A late comer to the sport, 72year-old pickleball player/coach Gary Chapman has quickly honed his skills.
The Michigan transplant recently captued a gold medal in the competitive sport having never even heard of pickleball until 18 months ago.
“I got into (pickleball) because somebody mentioned it and I didn’t know what it was,” said Chapman. “Somebody showed me how to play and I found out I was reasonably good at it pretty quickly.”
He soon began playing regularly and went on to receive a coaching certificate in August.
“I was a flight instructor, so instructing people comes naturally,” said Chapman. “It’s a pretty easy sport to learn and and it’s nice to teach somebody to acquire a skill they don’t have.”
The rangey, 72-year-old also is a competition player.
He first medaled in the Golden Isles Oldies Pickleball Tournament men’s mixed doubles in Brunswick in October, 2024. There, he won bronze in age category 50, 60-plus and gold in the 70-plus category qualifying him for the Southern Pickleball Championships in Macon.
As if to prove the southeast is serious about pickleball, Macon boasts what it calls the world’s largest indoor pickleball facility . Rhythm and Rally Sports and Events holds 32 indoor courts.
More than 1,200 players came January 3 to Macon for the three-day competition. Chapman won silver in men’s singles in the 70-plus age division.
He will next compete in the US Senior Pickleball North American Championships at Pictona in Holly Hill, Fla., February 21-24 in men’s doubles, mixed doubles and men’s singles.
Pickleball participation has grown an average of 223.5 percent over the past three years according the Sports and Fitness Industry Association.
The South Atlantic region has the highest number of participants with 1,087,000 or 22.6 percent of all players.
The Southern Pickleball Association is comprised of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia.
Chapman regularly commutes to Valdosta from Waycross two to three times a week to practice because of a lack of courts in Waycross. Valdosta has 15 pickleball courts and is planning to build 12 more.
Chapman plays at the Waycross YMCA where he works part time driving the bus for the after school program. Although the Y doesn’t have dedicated pickleball courts, players use the basketball courts.
He also plays at the Monroe Park tennis courts.
“Pickleball courts are a lot smaller than a tennis court,” said Chapman. “We can play there, but there are some things you can’t do on a tennis court because the net extends past the court lines, like you can’t do an around the post move.
“We’d like to have dedicated public pickleball courts because for the size of the population here we don’t have a heck of a lot. There’s a lot of players and there’s not enough courts.”
Pickleball began in 1965 in Bainbridge, Wash., the backyard brainchild of then Lt. Gov. Joel Pritchard and friends Barney McCallum and Bill Bell. The game quickly caught on, and in 1968 Pritchard and three friends formed Pickle Ball, Inc. By 1990 it was being played in all 50 states.
“Anybody from nine to 90 can play it if you’re in reasonably good health,” said Chapman. “It’s something you can do to be active it’s fun.”
