photo by: Contributed

Pickleball players play a doubles match recently at Sports Pavilion Lawrence.

Last August, Nikki Weigel had never played pickleball. Now, less than a year later, she schedules her job around it.

“I work as a night-shift nurse so I can play pickleball during the day,” the 56-year-old Lawrence resident told the Journal-World recently.

If her enthusiasm sounds a bit extreme, you probably haven’t met many players of the quirkily named sport whose popularity has skyrocketed in recent years. According to the USA Pickleball Association, the national governing body for the sport, nearly 5 million people were playing it in the U.S. by 2021.

photo by: Contributed

Lawrence resident Nikki Weigel is a USA Pickleball ambassador serving Lawrence for the Great Plains region.

“It’s such a passion when people do get into it,” Weigel said, and her current mission is not only to wield one of those squat little paddles as often as possible, but also to get as many converts as she can in front of a pickleball net chasing after that little, hole-filled polymer ball.

To that end, she was approved last week as the USA Pickleball ambassador serving Lawrence for the Great Plains region. A couple of thousand such volunteers exist across the country to tout the sport and to assist at local clinics and tournaments.

So her daytime hobby has turned into something of a job, but she obviously considers it a calling.

“Being an ambassador means I get to promote pickleball on another level,” said Weigel, who also is a board member of the nonprofit Pickleball Lawrence.

One of the first things she wants to promote is a kickoff event for the local group from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday at the outdoor courts at Sports Pavilion Lawrence. The free event will feature an exhibition match of skilled players to show off pickleball to the curious and converted alike. After the match, courts will be open for play and plenty of folks will be available to answer questions.

One question — But isn’t this a sport for older folks? — will surely be on some people’s minds. And Weigel’s quick answer is that it’s for everyone. Even some professional tennis players have taken up the sport, she notes.

A recent article in Sports Illustrated details the international rise of the sport — invented as a children’s game in the 1960s — and the professional tours and rivalries that it, like more traditional sports, has spawned.

photo by: Contributed

Pickleball players play a doubles match recently at Sports Pavilion Lawrence.

“It’s something that you can do at any age, from very young to very old,” Weigel said.

USA Pickleball notes that the average age for players — now at 38 — has continued to drop.

“It’s easy to learn but complex enough to be very interesting,” said Weigel, who, like a lot of folks, began playing in her 50s.

“I needed another outlet after my third child went to college. Once I tried pickleball, I was hooked,” she said.

“The basic bottom line,” she said, whether you’re in it for the athletic glory or the sheer fun and companionship, “is that it gives people so much joy.”

Saturday morning’s event, in addition to the exhibition match, will also feature music, a coffee truck and giveaways. “One winner,” Weigel excitedly notes, “will receive a new pickleball paddle.”