Pickleball a smash hit with Special Pops; Savannah leading charge to Special Olympics
Cousins Terry Patterson and Ricky Snipes said one of their favorite things about playing pickleball is scoring points off their coach Tim Sampson.
Sampson happily relayed the comments to their interviewer.
The cousins have hearing and speech impairments as well as other disabilities and conditions, so they read lips and use sign language or text on their phones to communicate.
They can be quite funny, like needling their friend or each other. Patterson is 61, while Snipes turned 64 on Halloween, but for the hour they're on a pickleball court, they're as carefree as children.
The cousins are two of the athletes in Special Pops Savannah Tennis and Pickleball, a nonprofit organization that enriches the lives of individuals with intellectual challenges through weekly tennis and pickleball clinics, tournament play and social interaction.
The social benefits are not to be undervalued.
"These kids are just so loving, and for whatever reason, this sport taps into that, and it's fun to watch them play together," said Sampson, a very good player and certified pickleball coach. "They trash talk together. They have an amazingly fun time. I'm in four or five pickleball groups, and I don't laugh in any of them as much as I do in this one."
Sampson served as an intermediary during a recent interview session at The Landings Club's Franklin Creek Tennis Center. The cousins have played pickleball for about four years and it's now their favorite sport for a lot of the same reasons there's a pickleball craze across the nation. Savannah is host to a popular tournament for the general public, the sixth annual Special Pops Charity Pickleball Open, this Friday through Sunday at Franklin Creek Tennis Center.
With a name like pickleball, it has to be fun. It's relatively simple to learn — like a combination of tennis, badminton and pingpong — and players improve quickly, which adds to their enjoyment. Court coverage is easier, too, than in tennis. Four regulation pickleball courts fit in the dimensions of one tennis court, so defending your side of a pickleball court — especially in doubles — is exponentially easier.
The pair was playing doubles that recent morning practice at No. 10 of 10 pickleball courts against Mary Lee Beach and Stephen Ford, a married couple and, like Sampson, volunteers with Special Pops (short for Special Populations).
Patterson and Snipes used their paddles to volley, dink and — given the opportunity — thwack the pickleball hard back at their opponents. Judging by the smiles and laughter, all four were having a very good day.
Patterson said that pickleball one day a week makes him feel good for the whole week. Snipes may play as many as six times a week, and he said it's helping him get more restful sleep.
"They're some of our highest-performing athletes," said Elison McAllaster, pickleball director for Special Pops and coordinator of the annual fundraising tournament. "It's just amazing how pickleball has helped them."
What is Special Pops?
There are about 80 Special Pops athletes ages 15 to over 60. Many of the adults live with relatives or in group homes and have limited recreation and social opportunities.
Special Pops took root in Savannah after tennis enthusiasts Mary and Doug Smith brought the idea with them from Atlanta in 2009. Providing adaptive tennis for intellectually challenged adults began with five athletes at Lake Mayer and then was welcomed as home base by The Landings Club and a host of volunteers in 2010. A junior program for ages 8-15 later was added.
The group has grown larger and more established, the participants becoming friends and then like family, McAllaster said. Adding pickleball instruction about four years ago was a logical fit.
"You play with more people, it's much more active, it's more social," said Sampson, on Special Pops' board of directors. "All the tennis players would agree with that."
One tennis player in agreement is McAllaster, now a pickleball player who promotes and supports the sport as USA Pickleball's Southeast Georgia District Ambassador in addition to her role with Special Pops.
"It's a lot more social than tennis," she said. "I know that people will bristle at that. I'm a converted tennis player. You're closer to each other. There's a lot more opportunity for socializing, laughing in between points."
She said pickleball "combines the best of tennis and pingpong," in her view.
"You can do groundstrokes. You can do hard and fast volleys. You can do soft dink shots that are angled," McAllaster said. "The challenge in adapting from tennis is you don't do the full backswing. You don't have time, especially when you get up to what they call the non-volley zone. When you get in those hard, fast battles, you don't have time to swing that paddle. You've got to keep it in front of you."
Pickleball doesn't reward athleticism the same way tennis does, but it does require good eye-hand coordination and reflexes. McAllaster was one who saw Special Pops logically gravitating toward pickleball and the organization was open to the idea, which has been very popular.
McAllaster also credits The Landings Club for its continued support, with residents volunteering time and effort for the regular Saturday afternoon clinics, which have moved to The Landings' Marshwood Club. The pickleball courts at Franklin Creek — 10 now, soon to be 14 and later 16 total — are jammed on Saturdays.
Goal: Pickleball in Special Olympics
The next logical step is getting pickleball in the Special Olympics, a nonprofit organization in 172 countries which offers more than 30 Olympic-style individual and team sports including badminton, tennis and table tennis. But not pickleball. Not yet.
Savannah is leading the charge on a national stage.
"Once pickleball started taking off, and I saw how much easier it was for them," McAllaster said, "I started saying, 'Why don't we have pickleball in the Special Olympics? This is a no-brainer.' It kind of became my personal goal to get pickleball in the Special Olympics."
A contingent of 11 athletes and six coaches from Special Pops Savannah traveled to a Special Olympics national event on Oct. 15 and put on a pickleball demonstration — the first of its kind, McAllaster said. The commute wasn't bad: Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, for the 2022 Special Olympics North America National Tennis Championship at the Van der Meer Shipyard Resort.
McAllaster explained that she had been trying for four years to have the Savannahians make that trip so they could introduce the sport, but weather washed out one opportunity, and the COVID pandemic canceled the next two.
She said they're getting closer to the goal, as rules have been developed and a Florida contingent has joined the cause.
Pickleball is in the development stages of becoming a sport offered by Special Olympics Programs, said Craig Pippert, Senior Manager, Sports Development at Special Olympics North America.
Pippert, in a shared email correspondence with McAllaster, wrote that Special Olympics is working with state programs and national governing body USA Pickleball on ways to offer the sport, including some rules modifications that may be different from those for the general public.
Most Special Olympic athletes can play by USA Pickleball rules, Pippert wrote, but some may need modifications to compete on the court. One idea is an individual skills competition focusing on primary skills to play pickleball, which also could apply to novices.
What's important is providing opportunities, McAllaster said, for a special population to enjoy aspects of everyday life that others may take for granted.
"I have a nephew who is neurologically disabled," she said. "They know they're different. They want to be normal. So anything you do to help them feel accepted as another person is very appreciated. The smiles and the gratitude you get from these athletes literally brought me to tears literally every time I walked off the court. We don't realize how blessed we are."
Hundreds descend on Savannah for pickleball tournament
The national pickleball phenomenon includes Savannah, where a tournament that started with 60 competitors in 2016 has grown to about 340 in 2022 — and it could have been a lot more. The supply of courts has not met the demand.
The Special Pops Charity Pickleball Open presented by Woof Gang Bakery & Grooming is Friday through Sunday at The Landings Club's Franklin Creek Tennis Center. Registration for the tournament has long been closed.
"I cut it off six weeks early. We've had such an overwhelming response," said Elison McAllaster, the event's coordinator and pickleball director at Special Pops, for which this is its lone fundraising event each year.
The fourth annual event in 2020 was canceled by the pandemic, and the 2021 tournament got started before it was washed out by inclement weather.
The 2022 edition has attracted competitors from Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington state, McAllaster said.
The round-robin format features women's doubles on Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; mixed doubles on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and men's doubles from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. McAllaster said that with only 10 courts, there is a limit on how many teams could enter, and no room on the schedule for a professional division, though that could be in the future.
Divisions are based on skill level (2.5 through 4.5) and age, beginning with 19-35, then 36-49, then five-year increments 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69 and 70-plus.
Doubles teams are guaranteed at least six matches, McCallaster said, given the distance some are traveling to Savannah. There are medals but no prize money for top finishers.
For more information on Special Pops, visit the website https://specialpopstennis-savannah.com/
Nathan Dominitz is the Sports Content Editor of the Savannah Morning News and savannahnow.com. Email him at ndominitz@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @NathanDominitz
On the web
For a video and more photos of Terry Patterson and Ricky Snipes playing pickleball, see this article at savannahnow.com/sports.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Pickleball popular in Savannah Special Pops; Special Olympics next?
