»ANNOUNCER: Last time on "I Heart Pickleball", we met
George Rice from Cape Cod. This month we travel to exciting Las Vegas, NV
to meet ambassador John Sloan and hear how pickleball is growing in the City of Lights.
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»"I Heart Pickleball" is powered by Hyland's Leg Cramps, proud supporter of
pickleball players everywhere. »JOHN: My name is John Sloan.
I'm a USAPA ambassador, and I play pickleball in
Las Vegas, NV. There are a lot of nice things to do in Las Vegas. You can go to
shows. You can socialize. My wife and I like pickleball the best,
and we spend a lot of time doing that. Several years ago my wife and I were
visiting up in St. George, UT, and I heard this noise in the distance and I wanted
to go investigate it. I saw this game that I had never seen before,
and I was so enthused about what I saw that I came back to Las Vegas, to
Siena, tried to promote it. As I was learning how to play and I was
trying to get pickleball started in the community where I live, I decided that
maybe I would become an ambassador, having read a lot on the USAPA
website. I think every ambassador kind of has his or her own way
of doing thing. In my case it was working with younger people, introducing
them to the game, and trying to find new venues, dedicated public
facilities so more people can play the game, more families can play the game.
There are several communities around Las Vegas that now have pickleball,
but they are gated communities and the public can't play there. A couple of
years ago I was asked by the Durango Hills YMCA to come up
and give an exhibition of pickleball because they wanted to introduce pickleball to their
members. »COLLEEN: My name is Colleen Beck. I'm the Health & Wellnes Sports Director here at the
Durango Hills YMCA. We were asked if we would host pickleball.
So we found John Sloan here who is a pickleball ambassador.
»JOHN: And when I parked my car there was a big fenced enclosure with lights.
So I went into the Y and asked them what this facility was out there.
»COLLEEN: And seeing this is a city facility, I said, "I don't know. You'll have to call the city." »JOHN: So, I contacted the
city to find out if there was any interest in maybe turning that into
a pickleball facility. »COUNCILMAN ANTHONY: When John Sloan came up to my office, he
said there were no public access pickleball courts in
the state of Nevada. He wanted to talk about maybe setting up some pickleball
courts in some of the parks in my ward where people would have access to them
all the time. And I said, "Absolutely! Let's go take a look."
And there was a roller hockey rink out there, and according to everybody that I spoke
to nobody was using it. »JOHN: So, it's a matter of demonstrating to all of these
local governments how important pickleball can be. When they see
the fact that on a piece of real estate the size of a tennis court,
you can put 4 pickleball courts and have 16 people playing
on that space, they can see that it's a very efficient use of space.
Also, the enthusiasm that the sport brings, getting more people out to
use their public parks, it's a win-win situation. »COUNCILMAN ANTHONY: We re-tooled that
into a pickleball court. And I cannot believe how much that pickleball
court is used. »JOHN: It was amazing how the city really took the bull by the horns
and started moving along. Councilman Stavros Anthony, he got excited about it,
and kind of took it to the next level, and he made it happen. »COUNCILMAN ANTHONY: It was so successful, I
asked John, "Well, is there someplace else we can put one?" »JOHN: Currently we have dedicated
public pickleball courts in 2 city parks. We have 5 pickleball
courts at Durango Hills Park. And a mile west of there we have
4 dedicated outdoor pickleball courts in Police Memorial Park.
»COUNCILMAN: You know what, that's what the cities are supposed to be doing. We're supposed to be creating
things that people are going to use that are for the public good, and it's worked out great.
»JOHN: The dynamic of the sport of pickleball is changing dramatically in Las Vegas
now that we have these dedicated public facilities. People know that
they can take their kids there. And young adults are starting to play there.
When young people play pickleball, they find out that it is so much fun.
It's opening up a whole new horizon. I heard about this event
called Corporate Challenge that the City of Las Vegas had every year which is kind of
like a mini Olympics. And I thought that would be a good idea to expose
young people to the sport of pickleball, young working people. »DANA: So, my name is Dana
Zumbo. I work at Zappos, and my focus is growth and
opportunity for employees and progression. Corporate Challenge is an event that
was started in the city, the City of Las Vegas hosts it, and they pull all different
companies together to compete against each other in these Olympic-style events, which
is really amazing. »JOHN: We had a meeting and I proposed that
they maybe have pickleball introduced in the 2015 Corporate Challenge.
»DANA: Nobody had a clue what pickleball was, so I looked up online and
read the rules and everything, and I really sought out a couple
people that I knew might be good for pickleball. »DJ: i got an email one day that said
"Hey! There's this sport called pickleball and we need players."
»ANA: There were quite a few people who were interested, so what we did to prepare,
I went on Amazon and I noticed there was a portable net.
At work in front we have this nice, it's known as the courtyard,
so this great open space. And we started playing in the mornings like from
6:30 to 8:30 in the morning before working. »DJ: Everything we do here at
Zappos is fun. I've never showed up somewhere and it's been boring, so
you know, why not give it a try? We showed up in practice and we had a great time. It's a great
sport. »JOHN: This introduced 81 new young working
people to the game of pickleball, and they were enthusiastic about it.
»DANA: Zappos always seems to bring a lot of spirit to the
events. »JOHN: And the Zappos team actually won the tournament in their division.
I mean, these were people that never played pickleball before, but if you saw
the enthusiasm and their athleticism, you would never know it
because they played it like they had been playing for a long time. »DJ: We just absolutely
dominated the competition. We spent a lot of time practicing, getting ready for the event.
So, when we showed up, we were prepared. We made the shots we needed to make,
and... »PUA: He has a wicked serve too. So, that definitely helped us along the entire
tournament. »DJ: And we came out as champions. It was a team effort.
»DANA: It was amazing. It was a new event,
nobody had a clue what it was. We had people just step up and show up,
and they won. It was really a good kick off for us to start Corporate Challenge for the company.
»JOHN: I'm excited about the growth of pickleball in Las Vegas. It makes
me feel very proud that I may have had something to do with it.
»COLLEEN: I have to say that John has been very instrumental with us getting pickleball going here at the Durango
Hills Y. He's always there for us if we have questions, if our members have
questions. And he's just been very instrumental in growing the program
throughout the city. »COUNCILMAN: I'm actually kind of proud that John
came to my office and asked me to be the first one to actually build something that was
outdoors. It was lit so you could play at night, and
I'm proud that they're in my particular ward. And I would urge anybody who
lives in any city in the United States, if they believe pickleball would be a good
feature for their community, they should go to their city council and talk to them about it.
»JOHN: What's neat is so many people are having a lot of fun. I think that
pickleball is probably more fun than any sport I have ever played. »ANA: Actually, I said we need
to continue playing this game. So, we do keep it
up. I love it. I love it. »JOHN: It's really neat when people tell you,
"Thank you for introducing me to the game." And that's one of the greatest things about it.
»ANNOUNCER: No matter where you are, pickleball can
bring us together to celebrate community, learn new things and have fun.
If you know of 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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