Home
Local News
Photos
Events
Rules
Join USAPA
Guestbook

	PIKES PEAK PICKLEBALL For Pickleball Enthusiasts In The Pikes Peak Region

| Rules Of Play | Make A Court | Message Board | USAPA Rankings |

Pickleball Perseveres
by Bill Radford / The Gazette / Colorado Springs, CO
Publication Date: Sept. 23, 2003
Reprinted with permission of The Gazette

     Keith Bisel, the Pied Piper of Pickleball, is out of here -- for now.
     The retired Colorado Springs principal and his wife, Roberta, have resumed their wandering ways and headed off in their RV. But Bisel, profiled in the Gazette this summer, will be back next spring to again recruit new players for pickleball, a blend of tennis, table tennis and badminton.
      The game is big in the Pacific Northwest, where Bisel first encountered it. He'd like to see Colorado Springs become a pickleball hot spot and says it soon will be on the way.
      "For the first time ever, those of us having learned and played elsewhere can return to our home grounds and continue playing this wonderful sport in our own back yard."
      Darla Sautter, whose father is a top-ranked senior player, is part of the growing local pickleball scene. Darla and her husband, Neil, play most Saturday mornings at the Monument Valley Park tennis courts. She has started a Pikes Peak Pickleball website at www.freewebs.com/pikespeakpickleball, that describes the rules of the game and where to play.




---

Pickleball: Funny Name, Fabulous Game!
Sport Combines Tennis, Badminton, Table Tennis
by Bill Radford / The Gazette / Colorado Springs, CO
Publication Date: July 14, 2003
Reprinted with permission of The Gazette

     It was the sounds that first attracted him, the sounds of laughter and a clicking noise that Keith Bisel couldn't identify.
     He walked toward the sounds and soon found the source. The laughter came from two men and two women playing pickleball, a blend of tennis, table tennis and badminton that's particularly big in the Pacific Northwest. The clicking was the noise of the plastic ball hitting the pickleball paddles.
     Intrigued, Bisel watched for a while, then started asking questions. Within minutes, he recalls, "I was hooked big-time."
     That was in Washington state, the birthplace of pickleball. In the 10 years since, Bisel has become the Pied Piper of Pickleball. As he and wife Roberta - whose passion is line-dancing, not pickleball - wander the country in their RV, Bisel spreads the word about the sport he's come to love.
     Each summer, the two return in their home on wheels to Colorado Springs, where Bisel was a District 11 elementary school principal before retiring in 1985. He'd like to see the Springs area become a pickleball hot spot, but for now he's aware of only a handful of people who play locally, including a group that plays regularly in Woodland Park.
     "We don't have enough players in the Springs area, and that's what we're trying to change," Bisel says.
     He's getting a hand from Gerry Strabala, program coordinator with the Colorado Springs Parks and Recreation Department, who helped arrange a pickleball clinic last month and is putting on another Saturday.
     Strabala had a great time playing at the first clinic, which was taught by Bisel and served as Strabala's introduction to pickleball.
     "It seems like it could be a good sport for all ages," Strabala says.
     That's one of the key attractions for the 67-year-old Bisel, who says anyone from 8 to 80 can easily pick up the sport. Pickleball provides a great workout, but the paddle is lighter and easier to wield than a tennis racket, and the area a player covers is smaller than in tennis. The plastic, perforated ball used in the game travels slower than a tennis ball, so pickleball is a game that emphasizes agility and coordination over strength.
     "This sport can be a humbling experience for the person who attempts to dominate the game with sheer power," Bisel says.
     Basketball used to be Bisel's sport, but now pickleball consumes him. It keeps him active and young-feeling, he says.
     "It's a beautiful thing to behold," he adds, "when that ball goes over the net and somebody returns it to you."