Pickleball Coming to Trumbull

Grab your paddles because Pickleball is coming to a Trumbull tennis court near you.

The Parks and Recreation Commission recently allowed the sport to be played on a tennis court in Unity Park.

According to Greg Pavona of Old Hollow Road, the sport uses a hard paddle and a polymer wiffle ball on a 1/3-smaller tennis court, about 44 feet by 20 feet. It is about 25 years old and played in the Pacific Northwest and Florida.

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The game is "easier on the body, great for children and seniors," Pavona told the commission.

There are currently courts in Ridgefield and Greenwich, he added.

The commission agreed that rear Unity is the least-used court, closer to the Senior Center and more shady.

According to http://worldpickleball.com/pickleball-history, the sport began in summer 1965 "on Bainbridge Island - a short ferry ride from Seattle, Wash. The original purpose of the game was to provide a sport for the entire family, according to co-inventors U.S. Congressman Joel Pritchard, William Bell, and Barney McCallum." Its name is maritime in origin.

"Frank Pritchard, another of Joel Pritchard’s kids, said the name may have come from his mother, Joan, who was a competitive rower on the island. She sometimes referred to the ‘pickle boat,’ the slowest vessel in a race," the site states.