The Young and the Young at Heart

This isn’t a story about overcoming odds or winning championships. It’s a story of what pickleball is, can become and who will help bring it there.

Reading is a commuter town. It is located 12 miles north of Boston along Route 93. A sizeable part of her population moved from some of the more urbanized cities to its south. It’s schools are recognized as some of the best in the state. In sports, Reading is known as a town with more than its share of exceptional athletes and winning teams. Its boys track team went an amazing thirty years without losing a meet. What teams do that?

Like many athletes in the northeast Ryan Hart and David McIsaac played the “sport in season”. Ryan’s first love was soccer. David could be found dribbling his basketball around town.  They grew up around the corner from each other. Both came from tennis families. Their memories of when they first picked up a racquet go back longer than they can recall. It was thought that it was definitely before the age of four. So it’s no surprise that by the time they entered Reading High School David and Ryan were very familiar with each others style, strengths and weaknesses. They knew instinctively where the other would be on the court. Weaknesses were few however, as they played four years as a doubles team and suffered only a handful of losses in one of the better leagues in the state. After one short experiment with splitting them up in their senior year, they were quickly reunited.

But after high school they did go different ways, Ryan going to UConn and David heading off to rival Syracuse. But they didn’t lose touch. Tennis always united them. One day recently at a family function, David’s uncle mentioned that he had started playing a game called pickleball and invited him to give it a try. Of course David contacted Ryan. They played several times and liked the game. They wanted to challenge themselves and when they heard of a tournament in South Portland Maine, it was all systems go. Despite the recommendation of tournament officials that they play at a lower level, David and Ryan opted to play advanced. This decision wasn’t because of cockiness but of their history of wanting to play the best even if it meant going down to defeat. It was in playing the best they knew, that one learns the most.

Did I mention they hadn’t any paddles?  Ryan played some of the games with a basic wooden paddle until some kind soul gave him a better choice. Yes, they went down to defeat. However, in the first and last game they were playing even for a good part of the match against some of the best players in Pickleball crazy Maine. They loved playing and learned plenty. You just know that their next tournament will have a different outcome. 

What did we learn from their experience? Having met both over a pizza at Portland Pies, note the irony, I will be rooting for them when they next take the court. David and Ryan are great guys. They are both kind, determined and skillful young men whose families must be very proud. Once the younger players learn the soft game, we boomers will have a lot to handle. We will have a difficult time matching their quickness. In the meantime, we need to provide more opportunities for the younger people. It doesn’t have to be tennis or pickleball or badminton. We are one sport among many. We older folks love it for lots of reasons, one being that there aren’t many alternatives. The last time I played basketball I lost to a middle schooler. Tournaments with younger people in mind and getting into school systems are two ways. I hope Ryan and David make time for pickleball in their very busy lives. It will be fun to watch their progress as they bring excitement, skill and enthusiasm to the game we love.