4
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2019
Marine Park seniors crazy for pickleball!
BY ROSE ADAMS
He’s in a real pickle!
A Mill Basin elder has no
more free time after introducing
the sport of pickleball to
southern Brooklyn’s senior community,
which has taken to his
weekly tournaments in Marine
Park like a cucumber to brine,
and forced the trend setter to
abandon his other passions.
“Now I can’t go to tap dancing
lessons because I’m teaching
pickleball!” lamented 77-
year-old Bob Spieler.
Pickleball — which crosses
elements of tennis, badminton,
and pingpong — took off
in 2009, when senior communities
nationwide adopted the
sport, which benefits from a
small court, light paddle, and
doesn’t require much running
around. Spieler learned the
sport while wintering in the
famed snowbird state of Florida,
where nothing moves real
estate like a good pickleball
court, he said.
“Every community in Florida
has pickleball, and if they
don’t they can’t sell a house,” he
claimed.
But Speiler was crushed to discover
that residents back home
in Mill Basin had never heard
of the sport, and that Brooklyn
houses only a handful of indoor
pickleball courts spread across
the borough.
Speiler worked with the Marine
Park Active Adults and
Senior Center to begin hosting
pickleball matches every Friday
morning at Marine Park’s
paddleball courts, and it didn’t
take long before the list of competitors
grew long in the tooth,
attendees claimed.
“I have really taken to the
game,” said Michael Chaiet, 68,
who began playing pickleball at
the Sunset Park Recreation Center,
and now partakes in the Friday
games at Marine Park. “It’s
not as demanding as tennis, but
has all the action.”
Spieler and his growing group
of pickleball players hope to
raise funds to buy more nets and
to eventually build a permanent
outdoor court in Marine Park.
Currently, participants have to
arrive early to draw the correct
pickleball markings with chalk
on the paddleball courts.
“It takes a while to measure
and set up,” Chaiet said. However,
the organizers have a lot
of help setting up and breaking
down the court — Chaiet and
Spieler claimed that the games
drew more than 40 players in
their fourth week.
And while Spieler’s tap dancing
shoes haven’t gotten much
wear since he brought pickleball
to the borough, he could
have guessed this would happen,
saying no senior can resist
a good game of pickleball.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Spieler
said. “I haven’t met a senior who
hasn’t had a good time.”
FIERCE COMPETITION: Mel Shapiro, Jean Wilson, Donna Melli, and Michael Chaiet broke a sweat playing pickleball last
Friday, where Marine Park residents gather for the weekly face-offs. Photo by Derrick Watterson
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