Golden Age of Pickleball

It’s Monday morning at eight o’clock sharp, and Don Roe is taking the pickleball court at the Downtown Senior Center in Wichita. It’s where you can find 95-year-old Roe every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning, searching for his winning partners among dozens of other seniors for the center’s competitive pickleball session. 

But pickleball doesn’t stop for Roe at 11:30 a.m. when the center’s session ends — he has other places to play: Linwood Park, Orchard Park, Country Acres Baptist Church. In fact, Roe plays pickleball several times a week throughout town. 

“Pickleball is so much fun, and it’s very good exercise,” Roe said. “It’s more fun to win, but even if you lose you still get good exercise.”

“If you’re out there working on strength, mobility and balance with pickleball, you’re less likely to sprain your ankle, less likely to have a fall.” — Dr. Andrew Porter, sports medicine and family medicine physician

The Downtown Senior Center is where Roe started playing pickleball in Wichita more than 40 years ago, which at the time were the only courts in Wichita, according to Roe. But over the last several decades the game has erupted with excitement, especially within the last few years. 

“Nobody knew about pickleball except those who played at the downtown senior center,” Roe said. “But since then, my stars, has it grown like crazy.”

Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in America, and it has been for the last three years. According to the Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP), 36.5 million people played pickleball in the United States last year. 

The national excitement is fueling excitement in Wichita as well, with the growth of leagues, tournaments and venues that accommodate pickleball. Wichita even has connections with top pickleball pros like Matt Wright, a Wichitan currently ranked fifth nationally in men’s doubles, and Lucia Kovalova, a former Shocker ranked fourth nationally in women’s doubles. 

For seniors, pickleball has become a way of life — exercise, a social outlet, a chance to participate in a competitive activity and much more. “I’ll play anywhere, anytime,” said Margo Shepler, a competitor in the 50-plus pickleball league at the Ralph Wulz Riverside Tennis Center. 

Noi Sourinthone, Pickleball Pro

Shepler picked up pickleball during the height of the pandemic. While at first she was hesitant, she quickly fell in love with the sport. At the time, a dedicated league for seniors didn’t exist at Riverside Park — that is until Noi Sourinthone moved to Wichita about two years ago to become the city’s pickleball director. Sourinthone noticed a gap, and after just a few weeks on the job, he had started the 50-plus pickleball leagues. 

“I wanted to give them their own space, and sometimes competing within your own age group is fun,” Sourinthone said. 

Sourinthone is also the pickleball pro at Riverside Park, where he provides lessons and runs several leagues. In the roughly two years since the 50-plus league started, Sourinthone has seen tremendous growth, more than doubling the number of teams who regularly participate. In fact, Sourinthone has taken note of the interest in the sport from seniors so much that he’s planning on including age groups for players in their 60s, 70s and 80s for a national tournament at Riverside this summer. 

Unlike most of the pickleball groups for seniors in town, the league at Riverside involves a consistent partner, something Shepler enjoys most. “You can learn together. It makes it easier, because once you play with someone over and over again you know where they are on the court and what their strengths are,” Shepler said. 

The benefits of the 50-plus league aren’t only for the players; 39-year-old Sourinthone has found his own endearing connections through the league. 

“They keep me alive. They are a constant reminder of what it means to really be in the moment,” Sourinthone said. “As one of the local pros here, to be able to spend court time with them, I hope I am reminding them that they are loved and appreciated, and they are human.”

Pickleball Potential: Strength, Mobility, Balance in Seniors

Physicians are also noticing the potential in pickleball for seniors. Pickleball provides low-impact exercise for aging adults, which not only helps them slow the physical effects of aging, but also helps prevent injuries both on and off the court. 

“If you’re out there working on your strength, working on mobility, working on balance with pickleball, then you’re less likely to sprain your ankle, less likely to have a fall, you’re more agile, less likely to trip on something. It’s definitely reasonable to think that injuries have been avoided because of pickleball,” said Dr. Andrew Porter, a sports medicine and family medicine physician with Ascension Via Christi. 

Porter says the benefits of pickleball for seniors are far deeper than the physical perks: the sport has both mental and emotional health benefits. “It kind of forces you to get out and interact with others,” Porter said. “If it’s singles, you have to get out there and play against your opponent — but also, with doubles, you have to communicate and work together, so I think those aspects are equally as important as the pure physical aspects.”

With aging comes loss of muscle mass, reduced flexibility and decline of the cardiovascular system, says Porter, but pickleball is slowing those processes for seniors.

“I feel like it’s an attainable activity for most people to do. I love my patients who run marathons or participate in Ironmans, but I don’t feel like that’s for everybody — pickleball is something that everyone can do,” Porter said. 

Though the sport is popular among seniors, the largest age bracket for pickleball players nationwide is ages 18 to 34. Now grandparents, parents, kids and grandkids are all sharing the court. “My son and daughter play pickleball in Texas, and they’re both very good players — better than I am,” Roe said. “We usually play a lot of pickleball when they’re in town.”

While Roe is often playing against competitors who are 10 or more years his junior, he never shies away from a pickleball match, and if he seeks you out, just know he’s out to win. 

“You make a lot of friends in pickleball, see, you play with different people nearly every game — but of course I try to find a real good partner to play with, and then hope to play against people who aren’t so good so that we can win real easily,” Roe said.