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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mary Adamy returns the ball as she plays a match of pickleball with Randy Hebson, Richard McLemore and Larry Parrish at the Finley Center on Jan. 19. New indoor pickleball courts are planned for the Finley Center in addition to new outdoor courts.
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Photos by Erin Nelson.
Groups play rounds of pickleball at the Finley Center on Jan. 19. New indoor pickleball courts are planned for the Finley Center in addition to new outdoor courts.
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Randy Hebson returns the ball as he plays a match of pickleball with Mary Adamy, Richard McLemore and Larry Parrish at the Finley Center on Jan. 19.
When the doors open at 6 a.m. weekdays at the Finley Center at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex, there are usually people waiting to get inside.
Most of them are not there for the walking track, basketball or volleyball. They’re ready and waiting to play one of America’s fastest growing sports — pickleball.
The popularity of the sport — described as a blend of tennis, badminton and table tennis — has grown so much that Hoover officials are adding more space to play the game, both indoors and outdoors.
Staff at the Finley Center originally set up equipment for three pickleball courts but have since expanded that to six courts. Courts typically are 20 feet wide and 44 feet long — about one-fourth the size of a tennis court.
But the demand has grown so much, that the Finley Center has ordered equipment to double the number of courts to 12, said John Sparks, the Sports Facilities Management vice president who oversees the Hoover Met Complex and about half a dozen other facilities.
Other than ordering new equipment, it’s simply a matter of temporarily converting space typically used for basketball or volleyball.
Also, the city of Hoover plans to add eight outdoor pickleball courts near the 16 tennis courts at the Hoover Met Complex and eight more at Veterans Park off Valleydale Road, City Administrator Allan Rice said.
“It’s a tremendous demand and a very popular sport and not enough places to play right now,” Rice said.
According to the USA Pickleball Association, the governing and rule-setting body for the sport in this country, 4.2 million Americans were playing pickleball in 2020, an increase of 21.3% from 2019.
Participation in tournaments is growing, new leagues are forming, and communities, country clubs and fitness centers across the country are converting hard-court surfaces for pickleball use and building new courts dedicated to the sport.
The Austin Pickle Ranch, a private club in Austin, Texas, has 32 dedicated pickleball courts, while The Villages near Orlando has 214 pickleball courts. One of the larger complexes in Alabama is at the Opelika Sportsplex, which has 12 pickleball courts.
In Hoover, you can find pickleball courts at places such as Lake Wilborn, Hunter Street Baptist Church and the Greystone YMCA.
There are many more popping up across the Birmingham-Hoover area, including Heardmont Park in Shelby County, Joe Tucker Park in Helena, Pelham Recreation Center, Valleydale Church, Brook Highland Racquet Club, Sicard Hollow Athletic Complex in Vestavia Hills, Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church, Lifetime Fitness in Vestavia Hills, Homewood Community Center, Levite Jewish Community Center, Mountain Brook YMCA, Trussville mall, Gardendale tennis complex, Fultondale Tennis Courts, Clay Pickleball and Tennis Center and many parks and tennis complexes in Birmingham.
Tournaments add interest
The Finley Center hosted the Heritage Pickleball Tournament in August 2019, which drew 284 players from 19 states. Then in June of 2020, the Finley Center hosted the inaugural USA Pickleball National Indoor Championships, which drew more than 300 teams over the course of a week and was a qualifying event for the final championship event in California later in the year.
The National Indoor Championships are slated to come back to the Finley Center in June of this year.
Hoover held its first outdoor pickleball tournament at the Hoover Met tennis complex in the fall, and it drew 60 to 80 teams from across the region, Sparks said. The tournaments have helped boost interest in the sport and increased demand for more space on a daily basis, he said.
There is currently no formal pickleball league playing at the Finley Center. People just show up to play each day and take turns on the courts as space is available between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. each weekday, unless there is a special event taking place.
The games typically take about 25 minutes, and the courts stay pretty full in the mornings, said Suzanne Norris, one of the regulars. But the group welcomes newcomers, she said.
“I’ve been coming since July, and I’m already addicted,” said Norris, a 62-year-old former special education teacher who now teaches Pilates. “I come every day.”
Norris is a former tennis player and had not played in six or seven years when she got introduced to pickleball and fell in love with it, she said.
While it has some similarities to tennis, there are some differences, she said.
The court is smaller, the paddles are smaller than tennis rackets (more like large ping-pong paddles), and the ball is plastic with holes in it like a wiffle ball and therefore doesn’t bounce as much, she said.
“It’s great exercise,” Norris said. “You get your adrenaline up here.”
She comes with a lot of friends from the nearby Abingdon community but loves the fact that she has gotten to meet a lot of new people, she said.
“The people are so sweet. It’s a community, which is really nice,” she said.
All ages, skill levels
There are people from all age groups, from young adults all the way into the 80s, but most at the Finley Center thus far are probably 40 or older, she said. There are a variety of skill levels, but “the really strong players are really sweet to mix in with beginners,” she said. “You just don’t get better unless you get with stronger players.”
Randy Hebson, a 69-year-old retiree from Bluff Park, said he started playing pickleball about a year and a half ago at First Christian Church off Valleydale Road and then started coming to the Finley Center in November. He tries to come to the Finley Center every morning Monday through Friday, and he still plays on Tuesday and Thursday nights at First Christian Church, he said.
“I like the cardiac part of it,” he said. “If I can play pickleball, I don’t have to go to the gym.”
Plus, he likes the social aspect of it, he said. “It’s just good people having fun.”
Kayla Posey, a 30-year-old Quail Run resident, said the people who play at the Finley Center have really developed a sense of community among themselves. They take food to fellow players when they’re out for a while due to surgery or cut their grass for them, she said.
Plus, “it helps me start off my day,” she said. “I’ll go home, and I’m just on cloud nine.”
Randy Adamy, the retired former owner of O’Henry’s Coffees who lives in Lake Crest, is considered one of the more skilled players at the Finley Center and has played in three or four tournaments. He said he got introduced to the game several years ago while visiting his sister in Florida.
“I was able to pick it up quickly just because I played tennis and racquetball in my earlier days,” he said.
The sport fits him better than others because he is shorter and has a smaller frame than the average guy, he said.
Lance Brown, a 44-year-old from the Bent River community off Old Rocky Ridge Road, said he is a tennis player and his girlfriend convinced him to try pickleball in December.
“I love the fast pace of it, and you can play it inside, even when it’s raining,” he said. “I think I’m going to be hooked for life. We’re trying to find a tournament to go play soon.”
The biggest challenge for him has been adjusting to the shorter paddle versus a tennis racket, which has a longer reach, he said.
More lessons, courts coming
With so many new people learning the game, the pickleball players found a pickleball pro to come to the Finley Center to help people learn the game and improve their skills.
Leslie Bashinsky played tennis at Arizona State for four years and went on to become a tennis pro and pickleball pro. She has worked at places like the Birmingham Country Club, Lifetime Fitness in Vestavia Hills and the Riverchase Country Club.
She got introduced to pickleball by a fellow tennis pro, started playing in tournaments and in 2019 won first place in the 55-60 age group singles at the National Senior Games in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“I’ve seen this sport just explode,” Bashinsky said. “People like to play pickleball because it’s easier to pick up than maybe tennis or golf.”
Also, it’s something people can play at all ages, she said. With a smaller court, there’s not as much running as there is in tennis, but she doesn’t really find it any easier, she said. “It’s a really good workout.”
She already has started offering lessons at the Finley Center but plans to expand individual and group lessons as needed, she said. People interested in lessons can contact her at 205-907-4258.
Meanwhile, planning has already begun to add the outdoor courts at the Hoover Met Complex and Veterans Park. The project at Veterans Park is a joint 50-50 project with Shelby County with a $600,000 budget, but “it may not cost that much,” Rice said.
The exact location hasn’t been decided, but the idea is to put it close to the parking area without interfering with other activities that take place at the park, such as cross-country meets, he said.
An exact location hasn’t been determined at the Hoover Met complex either, but it likely would be near a parking lot and restrooms, he said. Because the City Council has not approved money for outdoor pickleball courts at the Hoover Met yet, there likely will be a budget amendment presented to the council, Rice said.
The goal is to get both sets of eight courts done by the end of June, he said.
To learn more about pickleball, visit usapickleball.org.
