Pickleball craze hits Lake in the Hills
A Lake in the Hills retiree is responsible for bringing a sport to town that's a hit among his peers.
By June, Bob Stanko, 59, and his friends will be able to play pickleball at Leroy Guy Park on a pair of modified tennis courts.
What, never heard of it?
Pickleball, a sport combining aspects of tennis, Ping-Pong and badminton, is played with Wiffle balls and paddles not much larger than what you'd use in Ping-Pong.
The object of the game, which doesn't require as much running as tennis, is to score points by hitting the ball out of your opponent's reach. Like tennis, it can be played with two or four people.
"It's kind of a fun, addictive game," Stanko said. "It can be a social game for exercise or be a very competitive kind of cutthroat game, too."
Last Thursday, the parks and recreation board voted to draw colored lines on the park's tennis courts between the net and the service line, making the courts suitable for pickleball play. The line delineates the no-volley zone, which is 7 feet from the net.
"It's a big hit with the seniors," said Trudy Wakeman, director of parks of recreation, who played the sport when she was in college at Western Illinois University.
Stanko learned how to play pickleball two months ago while on vacation in The Villages, a retirement town in Florida.
Once he returned to Lake in the Hills, Stanko did research on the sport, discovering that other seniors play pickleball indoors at the Huntley REC Center. The sport is also catching on at St. Charles Park District.
While playing in Huntley, Stanko decided to arrange it so he and others could play outdoors in Lake in the Hills once the weather changed, then he called Wakeman to see if she could help.
He suggested the park district draw lines on the underused tennis courts at Leroy Guy Park.
"I thought it might be an easy thing just to add another sport to the facility," Stanko said.
To save money, officials will bundle the project with re-striping parking lanes or something similar. They estimate it will cost less than $100.
"It should be pretty inexpensive for us to modify courts and give people an opportunity to continue what they were doing inside," Wakeman said.