And he also became famous for his battle
of the sexes matches against Billie Jean King. He goes down in history as one of the great
tennis figures of all time. I'm Steve Dawson. This is my
wife, Jennifer. »JENNIFER: I'm a tennis pro here at Bobby Riggs Tennis Club. I've been a
tennis pro for probably about 30 years. »STEVE: Bobby Riggs Tennis Club is
located in Encinitas, CA. Perhaps most famous based upon the
museum we're sitting in which is the Bobby Riggs Tennis Museum. It's host of his
three Wimbledon trophies, his US Open trophies and the memorabilia he's collected through his
entire life. Once upon a time, three people
came here to the club. They were a group of stranded pickleballers
that had just exited a tennis club down the street because
that club no longer made them feel welcome. »JAY: Approximately three years ago,
myself and another lady decided to come over
here. »STEVE: And they came here and said, "Steve, can we play here on a
weekend afternoon?" »JAY: He was tennis all the way, and he
was a little bit standoffish. However we convinced him to
allow us to try to play pickleball here at the facility. »STEVE: Saturday and Sundays are dead.
I'll give you the courts from 2-5 when no one's here anyway.
Put down your lines. They would actually come in and tape them down Saturday afternoon,
and then take them back up Saturday evening because people would play tennis on Sunday morning.
And then they'd tape them back down again. So this would go on. »JENNIFER: A lot of taping. »STEVE: Yeah! Six
months this went on. »CHUCK: I do remember putting tape down, and
I was really good at putting my foot on the tape and letting somebody else do
the pulling. »STEVE: It started with maybe 15 people, and six months later it was probably
60 or 70. »JAY: Steve got involved and he learned to play the game of pickleball.
Well, he loved it. »JENNIFER: When Steve brought pickleball into
Bobby Riggs, I was kind of not really sure of it. But then Steve
really got hooked right away. I mean, when he first started, he just could not
stop playing pickleball. He loved it. And he was trying to get me for about
6 months to a year trying to get me to play. And then finally I
did, and I fell in love it. »JAY: And so we convinced him to
lay down pickleball lines on his existing tennis courts. »STEVE: So we
sort of put down permanent lines that didn't interfere with the tennis lines.
Three of our seven courts were dual-purpose courts, tennis
and pickleball. »JAY: In June of last year, Steve was in the process of
completely re-vamping the whole tennis surface. »STEVE: The courts got bad, the courts were cracked up.
We had to resurface them, so since we're resurfacing anyway,
why don't we convert one of the courts to permanent pickleball
courts. It just so happened to be our stadium tennis court was the court
that we converted to four permanent courts. But at least it gave pickleball it's own
side of the club so that it could have pickleball on one side, tennis on the
other. We debuted those four permanent courts out there at the SoCal Classic a year
ago. That was the coming out party for the permanent courts at Bobby Riggs. »JAY: And in the
three years, we have now grown it to where we are playing seven days a week here. Sometimes
open play twice a day. »STEVE: And since the permanent courts, I think our growth is like
tripled in pickleball. It's really made a big difference.
♪♪ energetic, inspiring music ♪♪ »JENNIFER: Both our boys
are addicted to pickleball. Love it. »CALLAN: When I first saw pickleball, I
thought it was pretty weird. And eventually one of the neighbors, this little 12 year old kid, was like,
"Hey, Callan, come play with me in this little social tournament." And I was like all right.
And then ever since then I got hooked and been playing 2-3 times a week ever since.
»STEVE: Callan and I have played one tournament together in our lives and it was
Nationals 2015 where we made it all the way to the finals coming through the
back draw. We played like 10 matches or 10 hours. That's one of the great things about pickleball.
Here is a father/son going to the national championship of a sport. How great is that?
But I was just totally thrilled with being there and being there with my son. To me that was the greatest
thing that pickleball has brought to my life. »CALLAN: That's what makes pickleball such an awesome sport,
is that, I mean, I can go out there and play two 19 year old kids and have a blast.
But I can also play someone like my dad or Scott Moore who are almost
thirty years older than me, and I still try my absolute hardest. And it's still a
great game. And it's still just as fun. »STEVE: Our kids' grandpa and grandparents are out here playing.
My two boys play regularly with them. Their aunts and uncles play. Their cousins
play. So, literally, on any given weekend, you'll have three generations of Dawsons
and Larkings out here. »NAN: Jennifer Dawson is my sister. And
we grew up playing tennis together since we were little kids. Steve and Jennifer
instituted pickleball here. At first I was reluctant because I was
already so invested in tennis. But my husband and I are empty nesters now,
and we really wanted to find something to do together. And so we
thought we'll try pickleball. We can learn together and start at the same place. So,
we've been playing pickleball ever since. »STEVE: Bobby Riggs Tennis Club is a
place where both tennis and pickleball succeed and grow equally.
And people of both sports come together and make this whole facility happen. We coexist like
that little bumper sticker. »JENNIFER: I'm still really involved in tennis,
traveling around the world and playing tournaments and representing the U.S.
in the International Cup Team. A lot of times people will say, "Oh, I can't play
pickleball while I'm playing tennis because it's going to screw up my swing."
But I've found that it actually helps my tennis.
»STEVE: We'll both play tennis today and we'll both play pickleball tonight. She has a tennis tournament in South Africa.
Then we're going to go to... »JENNIFER: US Open »STEVE: US Open for pickleball. »MICHELLE: My name is
Michelle Granieri. I've been playing tennis most of my life. I decided to take up pickleball
at the end of the summer. My husband is not a tennis player and
decided we wanted to try a sport together. Honestly, I think we were hooked
after the first lesson. We were able to go play matches that same day
and compete, and it's been really fun. We play twice a week
together and I still also play tennis twice a week.
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♪♪ inspirational music ♪♪ »JENNIFER: Well, I think pickleball plays a
huge part of the community here at Bobby Riggs because it just brings so many people
together, whether you are a pickleball player, tennis player, squash player, badminton
player, raquetball, I mean, all these people come together.
»MICHELLE: I love Bobby Riggs Tennis Club for the friendly community. I love being able
to play a day of tennis here and I can walk over and play pickleball
all in the same day. »NAN: I am ecstatic that Jennifer and Steve brought pickleball
here. It was a sport I was reluctant to try. But now that
I've dipped my feet into it, I'm thoroughly hooked. I'm not
ever going to give up tennis. I've been playing it for my entire life. And I'm happy that
I can play pickleball and tennis and hopefully do it for the rest of my life.
»STEVE: If a tennis club is considering pickleball to enhance the
experience for the members and financially bring in more
revenue, I would say it's crazy to not have pickleball. Because often
times they're done on different hours and different days. So, it
makes no sense to have courts sit there and bake in the sun when they could be generating
revenue with a growing population of pickleball players. »JENNIFER: And I think
if you're debating whether you should bring pickleball into
the club, I think you can always try it the way we did by first taping some
lines, bring in some portable nets. And then you'll kind of
go in stages. »CALLAN: It seems like there's always people here and just makes the club seem more
packed and more crowded and more things going on. Yeah, because there's always people here.
»CHUCK: Well, what I like about the Bobby Riggs Tennis Club is the staff and
management. They have embraced pickleball in such a fashion that
we've been able to grow this tremendously. »JAY: It was great being here
in the beginning of pickleball. I see the future as continually
growing. »STEVE: Bobby Riggs was not just a tennis player,
but a paddle tennis player. And he loved all sports with paddles and balls. So
if Bobby Riggs were alive today there is no doubt that he would be
thoroughly addicted to pickleball and playing pickleball everyday here at the Bobby Riggs Tennis Club.
♪♪ inspirational music fades ♪♪ »ANNOUNCER: No matter where you are
pickleball can bring us together to celebrate community, learn new things and have
fun. If you know someone we should feature on a future episode, we would love
to hear from you. All you have to do is send us an email and tell us your idea.
This episode of I Heart Pickleball has been brought to you by
Hyland's Leg Cramps, America's #1 over-the-counter leg cramp medicine.
For more information, go to Hylands.com
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