I feel like I'm more competitive than he is.

And so it's better when we play against each other than with each other.

But, um yeah, we want to stay married for another 50 years.

[Laughs] I fell in love with pickleball, along with millions of Americans after the Covid pandemic.

Realized, though, that we needed a lot more courts.

They just weren't many places to play in Spokane.

And that really was the impetus to say we need a group that can collectively work towards this goal to get more public pickleball available, And so that's kind of where it started.

Mike Johansen, Im the founder of the Spokane Pickleball Club.

It's the one where you don't have to belong to a facility.

So it's held and hosted at parks all throughout our city.

So it's really a community and a public group.

So, Spokane Pickleball Club, we're, member supported And the most important thing about that is that when we're applying for grants we can point to the number of members that we have, because a lot of the courts that we're trying to build are in public parks and whatnot.

And so it's really important to show that there's public, support behind it.

When Ken and I started playing, we barely could get eight people to play.

And within six years, which is about the time that we've been playing, there's been 40 people showing up to play, which was a huge increase.

And so what we're hoping is with the Spokane Pickleball Club, we can grow spaces for people to actually play.

[Very good.

Very good.

Very good.]

[Good job.]

[Nice serving.]

When we were founding the Spokane Pickleball Club, Sherran and Ken had been out on the courts at Comstock taking care of things, taping lines on their own, helping take care of the nets, organizing play.

[Ken: Court nine:] [Ken: Dale, Susan H., Brenda, and Cher.]

It was just incredible to see, um, I think of Sherran as kind of the Queen of Comstock.

Seeing that and the work that they were doing in the way that it was supporting the whole community who played there, that's one of the reasons why we started the club.

You don't have to be a part of the Spokane Pickleball Club.

In order to play, we've been using an app called Play Time Scheduler.

And then we've decided, that we didn't want to limit it to how many people just if you want to come play at any level, if you're a beginner up to a competitive, come play with us.

I'm Julie Humphreys, and I've been playing with this group for about a year and a half, and I hadn't played ever and hadn't played much tennis, and there was a group of three people playing and they needed a fourth.

They said, get in here.

I don't know what I'm doing.

but they were so welcoming.

And that's what I find about pickleball in general.

[Oh, good shot.

Good one!]

There are people who love playing pickleball and who just want to go and hit the ball and have fun, and hit and giggle, as we say.

And then there's people who really want to compete.

And, I just love the fact that it kind of appeal to both.

I used to think it was a kid's game.

You know, oh, kids play that.

Well, when I got involved and found out, well, you know, there's a little more to it than that.

It does take a little bit of skill.

But it's not so hard that you can't learn it very easily.

And, once you start playing it, you do get hooked.

It's just very addictive.

[Laughs] [Providing some pickleball tips and tricks.]

Everybody at one time picked up the pickleball paddle for the first time.

So we've all been there and people are very gracious about saying, you know, here's the rules, which is one of the hardest things to get.

What number are you on?

And learning about the kitchen.

But people are willing to work with people who are just starting.

[Great instructor.]

It really encourages kind of the soft shots.

And so, that also allows players of different levels to have fun playing together.

Because even if I was playing with a straight beginner, rather than focused on the power side of my game, I can focus on the soft side of the game, which still I use in that upper level play.

But it allows you to have fun with a variety of levels and a lot of sports, It's really difficult to do that if you have mixed levels.

As a retired Parks and Recreation professional, it's the ideal sport or activity, when you're looking for something for people to do, and you want to be inclusive of all ages; This is the sport.

I love being a member of the Spokane Pickleball Club, because it is something that allows us to come together and say, this is what we care about, and it empowers people to make change in their community.

Especially when it comes to something like pickleball, which is silly to say, but it can be life changing for people.