Huntington Quarterly Summer 2022

for those new to pickleball, it’s a sport in which players of all levels mix and match on the court for friendly competition. At Ritter Park, you can pick up a game with anyone who shows up, singles or doubles. If the courts are already full, you put your paddle in a rack, indicating that you’re waiting in line to play; when one game is finished, you can take up a game with others who are waiting. For the more serious players, there are outlets as well. Ken Pemberton is one of the serious ones, not only in terms of playing at a high level when he gets the chance (he came in third place at the U.S. Open Pickleball Championship in Naples and fourth in the Senior Olympics in Fort Lauderdale) but also inmaking pickleball a more accessible activity for players aroundHuntington. He founded the Huntington Pickleball Club (www. huntingtonpickleballclub.com) for folks to have an op portunity to compete in organized games locally and stay informed about opportunities to learn and play more. The club cur rently has 150 members, including everyone from casual players to others who, like him, are com peting and placing at a national level. He also teaches lessons for those who want to up their game. Pemberton might be one of the sport’s most vocal

Ritter Park has converted many of its tennis courts into pickleball courts due to growing demand.

proponents locally — and he’s only been playing a few years. “I started playing in

June of 2019. I called a friend and said, ‘Let’s play some pickleball so I can lose some weight,’” he recalled, during a break from playing at Ritter Park. “Therewere not a lot of people here, so I started bugging people to play.” A longtime — and a

SOME TAKE UP PICKLEBALL BECAUSE THEY CAN ENJOY THE THRILL OF COMPETITION WITHOUT THE STRAIN OF A FULL-ON TENNIS MATCH.

competitive — tennis and ping pong player, Pemberton found that pickleball was the ticket to weight loss that

The Huntington Pickleball Club has 150 members, from casual players to those competing on a national level.

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