Pickleball ready to invade Darlington County
By Melissa Rollins, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
Dick and Debbie Spinazzola have a passion for Pickleball. The duo wants to help spread their excitement to Darlington. In 2015, the Spinazzolas started a Pickleball club that now meets in Florence. Today, the Pee Dee Picklers group has around 70 players.
Dick said that he and his wife Debbie tried initially to start a club in Darlington, where they live, but were unsuccessful.
“When we first came here two or three years ago the first place we went was Darlington because we live in Darlington,” Dick said. “We tried to get someone to line off, tape off, a court because none of the outside courts were done for pickleball; you can’t tape it outside you have to paint it and it is a big job. None of the courts really lent themselves to it and we kind of dropped it when we found out that four courts were already lined off at Timrod Park in Florence.”
When the group started to grow, the regulars decided to make it official.
“After a year, we decided to start a club,” Dick said. “I thought that we were so close to Darlington it should be the Darlington club as well and I believe that we have six players who comes from Darlington.”
Today, the Pee Dee Picklers meet regularly with times that suit their schedules.
Even with such good numbers, the desire to see a club grow and flourish in Darlington, or at least Darlington County, is still a desire for the Spinazzolas.
“It would be nice if someone could be the champion for Pickleball in Darlington,” Dick said. “We would be glad to help out any way we can but you need a champion and I don’t want to be that champion again. We’ve also spoken to people in Hartsville; we’ve put on a demo and we played all day long. We don’t know what happened but they never called us back.”
Debbie said that the Pee Dee Picklers welcome people from all around but understands that driving may not be ideal for everyone.
“We are glad to include anyone from Darlington in our club and just make it a bigger club,” Debbie said. “But a lot of people don’t want to go all the way to Timrod.”
For those unfamiliar of the gherkin named game, Dick said that Pickleball is a great sport for everyone.
“It is a fun game,” Dick said. “We have three classes: beginning, intermediate and advance. When we play, the beginners and the intermediate team up because we can’t afford to have a match with just beginners; after a few games, they aren’t beginners anymore. Some of them are very quick and all of a sudden they have it down pat.”
Pickleball looks like a combination of tennis, badminton and ping-pong. A ping-pong paddle is used along with a wiffle ball style ball.
“You only score when you are serving,” Dick said. “Once you get a point, you move over and you serve to the other person… When you lose your serve, it goes over to your other partner and he does the same thing. It goes back and forth. It is a challenging game and it is very addictive.”
“It is highly addictive and there is no known cure,” Debbie laughed.
The Pee Dee Picklers have game times several days a week, both indoors and outside, on weekdays and the weekend. For more information about the club, call the Spinazzolas at 843-944-0120. Information about game times can be found by calling the Parks and Recreation Department in Florence at 843-665-3253.