By Kristen Levine
Pickleball, a sport that looks like tennis and plays like a fast-paced combination of badminton and ping pong, has been gaining popularity with players of all ages. The presence of the sport in Sterling is year-round with three seasons on the West Sterling tennis courts, and a winter court in the great hall of First Church in Sterling. The court, taped out across the hall’s floor into two separate playing fields for players, sees attendance of at least a dozen every Wednesday.
“We’ve been playing [in Sterling] for about seven years,” said Gary Menin, the Pickleball Coordinator for the Sterling Senior Center’s league. “It got popular in the summertime, and we were looking for venues to do it in the wintertime, one was the Boys & Girls Club in Leominster, the St. John parish hall in Clinton…. someone was a pickleball player and [attended] First Church, and they inquired about using the rec hall here for pickleball, and it worked out pretty good.”
While masks are required by the church, proof of vaccination is not, and the league requests only a small donation each session from players, “as thanks to the church for their generosity for us to use the space,” Menin said.
Like many aspects of life in the past three years, Covid has affected attendance of the indoor sessions. Menin noted that, “Covid kind of put a damper on things…. we used to have too many people here, actually, and people would get discouraged because they wouldn’t get a chance to play.”
Despite the dip in attendance, Menin noted that the sport’s popularity among Sterling’s older athletes keeps consistent interest in the Wednesday meetups. “As long as we can get twelve people per session on a regular basis, I think that would be measured as a success,” he said.
That success is also established by the easygoing nature of the games played. The Senior Center league’s goal is not hard competition but a space that is open to all players as a social and exercise space.
“The intent here is to be socially encouraging and physically encouraging,” Menin said. “We try to split it up so we don’t have beginners playing with more advanced players, because that’s also discouraging to people. [And] if you’re more advanced and playing with a beginner, you’re not going to get the exercise…and likewise for beginners, we try to match up people.”
With the focus on keeping skill levels to their own tiers rather than mixing up and leading to frustration instead of fun, the players are given specific times to play: from 4:00 to 5:30 beginners rule the courts, and from 5:30 to 7:00 more advanced players take their turns. This enables all players a chance to play, exercise and socialize.
“Moving around is important, especially for this age group,” Menin said. “It’s important that people get out and move around….and socially to meet other people and move around. It’s like taking a medicine; [pickleball is] a good prescription.”