Pickleball is a sport that brings together.

Mexico is one of many cities in the United States finding this out as the recreational sport has an increased presence in the Brick City after the amalgamation of tennis, badminton and ping-pong — hitting a wiffle ball with nearly ping-pong-size paddles on one bounce on badminton-sized courts — has endured since its inception in 1965.  

Recently, the city announced efforts to add lights to the Fairgrounds Park courts installed in 2017, as money is continuing to be donated through the Park Foundation, to account for the additional demand. This summer, some local residents did well at tournaments at the state, even national level. Mexico Area Family YMCA membership director Janice McIntosh and Aimee Myers won the ages 50-54 female doubles division at the Show-Me state games and then Steve Hagan finished fifth out of 21 players in the ages 70-74 males singles pickleball division at the National Senior Games Association games in Pittsburgh.

Hagan said he has been playing pickleball for about 13 years and volunteers as an instructor for the game at the YMCA. He said there are many benefits for somebody to take up the sport, but the prevailing reason is what has kept him and the sport together for this long.

“All of us, as homo sapiens, have a drive to be associated with other homo sapiens,” Hagan said. “Most of us aren’t recluse and most of us are social beings, and if we can find other activities where similar people have a common mindset, we’re attracted to it.” 

Hagan describes himself as a “YMCA guy” that has done whatever possible to help the place in  his life and has tried to find the perfect activity for people. Oftentimes, it plays out like his own life did.

Initially, Hagan said he played racquetball but eventually found the sport too intense and rough on his body. He tried pickleball, which turned from an alternative to a passion, and encouraged others to give it a try as well when they wanted to be active but not dabble in activities such as running, weight lifting, swimming or basketball.

“For me personally, it was about anything I might do to help the Y, playing it and having people come it,” Hagan said. “I found it was a way to get other people that haven’t found their spots yet with the Y to go, ‘that is something I want to do.”’ 

When people become immersed, they become socially active too, Hagan said, as they find a commonality or something they can share with other people. Hagan interacts with people constantly about the sport, including someone he has played doubles with before in McIntosh.

McIntosh said she used to participate in softball and running but the latest phase in her life has included her embracing pickleball for about 3-4 years at about 3-4 times per week. She isn’t the only one, though, as she said the YMCA has had their three pickleball courts in the Kennon Center since about 2013 and the demand for them went from about 4-8 people initially to the point of having scheduling conflicts now.

“It’s a great form of exercise, it’s fairly easy to learn and it’s fun because you can socialize while you’re doing it,” McIntosh said. “It’s like our fitness classes (at the YMCA). People come and you just have that common interest and enjoyment out of it. Social bonds just happen. They’re all different walks of life, but they come in because they have that one common factor. There are people that I would have never met if I wasn’t playing pickleball.”

The interactions of many people was how pickleball put down roots in Mexico as McIntosh said there were people such as Nancy Smiley and YMCA program director Tom Fischer who were familiar with the sport about a decade ago from her playing in warmer weather states in the winter and him teaching a unit as a PE teacher. A long list of people including, but limited to, Hagan, Deb Haag and Todd Yager expressed interest in increasing presence in Mexico.

Parks and Recreation director Chad Shoemaker said he knew of residents back then who also were exposed to pickleball in warmer states and of a group in Columbia that educated people about the game, including the parks and recreation department at a regional meeting. Eventually, the courts at Fairgrounds were fundraised by local donations made through the Netplex committee and ground was broken in the tough Mexico soil.

“On those pickleball courts, we built them out of post-tension concrete, which is an expensive building technique,” Shoemaker said. “When we do things right like that, they last. We don’t have to go back and constantly spend taxpayer money on repairing it all the time.”

Shoemaker said there continues to be discussion about providing more pickleball opportunities to the city, like restriping lines and using temporary nets at tennis courts. Currently, there are blue lines at some of the Fairgrounds Park Netplex courts, marking the boundaries that pickleball needs and erasing most of the burden for potential players other than the ball and more than $200 paddle.

“It just blew up. I expect it to continue to grow, frankly,” Shoemaker said. “Not just here but all over the country. Lifestyle is really important to people. I think, more and more, we’re seeing companies going places where people are, not going places and expecting people to come there. We’ve got to be a place where people are, and to do that, we’ve got to provide people a certain amount of lifestyle.”

These are necessary discussions because of the game’s amazing growth as more than 36.5 million Americans played pickleball from August 2021 to August 2022, according to the Association of Pickleball Professionals, and interest shows no signs of dying just yet. This, of course, mirrors the support locally.

Shoemaker said there is a Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP) that is a report of the popularity and growth of various sports in Missouri, but Mexico is able to put stock in its own statistical survey released about every five years, with the next one planned for next year. The Mexico survey not only shows the viability in investing in pickleball but also the different kinds of people that want to pop with the paddles as Shoemaker clarifies low scores don’t doom sports as they could find additional funding sources to counter the limited resources for the department.

“It’s demographically adjusted and geographically adjusted so we could tell how many people over the age of 55 want to do something and how many people under the age of this want to do something,” Shoemaker said. “We ask questions like, ‘If you had $100, how would you spend it?’ We really try to pay attention to those numbers and use them to drive our spending and planning.”

Older demographics are staying active with pickleball, but it isn’t, by any means, an “old person’s game,” Hagan said. 

“Mexico is a microcosm of the growth of it nationally,” Hagan said. 

Hagan and McIntosh said her son was visiting home from the Navy and is a person that plays tennis. She convinced him to try pickleball and he ended up enjoying it. Despite any age differences, anybody can win in pickleball if the proper strategy is employed as Hagan said McIntosh was able to defeat her son.

Pickleball has a non-volley zone that is contained within a horizontal line called the kitchen line. A person can’t go into this part of the court, but a ball sure can as part of a technique called dinking — a slow dropshot that falls in the non-volley zone that makes it difficult for harder-hitting players to return.

“It’s not about athleticism,” Hagan said. “It’s about knowledge, skill and strategy. If you’ve got that, you’re going to basically win. “Most of the younger, athletic people always want to stay back because they think they can get to everything, but that’s not the strategy and that’s why they lose all the time.” 

Although, Hagan said he isn’t immune to learning new tactics in the sport with his experience. The only times where the social aspect of pickleball takes a backseat would be in singles play or at competitive tournaments like Hagan experienced with the national senior games in Pittsburgh and has the chance of experiencing again next year in San Diego after qualifying this year at the Show-Me games.

In the convention center reserved for the pickleball competition, Hagan said there were 300-350 players competing on 55 courts.

“I’m in the stage of my life where I just want experiences,” Hagan said. “I just wanted to experience that stage and see what it is like. Everybody has Rocky’s ‘Eye of the Tiger’ (in minds). I learned a lot. I learned how to improve my game because we don’t play singles (in Mexico), but I watch and I learn.”

Hagan said there were people there who occasionally taught him serving techniques and the correct time to execute certain shots, which he appreciates as a way to improve his game but also his experience with pickleball.

Playing in tournaments in other places is beneficial to anyone who wants even more out of the sport, Hagan said. McIntosh agrees after playing in the state games held in Columbia.

“I think there were 22 courts of pickleball being played – both men and women. It’s fun to get out of your comfort level and go do a tournament to see where you stack up,” McIntosh said. “That’s why I started playing tournaments. You get used to playing with the same group of people, but when playing tournaments, you get to see a totally different group of play. That’s how you’re going to improve your game.”

The future for Mexico pickleball includes the YMCA holding the second of two annual tournaments during the last weekend in October after already  having one during the last weekend of February, McIntosh said. She said there are about 70 teams that play in these nonsanctioned tournaments that are separated by skill level. 

McIntosh said it is “fun to see” how much the interest in pickleball has been built up in the Brick City, and Hagan said the relationships that the sport builds will bring more people to the courts.

“That’s really the magnet and that’s really the glue that ultimately holds the sport together wherever it finds roots to start to grow and take off,” Hagan said. “All sports have a product lifecycle. Pickleball will have the same thing, but because there is an influx of younger folks now, I would predict it will continue to grow for the next five to probably maybe 12-13 years, even locally here.”