Pickleball: The Fabulous Sport with the Funny Name

To the uninitiated, the name pickleball means nothing and sounds kind of silly. But to those who play this sport, it’s nothing short of addictive. “We’ll play to the death or to the last light of day,” said Leanne Smith, a designated “Pickleball Ambassador” for Ruidoso. I did a whole trip across the southern US and stopped to play pickleball wherever I went.”

The sport got its informal start in 1965 in the yard of Joel Pritchard, a Washington State Representative who got the game going after he and the family couldn’t find the shuttlecock for an impromptu badminton game. They improvised with a Wiffle ball, lowered the net and created paddles from plywood, and a sport was born.
Since then, the sport has grown to include a USA Pickleball Association, which sanctions tournaments and hosts national championships each November.

One such tournament – the Ruidoso Pickleball Championship – will be held June 10-12 at the tennis courts at

White Mountain Athletic Complex. Smith said 84 athletes have registered as of June 6, with one of the top players in the country – Scott Moore – set to give a seminar June 10 at 4 p.m. for $10 a person. Besides growing the sport, Smith said the point of the tournament is to raise funds to build dedicated pickleball courts at White Mountain.

“We’ve had to share with tennis players, so it will be nice to have our own courts,” Smith said. “The land is already dedicated by the Ruidoso Parks and Recreation, so now we just have to raise the money to build them.”

While the sport’s growth has exploded to include more than 2 million players across the country – according to the USAPA website – there is still something of a dearth of dedicated pickleball courts. Most games are played on badmitton or established tennis courts, as they are in Ruidoso. Four pickleball courts can be worked into one full-sized tennis court, but as the sport has grown, so has the demand for more pickleball-only courts. “Ruidoso is a little out of the way, so we need to entice some of the better players to come here,” Smith said. “Many won’t play in a tournament unless it’s played on pickleball courts.”

Even without the tournaments, the sport is strong in Ruidoso. Smith said there are about 130 registered players in Lincoln County, and people will come to Ruidoso – or through Ruidoso – just to play in the mountain climate. As an ambassador, Smith helps visiting pickleball players find the courts and get them in contact with other players. She’s received the same kind of hospitality when she’s traveled, and it’s how the sport has grown. “We have tournaments for the locals, just for fun,” Smith said of the activities for the 130-or-so players in Ruidoso. “It’s a very social sport and we have friends all over the place because of it.”

—Todd Fuqua

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article can also be found at www.fuquasports.com