From diehards to casual players, C-U's pickleball boom runs the gamut

Aug. 13—CHAMPAIGN — Had he known what he knows now, Levi Algozino might've been intimidated by the two older women who stepped onto a pickleball court across from him during a vacation in Michigan last year.

Algozino, a 6-foot-5 former volleyball setter, had only begun playing the sport months earlier. Like so many in recent years, he quickly became enthralled, and by the time he went on a vacation in Michigan, he thought he was getting the hang of it.

Teamed up with a partner with a similar athletic build, he assumed the septuagenarians, who hobbled to the court slowly, wouldn't provide much competition.

He was wrong.

"They pickled us, which (means they won) 11-0," Algozino said. "We were no competition for them, and then they were like, 'OK, we're going to go play golf. Bye.'

"It's actually a joke in pickleball now that I've picked up — that the more knee braces, elbow braces someone has, the better they are," he said. "I tell people, 'You haven't played the sport until you get crushed by old ladies.'"

When he moved to Champaign this summer, Algozino didn't have to look long for a group to play with. After reaching out to the Champaign-Urbana-Savoy Pickleball Facebook group, he was warmly welcomed into a network of enthusiasts.

The most dedicated of those players, which Algozino now finds himself among, wake up before the sun rises each Saturday to meet at 6:30 a.m. at the Champaign Park District's new eight-court complex off John Street in Centennial Park. Each week, organizer Stu Meacham sends out a text to a group of players, assigning them an initial matchup before they rotate, depending on whether they win or lose, in a format known as "King of the Court."

Luckily, Algozino knew better than to doubt older players. The group ranges in age from 16 to one 83-year-old, many of whom play several times a week, and Algozino regularly finds himself on equal footing with players more than double his age.

Despite the difference in age, all are serious about pickleball, a sport described as a cross between tennis, table tennis and badminton, played with a hollow ball with holes in it, similar to a Whiffle ball, on a court that's a little less than a third of the size of a tennis court.

They don't only play when the weather is balmy, either.

"We played every Saturday in February," Meacham said. "It was sunny, not too windy, and it was about 32 degrees. If it's sunny and no wind, you can play in about any temperature, except that the ball breaks below 32 degrees. They shatter."

Upon his retirement in 2011, Champaign resident Don Block began staying in his vacation home in Michigan for four months each summer. One day, he happened to pass by a pickleball tournament and stopped to inquire about the unfamiliar sport. He was quickly hooked.

Eventually, he discovered Champaign's standalone court at Hessel Park and rounded up a few friends with experience playing the game. Looking for a place to play when winter came, the group went to the Douglass Center and were told that they were welcome to use the north Champaign recreation center's basketball court if they taped off a court themselves.

After a story about the group was published in The News-Gazette in 2014, Block said, the game in Champaign-Urbana began to grow.

"Then, it just went crazy," Block said. "We were getting 10 or 15 people a day who had never played for two weeks."

It wasn't until 2020, in the early days of the pandemic, that Block convinced Meacham to come out and play. Meacham, who played basketball recreationally throughout his adult life, took to the game quickly.

Pickleball brought relief for players who spent much of their time secluded in their homes. On one rainy day, Block's group cleared out the tables from the covered pavilion at Hessel Park and taped off a court under the shelter.

When winter rolled around and gyms were closed, Block, Meacham and others met at Hessel Park on one particularly cold day. After shoveling the snow off the court, they kept playing for an hour and a half despite the fact that balls were shattering left and right.

"You kind of get addicted to it," Block said. "You get into a routine and it gets you out of the house and gets you moving."

Meacham, of course, was far from the only one falling in love with the sport during the first few years of the pandemic. According to a study conducted by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, 8.9 million Americans picked up a paddle in 2022 versus the 4.2 million who played in 2020.

Pickleball is a social sport, Block said, wherein people stand close enough to speak, and it's accessible. With games lasting less than half an hour, a single player can show up at a court and expect to be invited into a game, he said. It's also a rare sport where cross-generational matchups can be truly competitive.

In pickleball, Meacham found something he couldn't in basketball.

"The great thing about pickleball is that I've got grandsons at 10 years old and a daughter at 28, and I can play with both of them," Meacham said. "There are not many things I can do at my age with two generations below me, and this sport has allowed me to do that."

With lines for pickleball now being painted on tennis courts across Champaign-Urbana, the Champaign Park District made a decision to build a dedicated pickleball complex last year. While eight courts were ultimately built, the park district has plans for eight more in future phases of the project, which also include a "championship court" with bleachers along with dedicated parking, restrooms, concessions and lights, Director Sarah Sandquist said.

"It's the best thing that's happened to pickleball in this area," Meacham said of the complex.

Block, who now works as a pickleball instructor for the park district, estimates that around 1,000 residents play the sport, with the number rising constantly. This fall, the park district is offering its first pickleball leagues. While most of the divisions are full, spots are still open for women's doubles and men's singles divisions.

Now that courts are available, with more eventually on the way, Block only sees the number of players growing.

Algozino has a message for those that missed the initial boom, whether they're playing against grandmas with knee braces or 6-foot-5 volleyball players.

"People lose to me and get discouraged and I'm like, 'No, no. It happens to me all the time still. Don't worry; there's a long way up,'" Algozino said. "A lot of people are afraid to start because they see all the people out here who have gotten good. But if you start and get stomped at the beginning, just know that that happens to everybody. Come back another day, and you'll already be in love with it."