Thwacks from rackets could be heard inside the Boys & Girls Club of Loudon County gymnasium Thursday afternoon, as kids were introduced to the game of pickleball with assistance from the Tellico Village Pickleball Club.
Roughly 30 kids, ages 9-16, came after school to begin learning the ins and outs of the sport. From 4-5:15 p.m. volunteers provided insight to the kids on how to better their performance.
“Today we’re just giving them a raw intro,” Rich Karakis, club vice president and ambassador with the USA Pickleball Association, said. “That’s why we’re trying to play a game. Now what we’ll do is we’ll let them — our idea — my thinking is that we give them a chance to play for a few weeks, and we’ll come here and we’ll just kind of oversee the play until they get used to the basic rules and concepts like that and then we’ll go into the drills or lessons on certain aspects of the game, the dinking game or lobs or serves or stuff like that.”
The effort was made possible through a Good Neighbors Shoppe $1,000 grant presented to the Boys & Girls Club.
Jean Haupt, club member, said the money afforded three pickleball nets and other equipment.
“Rich Karakis took care of the equipment and with the money he bought all of the equipment and Shawn (Snyder) and his helpers, I don’t know if it was just the people here, put up the lines,” Haupt said. “And then we had a few meetings and last Thursday we met with the staff and kind of taught them how to play, and this is our first day (with the kids).”
Karakis said he hopes to have three or four volunteers show up on Tuesdays and Thursdays and rotate about 12 people based on availability. The plan is to help out for as long as needed, he said.
“We just want them to try it,” Shawn Snyder, Boys & Girls Club executive director, said. “I mean that’s what I asked them is that they would just come and try it and if it’s something they would like to continue we’ll provide it for them. If it’s something they don’t, I appreciate them trying and giving effort.”
Volunteers said they hope kids just get enjoyment and exercise out of the game.
“It’s competitive sports,” Karakis said. “... You know it’s easy to pick up, it’s very social and it’s addictive. It’s hard for me not to be excited about it.”
Volunteers would also like to serve in a mentorship capacity, which Snyder said will be good for the youth.
“I mean we would love to be like a 5-to-1 ratio all throughout the facility with small group conversations but that’s just not really the nature of nonprofit financially, so we’re a lot of times we’re kind of at our 1-to-17 ratio throughout the day,” Snyder said. “So this will develop more of the small group conversations from caring adults, which is more beneficial to our kids.”
Snyder said he hopes the children will eventually manage their own games and start a league. Although Thursday was just the first day, he said the children seemed engaged.
“We don’t really know what the end result will be,” Snyder said. “We do know that pickleball’s very prevalent in Tellico Village and with the winter we’ve let them know anytime they want to use the facility in the morning times that they’ll have access to it. We don’t really know what the end result’s going to be, but we would like the kids to get good enough to where we could have leagues and then maybe incorporate parents playing with some of the members.”
