Passionate about pickleball: Unique sport has a diverse following in St. John's
Group has a dedicated group and a new league
Surrounded by a walking track, people playing ping pong and basketball there is a group of men and women bashing a ball back and forth.
It's like badminton, because it uses the same court, but it's like tennis, because the racket head is a similar size, and it's also kinda like ping pong. It uses a ball that has holes it in, like a Wiffle ball, but players are quick to point out it's not a Wiffle ball.
Mixed together it creates a sport, pickleball, where the name doesn't seem to have anything to do with the game itself.
"I'd say if you played any racket sport before you could pick up pickleball in 15 minutes," Leonard Lye said.
An engineering professor by day, he's an ambassador for pickleball in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Last October he started playing the sport at Memorial University's Field House in St. John's.
He quickly caught the attention of Don MacDonell.
Retired from the Canadian Armed Forces, MacDonell needed something more than just walking around the track.
"My wife passed away last February and I had very little to do," he said.
"I was coming to gym here and I was walking around — and I hate walking in circles. I saw them playing here one day and I fell in love with it."
MacDonell, who is an active man in his 70s, plays at least four times a week and sometimes he tries to sneak in another day.
"It's a great equalizer," said MacDonell.
"Young people, old people, great skill, or no skill. We play doubles and it's a lot of fun."
Wide range in ages
At the Wednesday night drop-in there can be anywhere from 18 to almost 30 players who range in age from 20-year-old university students to a few players in their 70s and 80s.
It's gotten so big Lye created a Sunday league where players keep score and take it a little bit more seriously.
"What the league does is it adds some competition to the games," Lye said.
"It's a bit stricter and we have a referee."
As the sport continues to catch on at the Field House the hope is that the league will grow.
Lye said it's a serious game, and jokes it might become an Olympic sport … in the year 2040.