This pilot flew into Wilmington for a single game of pickleball. Here's why
On Thursday morning, Dean Matt piloted his six-seater, single-engine plane to Wilmington from Virginia Beach just for a game of pickleball. By day’s end, he would have flown across state lines two more times to play at least two more games.
It’s part of Matt’s cross-country quest to play a game of pickleball in each of the 48 contiguous states – all in less than a month. Thursday’s game at Northern Regional Park in Castle Hayne came near the end of his journey. He plans to end the trip Friday where he started with a game in Sarasota, Florida.
Originally, Matt developed the idea for the trip with the goal of establishing a Guiness World Record. That fell apart when the player Matt had planned to partner with pulled out of the trip. Matt said it would have been “disingenuous” to continue to call his attempt a world record.
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“It’s a self-proclaimed world record attempt,” he said.
Matt selected Wilmington as his North Carolina stop because it fit into his route down the East Coast, he said. Throughout his journey, he’s played in public parks, in private clubs and homes and even on an airport’s tarmac.
The people he’s played with have varied, too. He’s played against professional pickleball players, local players and celebrities. At his stop in Virginia Beach, for instance, Matt played against former Virginia Governor and U.S. Senator George Allen.
In Wilmington, Matt played with Wayne Bigg, director of training with the Cape Fear Pickleball Club. The duo faced off against Wilmington City Council member Clifford Barnett and Jimmy Santangelo, a pickleball player who met up with Matt at his Rhode Island stop to play the last eight states.
Although Barnett said it was just his fourth time playing the game, the match remained close with Matt and Bigg eventually eking out a 11-9 victory.
In recent years, the game of pickleball has spiked in popularity. It’s estimated that about 38 million people have played pickleball in the last year.
Matt, who calls himself the "pickleball pilot," said the trip has combined his love of flying and pickleball. His favorite part of the trip has been the people he’s met and the places he’s seen along the way.
“Basically, every place I've been I'll remember something good about it,” he said.
Reporter Emma Dill can be reached at edill@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Wilmington pickleball match is part of this pilot's cross-country quest
