»ANNOUNCER: Last time on "I Heart Pickleball" we met Bob and
Jetty Lanius. This month we travel to meet New England's first ambassador,
George Rice, and hear how pickleball is growing in beautiful and historic
Cape Cod. ♪♪ upbeat music ♪♪
♪♪ upbeat music ♪♪
»"I Heart Pickleball" is powered by Hyland's Leg Cramps, proud supporter
of pickleball players everywhere. »GEORGE: I'm George Rice.
I live on Cape Cod. In 2007 I
went to Florida, and I happened to stop by to visit one of my neighbors.
He said, "Let me show you something that's very popular here." So, we went over
and there was my first exposure to pickleball. When I
came back, there was not a single place in New England, all six states,
places to play. The nearest ambassador to me was in Albany,
NY. I lived in a community with four tennis courts. So,
I then went and bought four paddles, and we started pickleball in my community.
» PAUL: My name is Paul Rogers. I live here in Falmouth,
Massachusetts, and I met George through a connection to the Cape Cod Curling Club.
And George asked me if I wanted to get introduced to another brand new sport, to me anyhow,
pickleball, which George learned about in Florida. And he asked me if I wanted
to learn a little bit more of pickleball, and I said sure. And I've been playing ever since.
»STEVE: I'm Steve Whittlesey. George taught us how to play, taught us the rules,
and I've been a regular player. »GEORGE: And I decided, okay, if I'm really going to do this,
I ought to join the Pickleball Association, US Pickleball
Association. So, I filled out the form. And down in the corner was a little
box that said, "Check here if you want to promote the sport." I checked. I didn't know what that meant.
And I didn't know what was going to happen. And two weeks
later, I got a stack of these business cards in the mail that said
I am now an official ambassador. ♪♪ energetic piano music ♪♪
»I wanted to go to a public place where anybody can play. So,
I went to the Barnstable Recreation Department. »PATTI: George Rice
came in and talked about pickleball.
And I laughed at him. First off you're going to have to explain what pickleball is.
I was like, I think we can figure something out because it's a new sport and a new activity,
and let's see what happens! We started slow. We started with two courts so that we could
get the public on it. »GEORGE: Well, when I got permission to use the public courts,
I now was able to put this on the US Pickleball website.
Anybody could come, and they did. People just started showing up. »RUSSELL: My name
is Russell Weitzen. I heard about this game, pickleball, they were playing at The Villages.
And guys said, oh they loved it. It's so much fun. So, I said, as soon as I heard that,
I knew I was going to like this game. One of my fellow softball players said
this fellow named George who lives in Marston's Mills, and they play pickleball there at a school.
So I said, oh, that's great. I'll look up the school. And that's what I did, and there was
George Rice and he introduced me to the game. And I've been playing for five years now.
»GEORGE: Tennis players would come to play tennis, and first thing you know, we had them playing pickleball.
And they loved it. »JOHN: My name is John DeFeo. My wife and I are
tennis players. We went to the court one day to practice our serves, and there
was George Rice playing pickleball with seven other folks. So, we
tried it and it was fun, and we're still doing it. »PATTI: The town of
Barnstable, the pickleball program has really given us an opportunity to have multi-
use on our tennis courts and expanded use. So, our courts are being used
pretty much all the time. Which is great. We want to see as many active
people as possible. »GEORGE: We play pickleball outside as long as we can. We play until
the snow flies. But there's eventually when the snow's on the courts, we
have to go inside. And then we come to this facility,
the Hyannis Youth and Community Center. And this is where we play all winter long.
»JOE: I'm Joe Izzo, general manager of the Hyannis Youth and Community Center, and
we are thrilled to have the pickleball group use our facility.
And it is just great to have this group of energetic and nice people come and use our building.
And it really brings in a different element to our building and helps us attract
more people to our space, which has been great. »GEORGE: There were other towns
where people had been exposed to pickleball but didn't have a place to play.
I would find out who they were and go visit with them. We would go to the rec department
together, and then once we got playing, I didn't have to go back. They would take over
and run that town. »BRIAN: I am Brian Wallace, and I play pickleball
in Sandwich. And I got involved in it 7 years ago, and somehow or another, George and I
hooked up. Between him and my wife and myself, it seems like it's in every town in the Cape
now. »GEORGE: Now all the tennis courts are going to be relabeled "pickleball
and tennis courts". And the nice thing now is these courts are going to be resurfaced
this year, and they're going to be dual painted, pickleball and tennis courts.
Being an ambassador certainly
opens the doors. I went on the website the other day just to see how it's changed.
And when there were no ambassadors in the six New England states,
now there are 54 ambassadors and 197 places to
play. You just watch this sport grow. And you watch the people who
play it. They just become so addicted to it. »JOHN: Almost every week that we come here
there are new people because George, he keeps sending information out
and the people, the place is growing, the number of people are growing.
»JOE: George is a great ambassador for the sport. His energy level is incredible.
And everyone here in the facility loves him and it's great to have him around.
»GEORGE: And something about pickleball players, they are a special breed.
I mean, we get along great. Now I've made friends all over Cape Cod.
And I never would have met them if I hadn't been active in the sport.
»BRIAN: He's been a big pusher for getting it going Cape wide, especially on Hyannis.
That's worked out well for the winter. »STEVE: George is the organizer
behind it all, and you know, he makes a contract with the youth center, he
does this, he emails people, so he's been a force. He's been the glue.
»GEORGE: When I checked that box, I didn't know what I was checking. I didn't know what was going to
happen. But of course it made me an ambassador of the sport. It was a surprise
that caught me, but I really love it. Eight years I've been doing
this, and I'd love to keep doing it and doing it. I'm 79 years old.
That's one thing nice about pickleball. You can play it when you're 8, you can play it when you're 88.
And I'm going to keep doing it. I may have become an ambassador by accident,
but sometimes accidents can lead to really great things.
»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 Hyland's.com.
♪♪ upbeat music ♪♪
♪♪ music fades ♪♪