Popular game is growing across the county, state, area

DAVE GORGON

It’s Monday night and a dozen Downriver residents are taking pickleball lessons on outdoor courts at Trenton’s Arthurs Middle School from Grosse Ile resident Tom Snider, known as the “ambassador of Wayne County pickleball.”

On the far end of the courts, Mike and Kim Pizzo of Woodhaven arrive with four friends to play. They said pickleball is so popular in Woodhaven that they couldn’t find court space, so they traveled the short distance to Trenton to play.

Four minutes away at Affholter Park, four friends are playing the sport that “anyone can play” on an older, smaller venue.

In Wyandotte, dozens of players are either on the courts or waiting their turn in a pickleball league at the newly renamed Justin N. Lanagan Memorial Pickleball Courts at FOP Park.

Some of those players will compete in games later in the week at Vreeland Park in Riverview.

Pickleball has exploded in the Downriver area, mirroring a nationwide trend. A report by CNN called pickleball “America’s fastestgrowing sport.” A report by the trade

SEE PICKLEBALL, PAGE 11