Being sidelined from pickleball does not preclude me from venturing down to the courts in search of a good story. Sometimes I find one; Sunday was one of those times. As mentioned in a previous article, Marilyn Brady has a group that plays every Sunday morning at 8:15. My wife Ellen plays in the group, so I put the New York Times crossword puzzle aside in favor of the vicarious pleasure of watching Ellen and friends play. Most Sundays I watch the Brady group then walk to other courts to see who else is playing.
Unlike Saturdays when the courts are packed, Sunday mornings are generally less crowded. It didn’t take long to find a game that grabbed my attention. Meet the Cohen family. Nicole Cohen was playing pickleball with her two children, Grace and Cole. Nicole is a primary care physician in Savannah, while Grace, age seven, and Cole, who is nine, attend Savannah Country Day School where they are in the third and fourth grades respectively.
Nicole has arranged her schedule so she has plenty of time to spend with the kids after they get home from school. Like so many of the school age children at The Landings, Grace and Cole love sports and are very competitive. They are on The Landings Club swim team, play tennis and basketball. Grace recently started gymnastics and Cole plays baseball. They are relatively new to pickleball, but insist on venturing to the courts for an hour or so most Sunday mornings.
According to Nicole it was her idea to introduce the kids to pickleball. “I had played a few times with friends and just felt like the kids would really enjoy it. I knew they would enjoy the fast pace and it was something that we could play together as a family.” Nicole is on to something. Maybe it’s time to create a Take Your Kids to Pickleball Day. It is the perfect family sport, and if, like Grace and Cole, our children are introduced to the game early they will discover a game they can play for life. Face it, sports like football, lacrosse, and basketball don’t last forever. The rigors of the sports eventually force the body to say tilt. Even Tom Brady finally hung up his cleats. Brady quit when he was forty-six; The Landings Club has several pickleball players over eighty!
Naturally kids like Grace and Cole will gravitate to the sports they enjoy. But if the current trend at The Landings is any indication, we will see more and more young people vying for court time. Eventually we might have pickleball clinics for our young members, youth leagues and tournaments. In time the torch will be passed. Heck, The Landings Club might be the breeding ground for the next Anna Leigh Waters.
So, parents, follow Nicole Cohen’s lead, create your own Take Your Kids to Pickleball Day and join the fun. Better yet, join Nicole, Grace and Cole on Sundays and create a friendly intra-family rivalry.