A couple weeks ago, I didn’t know anything at all about the curious sport known as pickleball.

Now I’m convinced that it’s a game that just might change the world.

On a reasonably sunny afternoon in mid-August, I went down to the Lewiston High School pickleball courts — which are actually just the public tennis courts converted with tape and smaller nets provided mostly by the players themselves.

At the time, still numb in a state of pickleball ignorance, I had hoped there might be four or five players down there willing to talk about the game. Instead, I found 30 of them. At LEAST 30 of them! Here were dozens of men and women, young and old, swatting hefty yellow balls back and forth across nine makeshift pickleball courts.

And these people weren’t just a little bit willing to talk to me about the sport. They were downright evangelical about it.

Where else but on the pickleball court, they asked me, could one enjoy the sight of an 89-year-old man absolutely mopping the floor with his own grandson? In what other sport can a person walk onto a court in the morning and have a complete grasp of the game by lunchtime?

“This is a game for anyone,” says George “Flip” Gosselin of Lewiston who, at 55 years old, is considered a kid himself on the pickleball courts. “Out here, everyone fits in. You don’t have to be a superstar to play this game.”

As they told their stories, themes began to emerge.

Diane Douglas of Auburn had played tennis her whole life, but as the years advanced and she experienced some health issues, it seems like her athletic life was over.

“I’m 71 years old, I’ve had seven back surgeries and yet I’ve been playing pickleball for nine years,” Douglas says. “It’s very addictive and it’s easy — I’ve seen people who have never played a sport in their lives and yet they’re going out on the pickleball court. You should see them. By the end of the season, they’re going out and playing in tournaments.”

Bruce Ouellette, 62, was like me. He had never really heard much about pickleball and he didn’t understand the lure of the game. Not until he visited his 80-year-old uncle in Florida and watched the older man whooping butt on the course.

Now Ouellette, too, is a member of the pickleball tribe and he plays regularly, often against men and women as old as his uncle.

“I always ask myself: What would these people be doing for exercise if it wasn’t for this?” he says. “Maybe they’d be riding a bike or walking, but they wouldn’t be getting the social aspect you get with pickleball. I mean, we play with guys who are in their 80s. It’s inspiring for me. I hope to be able to play like that when I’m that age.”

Don’t be fooled, though. This isn’t a game for retirees and geriatrics alone. Out here, you’ll find high school and college students. You’ll find young bucks like Derrick St. Laurent, a 41-year-old Lewiston police lieutenant who picked up the game — here’s one of those themes we talked about — while visiting his retired parents in Florida.

“It’s a great workout,” says St. Laurent. “It sure beats walking on a treadmill.”

St. Laurent — and literally everybody else on the courts that day — is quick to speak about the social aspect of the game; about the camaraderie of the local pickleball community that has grown so, so huge over the past few years. By this point, everybody seems to know everybody in the pickleball scene, though its ranks have swollen to more than 300 members.

They chat with each other between games. They learn from one another and support newcomers wholeheartedly.

“Everybody here is great and that’s the best part,” St. Laurent says. “You’re always teaching somebody or somebody’s teaching you. You come out and there will be 50 or 60 people here. It’s the fastest growing sport in the United States.”

He’s not lying. More on this later.

WHAT IS PICKLEBALL, ANYWAY?

There’s nothing overly complicated about the game, so let’s be brief:

Pickleball is described as: “a racket or paddle sport in which two (singles) or four (doubles) players hit a perforated, hollow plastic ball with paddles over a 34-inch-high net until one side is unable to return the ball (before it bounces twice) or commits an infraction. . . . While it resembles tennis and table tennis, pickleball has specific rules, paddles and court dimensions. The court is 44 feet long and 20 feet wide and the paddle is larger than the one used in table tennis. The hard plastic ball used in pickleball produces less bounce than tennis balls. On each side of the net is a 7-foot area known as the non-volley zone —or the “kitchen” — where the ball must bounce before it is hit.”

“The game is pretty simple,” says 67-year-old Andy Titus of Auburn. “You don’t have to be totally physical as long as you can move around a little bit. It’s about hand-eye coordination and where you place the ball. You just position yourself right and that’s most of the game. I have not met anybody I didn’t like out here. They’re all very good sports. It’s just all in fun.”

A little history: According to most accounts, the game was created in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington, at the summer home of a fellow named Joel Pritchard, who later served in the U.S. Congress. Pritchard and two of his friends are credited with devising the game and establishing the rules.

According to lore, the name of the game became “pickleball” after Pritchard’s wife, Joan, pointed out that the game and its players reminded her of a “pickle boat” crew, in which oarsmen are chosen from the leftovers of other racing boats.

I’m not sure I buy it, but who cares, anyway? The name of the game isn’t as important as the fact that pickleball is absolutely huge in Lewiston-Auburn. People come to the game in a variety of ways — most of them involving Florida somehow — but they stay for the same reasons. Pickleball has a lot to offer. It’s a game where someone is always around who wants to play; a game where one can go as hard or as easy as they want.

Gil Cote is a 73-year-old carpenter who was looking for a way to get exercise in the off months. The ordinary means of working out can be so bland and uninspiring, it’s hard to stay disciplined about it. Pickleball seems to solve that problem for a lot of people. Discipline? For many of these people, the game borders on obsession.

“I want to exercise, but I don’t like gyms,” Cote says. “I don’t like walking. The people out here are just having fun, but it’s also about the exercise the game gives you. As long as your knees and ankles are good, you can play. The advanced players are a little bit quicker than most of us, but I can play and give them a game. I just have to work a little harder to keep up.”

For Cote, all it took was a single game and he was hooked. You hear that from a lot of the players, young and old.

“It is an addictive sport,” says Laurie St. Pierre, who got acquainted with the game while visiting friends in Florida. “Most people who try it can’t wait to play again, even those who aren’t particularly athletes. It’s a social sport — you can show up alone at one 0f the scheduled drop-in times and have 20 or more people to play with. Nice way to meet new people and reconnect with old friends.”

St. Pierre, like others, came back from Florida eager to share the joy: Have you heard the good news, friends? It’s called pickleball and it will change your lives.

“My friend says I have a cult,” St. Pierre says. “I’ve introduced 12 or so people to the game since February. I got another one today!”

The game of pickleball has proliferated this way. It just grows and grows and grows.

Here’s the thing, though. It wasn’t always this way; not in Lewiston-Auburn. All those people who were initiated into the glory of pickleball down in Florida or other southern states were sorely disappointed on coming back home. Pickleball might have been all the rage in the Sunshine State in 2011, but up here it was relatively unknown.

“When we got back up in Maine, and found there was no such thing,” says Ouellette, “it was a good five years before we got play up here.”

The game didn’t stay secret for long, though. Some old-timers began returning from vacations with stories of this amazing game that offered both physical fitness and a community of friendship. For those on fixed incomes, it’s reasonably cheap to outfit oneself in all the necessary equipment. Rackets can be had for as little as $25 or as much as $300, depending on your level of commitment to the game.

The balls, which resemble bulked up Wiffle balls, are just 10 bucks and tend to last forever. One can get his own net, even for around $100. Everything about it is simple.

“You have your paddle, you have your balls and you have your net,” says Terry Dussault, sweaty after a vigorous game. “It’s super social. We come and play and we chat. We’ve met so many people and made so many good friends through this.”

Paul Amnott, a former educator and school athletic director, is credited with being one of the early pickleball promoters in the area. Somewhere around 2014, Amnott and his wife came back to Maine with a fresh zeal for the game after learning about it from some former college friends in — where else? — Florida.

“We fell in love with the game,” Amnott says. “So when we came back to Maine, we were looking for a place or places to play.”

But the game had not yet caught on up here, so Amnott started making the rounds. He went to parks and recreation departments in both Lewiston and Auburn to sing the pickleball praises. There wasn’t much interest . . . at first. In those early days, there might have been 10 regular pickleball players. Just 10.

But Amnott kept swinging and when he ran his ideas by former Auburn Rec Department Director Joe Crocker, his efforts began to pay off.

“Joe was all over it,” Amnott says. “He wanted to get it going big time.”

A few courts were transformed for pickleball, but at that time, there was still just a handful of people who played regularly. Those numbers didn’t remain wee for very long. At last count, there were more than 300 regular picklers (yes, they’re called that) in Lewiston and Auburn alone.

“It has grown by leaps and bounds,” Amnott says.

At first they had two courts, taped by the pickleball players themselves, at Auburn Recreation. Then they had three courts, and shortly after that Lewiston city officials saw the light and their recreation department got on board. More courts were set up in that city and suddenly, the players had multiple places to play, with more courts being planned in both Lewiston and Auburn.

Auburn expects to open four new courts, near the Lake Auburn Outlet, in September. Lewiston has four courts planned at 55 North Temple St., next to the fire department substation, although that work isn’t expected to be completed until the spring.

Ultimately, the local picklers hope for an even bigger, indoor complex where games can be played year-round.

“But you know,” Amnott says, “one step at a time.”

DON’T BE SHY

The game has so much to offer, it’s not particularly surprising that it has gotten as big as it has. Ask a pickleball enthusiast about the game and their eyes light up. They have so much to tell you about how the game has improved and enhanced their lives.

“Pickleball is unbelievably social for us seniors and provides a low-cost aerobic workout for nearly 300 members,” says Roger Bergeron, a 72-year-old who served as a guide in my initiation into the wonder of pickleball. “For anybody who’s played tennis, or ping pong or especially racquetball, this game will come real easy to them.”

Some local players have no sports backgrounds at all. Many have played tennis or other paddle sports but then had to give those games up as their bodies wore down.

“Tennis players, racquetball players . . . they get old,” Bergeron says. “They age. They’ll start having problems with the shoulders and etcetera. So, pickleball is very adaptable for anyone. People my age really started to get into it. They couldn’t play tennis anymore but they could play this game. The courts are smaller, the nets are smaller, the ball is like a Wiffle ball, so it doesn’t bounce like a tennis ball at all. You don’t get the muscle strains like you’ll get with tennis. Pickleball just is not as physically demanding. It’s easy to score and games last for maybe 15 minutes.”

And that social aspect that so many people tout is observable at once.

“People sit down between games,” Bergeron says. “They sit, talk and have a great time. They form friendships. We have found people from Portland, from Windham, from Rumford . . . . People from all over are coming down to play. It’s huge. HUGE! And the people are just a joy to be with.”

Once the pickleball trend got to the area, it spread like a wildfire in the spring.

Older folks started playing aplenty in Lewiston-Auburn and the surrounding area. Younger folks saw all the fun being had and that demographic swelled the member numbers further.

Gosselin, the 55-year-old youngster from Lewiston, came into the game exactly that way. It was getting harder and harder to find tennis partners but meanwhile, boisterous groups on adjacent courts seemed to be having loads of fun playing a strange game.

“There were like 30 people up there at all times,” Gosselin says. “I kept thinking, ‘Man, I want to go up there,’ but I was too shy to ask. One day, they just started inviting everybody who looked like they might be interested. ‘Come on up and play,’ they said.”

So Gosselin did and now he can’t get enough of the game. He’s still learning the ins and outs of pickleball, often picking up tips from the oldsters who seem to have mastered the game.

“It’s physically demanding, but only if you want it to be,” Gosselin says. “You’ll see some men up here who are in their 70s and they barely move when they’re off the court. When they’re ON the court, they shuffle all over the place and they get it done. You’ll be amazed at some of the people you see playing out here.”

“Pickleball has become more intergenerational over the years,” says Lewiston Recreation Director Nicole Welch. “We have days where Bates College students will play against retirees. Pickleball is a great example of a lifelong leisure sport that offers physical health benefits alongside the social perks of bridging generations through common values and interests.”

The question, in those early days, was where to play? While other cities have dedicated pickleball courts, players in Lewiston and Auburn were still mostly transforming tennis courts to get their pickleball fixes. That was fine in good weather, but what’s a pickler to do when he’s got a pickleball Jones and it’s raining, snowing or freezing cold outside.

In short, they played wherever they could find enough space to pop up their nets.

“In the spring of 2021, there were a handful of players who played at the (Lewiston) armory,” says Welch. “Everyone could come in and play a couple of games. In March of 2023, we were hitting peak numbers — some days hitting 35 players for a three-hour time period on three courts. Pickleball was running five days a week, and I foresee the same happening this fall. The armory could use three more courts to cut down on wait times. We charge a drop-in fee for indoor pickleball. Those funds go toward new equipment and indoor/outdoor facility costs.”

During the summer, there are dedicated pickleball time slots available at the Lewiston High School Anita Murphy Tennis Courts, with morning, afternoon and nighttime opportunities. The summer pickleball programs are free to play and the picklers come in droves.

“There are many players who play at multiple sites every day,” says Welch. “They might start their day in Lewiston, and then play in the afternoon in another town.”

THE GLORY OF ‘TEAM REACH’

How do picklers keep up with all the places and times? It’s possible through a phone app called Team Reach, which just about all local pickleball players embrace like a holy book. a phone app called Team Reach,

It’s a global app, is Team Reach, so no matter where you happen to be in the whole wide world, you can check in and find a game being played. You can chat with other league members or just take a glance at the calendar.

“It’s a wonderful, wonderful thing for anyone who’s traveling,” says Bergeron. “I’ve played pickleball at Myrtle Beach, I’ve played in South Carolina, North Carolina, I’ve played in Virginia at Williamsburg. All I do is go on that pickleball finder, tell them where I am and it will tell me where pickleball is being played that day or that night.”

“There was one campground we were staying in,” says Douglas, who was traveling with Bergeron. “We looked at our pickleball finder and yup. Public course one mile down the street. You just walk on, rotate in and you’re good to go.”

The local group is called, simply, “Lewiston/Auburn Pickleball.” Once I downloaded the app and got signed in, I could look at the calendar and see that three sessions are scheduled for today at 8 a.m., 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. I could see that the 8 a.m. games are for advanced players while the 11 a.m. gathering is for beginners and intermediate players. The early evening games, the app informs me, is for all levels.

“When I first wanted to play pickleball I had to ask around to find out where to play and was surprised it was on a basketball court at Hasty Memorial (community center in Auburn),” says St. Pierre. “The players there introduced me to the Team Reach app and that made it really easy to see when the drop-in times were scheduled and who was signed up to play. . . . I like that I can message the members directly and that if I have a question, someone answers.”

New users to the app for the local pickleball group need a code to get in. Once you have that, brother, you’re on your way. To get the code, and for more information on Twin Cities pickleball offerings, contact Lewiston Recreation at 207-513-3005 or Auburn Recreation at 207-333-6611.

There are also numerous websites, pickleheads.com being one of them, where a player need only to plug in his current zip code to find a local game. For the local players, though, Team Reach seems to be all they need and I didn’t meet a one who didn’t have the app on his or her phone.

THE WAY LIFE OUGHT TO BE

So, pickleball is huge, as Bergeron puts it. Huge! But how big are we really talking about here on a national scale?

Pretty big, as it turns out. In 2021 and 2022 the Sports and Fitness Industry Association officially announced that pickleball had become the fastest growing sport in the United States two years in a row. Over those years the number of players increased almost 40% to 4.8 million players.

In some areas of Florida there are dozens and dozens of pickleball courts available, with more opening every day. Naples alone has 64 pickleball courts — there’s a reason they call Naples the Pickleball Capitol of the World.

There are pickleball tournaments all over the place and our local players are no stranger to big winnings. At the Senior Games in Brunswick, four teams from Lewiston-Auburn competed in the pickleball tournaments.

“We took one gold medal and three silvers in pickleball,” boasts Bergeron. “These are people who play in Lewiston-Auburn and we took the most medals.”

Ouellette, the 62-year-old from Lewiston, won a lottery with his father and got the extremely cool opportunity to play pickleball in Boston’s Fenway Park.

“Then we played in the Senior Open, for (ages) 60 to 64, and we got a silver medal,” he says.

There is much more to this sport with the funny name than I, for one, ever imagined. And as I mingled among the players, I watched a whole bunch of strangers connecting with old friends and making new ones. Without exception, every single person I interacted with was helpful, friendly and accommodating in every way.

At times, I just stood back and watched them. They played vigorous but friendly games and then, breathing hard and mopping sweat from their foreheads, they stood along the sidelines talking with one another — about their families, about their work, about the game itself.

There was something about the scene that struck me, and after a moment or two, it came to me. This is the way life used to be in a day before technology started tempting people indoors and then keeping them there. This is how things used to look in an age before political divides became so great and before all the world started to seem like just one big argument.

Though the game of pickleball is relatively new, it seems to me that the people who love it are getting back to the basics. They’re like those groups of men and women who assemble in bars to play in cribbage leagues or in light bouts of Trivial Pursuit two or three times a week. These people are relating to their peers live and in person, no social media or chat boards needed. They’re doing it old-school and to me, that’s something that really COULD change the world, and for the better.

“I liken it to the days when we were kids and you’d get a call at home saying there was a ballgame at the local field,” says Ouellette. “You put your glove on the Stingray handlebars and set out to meet your buddies. Now it’s even better, because now your buddies are between 18-83 and we don’t have to be home when the streetlights go on. Pickleball is very unique in the sense that it’s one of the few sports I know where complimenting your opponent during the game is done on a regular basis.”

Pickleball is a game played by folks who always welcome newcomers.

“The first time I went to a drop in with my friends,” says St. Pierre, “we were intimidated and wary about playing with other people, especially because we weren’t very good. We almost didn’t stay. But the people were welcoming and encouraging. Since then we have learned that playing with other people and other abilities is the best part of pickleball — and why we keep going back.”

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