Village of Washingtonville - Pickleball is all the rage, but in addition to wanting to know when the courts will be ready for playing, residents want to know "So why in the world is it called Pickleball?" And why is it coming up now? It's because a big pocketful of funding is on its way as the Rieger Homes 17-home development finishes their work and is having the roads dedicated, at which time there will be Parkland as well as a Road donation fee they are contributing to the tune of about $85,000.
Meanwhile, at last week's Washingtonville Board Meeting residents had a good laugh when plans for a pickleball court (or courts) were unveilled They had a good chuckle when someone wanted to know why it was called pickleball. Mayor Devinko, with a trying-to-be serious face, said "There is no pickle involved"....and the room erupted in laughter.
Legend tells it (Pickleball was invented in 1965) that 2 families found they had too many parts missing of their badminton game to be able to play. While looking around, they did find a couple of ping pong paddles and a whiffle ball. And so it began. They tried batting with the paddles for awhile and decided it worked pretty well and was fun. By the next weekend the 2 families got together again and started adding some rules. That s still doesn't explain the "pickle" reference though. Well actually, as really old family stories go, there are at least 3 versions. The most prominent that caught on was that the family had a puppy named Pickles and he would jump in the middle of a game and grab the ball. Another said "Nope, they didn't have the pup yet, but they did name him after the game they had invented. A third explanation was that there are levels in the sport of rowing, and when teams pick their teammates they often have a handful of not so good rowers left. That last boat, is usually not as fancy or talented as the rest, and they all climb in. The losers are bit of "in a pickle" (a difficult situation). How did the pickleball inventors know this? One of them was a competitive rower. And so it goes.
As for the actual plans to develop the sport locally, it may not be "all the rage", but there are at least a few dozen residents eager to join the sport which is a little less physically demanding than football, baseball, tennis or soccer.
And here's the plan for Washingtonville's Pickleball fans:
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Mayor Devinko gives the details
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