Boredom left you in a pickle? Sport finds a new home
Staff writer
The unmistakable pck! pck! pck! of a wiffle ball on a plastic paddle came to Marion in 2021, as a few brave souls began trying out a new sport on city tennis courts.
Soon after, Jimmy Shipman, recreational director at Marion High School, began the city’s first pickleball league.
The sport, a downsized, rebranded kind of tennis (drop-shots are “dinks”; the service box is the “kitchen”) was in the throws of exploding in popularity.
According to a Sports and Fitness Association report, the number of U.S. pickleballers rose 223.5% from 2020 to 2024, with much of that jump coming as the COVID-19 pandemic relaxed in 2021.
Shipman’s league began with 16 two-person teams. The number has grown since then; this fall’s league has the most teams yet, 32.
Much of that growth is because of a new indoor facility next to the football field. It includes pickleball courts, except in summer.
Shipman’s league relocated from the middle school gym — where pickleballers played on basketball courts — to the indoor space.
“People wanted to get in there and see the new facility,” Shipman said.
Though the facility includes a weight room and a concession stand, it seems tailor-made for pickleball.
The courts are modern and manicured and take up almost all of the floor space.
The Marion league is made up of four brackets — two competitive (“real”) and two non-competitive (“chill”) — each with eight teams.
It costs $30 to register a team.
Matches are organized when Shipman mails out a schedule each week.
No refs, either; on the court, the honor system rules.
“It’s nice that there’s not a set time,” said Mickey Lundy, who plays with her daughter, Lily, on the “Fickle Pickles.”
“It’s something different,” said Jessica Moore, whose team, “Pickled Sisters,” played the Lundys last Wednesday. “It’s nice that they have the facility here.”
Moore; her sister, Rachel Siebert; and the Lundys are all fairly new to the sport and compete in the “chill” bracket.
They highlighted pickleball’s accessibility and trendiness as reasons they were drawn to it.
“You can play indoors, and it’s a little less strenuous than tennis,” Mickey Lundy said. “I don’t know. It’s just such a big rage right now. Everyone’s doing it in the cities.”
Moore added: “They opened this facility and we have it; we might as well use it. Marion’s small, and there’s not a whole lot else to do.”
Shipman similarly cited accessibility as a reason why people appreciated the league.
“Once you hit a certain age, there’s no more real sports for you to do,” he said. “It’s one of those sports that you can still get out and be a little active with. … It’s not high maintenance, and it gets you a little workout in.”
Marion’s league is 18-and-older and features a wide age range of players.
“[Lily]’s 22, and I’m 61,” said Mickey Lundy. “And there’s a couple guys older than me playing.”
Even those younger than 18 have taken to pickleball.
Seibert and Moore both said their kids taught them how to play. Local high schoolers sometimes turn out during gym period to play at the facility.
After the season concludes, Shipman will begin a spring league or merge with a league in Hillsboro.
“I had heard rumors that Hillsboro might try to do an outdoor league in the spring,” he said. “So if they’re going to do that, we’ll just feed off them and try to get some of our guys over there.”
Shipman also would like to begin a pick-up night with free play.
While the pickleball boom reached urban areas a couple years ago — it was late 2022 when the New York Times published its analysis, “Why Is Pickleball So Popular?” — it seems still to be approaching its peak in Marion.
“I would assume it just takes a little bit longer to get to the smaller areas than the big cities,” Shipman said.