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Derek Hagino practices pickleball on a court at Lancaster County Club Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.
Derek Hagino practices pickleball on a court at Lancaster County Club Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.
Derek Hagino practices pickleball on a court at Lancaster County Club Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.
Derek Hagino practices pickleball on a court at Lancaster County Club Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.
Derek Hagino practices pickleball on a court at Lancaster County Club Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.
Derek Hagino practices pickleball on a court at Lancaster County Club Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.
Derek Hagino practices pickleball on a court at Lancaster County Club Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.
Derek Hagino practices pickleball on a court at Lancaster County Club Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.
Derek Hagino practices pickleball on a court at Lancaster County Club Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.
Derek Hagino practices pickleball on a court at Lancaster County Club Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.
Derek Hagino practices pickleball on a court at Lancaster County Club Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.
Derek Hagino practices pickleball on a court at Lancaster County Club Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.
Derek Hagino practices pickleball on a court at Lancaster County Club Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.
Derek Hagino practices pickleball on a court at Lancaster County Club Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.
Shortly after graduating from Mary Washington University in 2019, Derek Hagino went to work as a tennis pro at Lancaster Country Club in Manheim Township.
About a year later, Hagino was at the club when he was asked to fill out a foursome to play pickleball. Hagino, a former two-time District Three tennis singles champion for Hempfield, had never before played the sport.
“I fell in love with it,” Hagino said. Pickleball is now Hagino’s sport of choice. And he has made a quick climb in pickleball in two short years. Hagino, 25, is currently ranked No. 124 in the country in men’s singles on pickleballtournaments.com.
“I’d definitely say I’m a low-level professional who can compete at the professional level and do so solidly,” he said.
The popularity of pickleball has been on a similar trajectory in recent years. It’s considered the country’s fastest-growing sport. The claim is difficult to verify, but what numbers are available back it up. The sport’s two-year growth rate was 39% in 2021, according to the USA Pickleball Association, and 4.8 million people are now playing nationwide, almost double the number from five years ago, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association.
For the uninitiated, pickleball is played on a court similar in size to platform tennis, or a doubles badminton court.
“The court is 44 feet long by 20 feet wide,” Hagino said. “The height of the net is 36 inches on the outside, 34 inches in the center.”
Players compete with a paddle a little larger than a ping-pong paddle with a longer handle. The ball used is similar to a plastic whiffle ball, though the grooves on the holes are a bit different.
“It’s such an easy game to learn that you can kind of play with anybody,” Hagino said.
The sport was invented in 1965 and got its name from the inventor’s dog, Pickles, because the hound kept chasing the ball, or so the legend goes. In its first 50 years or so, pickle-ball had been most popular with the older generation, in large part because of the small size of the court, meaning less running and more bending.
“If you pick up the tennis racquet for the first time, 99% of the players aren’t going to go out there and have fun,” Brandon Wortkotter said. “You will swing and miss. You will have trouble getting a rally going.”
Wortkotter is the director of pickleball and a tennis pro at Bent Creek Country Club in Manheim Township. The club is in its third season of offering pickleball to its members.
“Pickleball, everyone can get out on the court and get a rally going,” Wortkotter said. “They can hit that ball back and forth. It’s a lot easier. There are aspects of the game that are exciting. Quick-reaction volleys. The court is shorter, the ball travels shorter.”
Wortkotter is a Florida native who was a college tennis player at Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland when he played pickleball for the first time in 2017.
“I would say the last five years pickleball has taken off with the younger generation,” Wortkotter said. “In 2017, even 2018, not a lot of people my age then even knew about it.”
Nearly half of the people now playing pickleball regularly are between the ages of 18 and 54, according to USA Pickleball Association. Why the sport has caught the interest of the younger generation is a bit of a mystery.
“Maybe it’s word of mouth,” Wortkotter said. “Maybe it’s being taught in PE (physical education) classes in school now, or people are hearing about it on the news. … Everyone knows about pickleball now, even to the point where people who don’t play tennis, other athletes are trying it. There are several stories out there about NFL superstars playing it in the offseason.”
The known places to play in the United States totaled 9,524 at the end of 2021, an increase of 789 locations, or approximately 66 new locations per month, according to USA Pickleball Association. There are 333 places to play in Pennsylvania, including about a half-dozen in Lancaster County, according to places2play.org.
The best known location to do so in Lancaster County are on the six courts located at DF Buchmiller Park in West Lampeter Township.
“There are times I’ve driven by Buchmiller, there’s about 50 people out there,” Wortkotter said. “So if you have upwards of four players per court, that’s 24 people playing, and 24 people waiting.”
“Places to play around here are probably not recognized by USA Pickleball,” Hagino said. “Just because they’re in a similar situation to what we’re doing.”
Lancaster Country Club added pickleball to its repertoire in the last two years, with Hagino taking the lead growing the game there, under the direction of the club’s director of racquets, Michael Jordan.
However, the club doesn’t yet have an official court. For now, Hagino can set up a pickleball court on one end line of a tennis court, with tape marking the pickleball boundary lines and a portable net set up across the middle.
Wortkotter does the same on two of the tennis courts at Bent Creek Country Club.
Among other places to play pickleball in Lancaster County are Overlook Golf Course in Manheim Town-ship, where the indoor roller rink is converted into pickleball courts in the winter. And at the Lititz recCenter, where pickleball courts can be set up on indoor basketball courts. Spooky Nook Sports in East Hempfield Township has two dedicated indoor pickleball courts.
Universal Athletic Club in Manheim Township also has courts and Buchmiller Park on Willow Street Pike has courts open to the public.
By November 2023, Wortkotter said Bent Creek is slated to complete the construction of four indoor/outdoor pickleball courts.
“We’ll put a bubble over them,” Wortkotter said. “When they’re completed, I believe Bent Creek will have the largest indoor pickleball facility in the county.”
Until then, novices also can try the sport at home. A pickleball starter kit online sells for as low as $80, complete with paddles, a ball and a net. Find some marking tape to lay down, or use chalk for boundary lines, and you’re good to go.
The easy setup is believed to be a contributing factor as to why pickleball has gained popularity over the last two years during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“People needed something to do,” Hagino said. “They found pickleball online. They got the measurements, threw down a court on their driveway and they could play.”
Prize purses at many pickleball tournaments have grown substantially. For instance, Hagino nabbed bronze in a doubles tournament at the Gamma Pickle-ball Classic in Pittsburgh in August 2021. The pot for the tournament was $25,000, with first-place winners taking home $3,000.
However, Wortkotter estimates only the game’s top five or six players are good enough to pursue the sport full-time through a combination of winning tournaments, sponsorship money and teaching clinics or camps.
“They host camps around the world,” Wortkotter said. “Whether it’s in the Caribbean, or Sea Isle City, New Jersey.”
It may explain why the International Federation of Pickleball has at least 70 member nations, most of them having joined in recent years. A successful bid to add the sport to the Olympics will need competitive players in at least 75 countries.
Closer to home, pickle-ball now has three national professional organizations, all formed in the last four years. One of those made headlines recently when former NFL quarterback Drew Brees became part-owner of a team in Major League Pickleball, which held its first draft of players in May.
“From my understanding those things are invitation-only,” Hagino said. “The best way to be invited is to play more national tournaments, instead of just on the East Coast. Get my name out there.”
Meanwhile, Hagino and others are busy trying to grow the game locally.
“You can play with anyone,” Hagino said. “It’s more of a family game.”
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