Q&A: Pickleball: A cross between tennis, ping pong

Editor's note: This is one in a continuing series of interviews with local residents. Clovis' Steve Watkins is an avid pickleball player whose story illustrates the sport's meteoric rise in popularity. 

Q: Where does your journey with pickleball begin?

A: I have a good friend by the name of Mike Willmon. I played softball with him since we were teenagers.

I ran into him one day, and he said, "Hey, you need to come out and play pickleball. You're an athlete, you could do this."

And I said, "Well, what's pickleball?"

He said, "Well, it's kind of a cross between tennis and ping pong."

I grew up here in Clovis, and I played a lot of ping pong with my friends. And I was in a tennis league, way back in the day; we had a really stout tennis league. And that's where it started. And I went, and it's just evolved from there.

Q: What year was this?

A: I'd say about 2019.

Q: What were some of the initial struggles of playing pickleball?

A: The worst thing is we don't have good courts. We've got courts, but they're basketball courts and they're rubber. I've fallen twice, because I caught the sole of my shoe, and I tore my rotator cuff on the right arm.

I've torn a bicep and various other things like that. That was the worst thing. 

Q: Was there a moment where you said, "OK, this is something I want to pour a lot of time into?"

A: Yes, I started out and I immediately used my ping pong skills. I could cut a ball really well, and make it come back to me. And I did that. And it caught on that rubber floor.

And I mean, it didn't bounce forward. It came right back at me. And I thought, "Heyyy, I could do this. I'm gonna enjoy this."

Q: When did you start taking it seriously to the point where you're going out and competing?

A: I would say like in 2020. I'm 73 years old. They have a Senior Olympics every year in Clovis. I got involved in that. I've won gold in that every year.

I've played in several tournaments. We've taken no golds, but we've taken several silvers. In fact, I've got a tournament coming up in mid-July in Amarillo. And then I've got one in Denton, Texas, in October.

Q: Walk me through your Senior Olympics win in Las Cruces.

A: The first team we played, I looked at them and I thought, "Hey, these guys are going to be good." And we had them down 13 to 9; we played one game to 15. And dadgummit, they came back on us and beat us 15 to 13.

So then we went through the losers bracket. We got back to that same team, those two men, and we beat them, we double dipped them. I think we won the last game 15 to 13. So it was a dogfight all the way around.

Q: What are some of your inclinations of why pickleball has become such a worldwide phenomenon?

A: Simply because everybody can play it. It is a grand sport. You get wonderful people that you get to fellowship with and meet, and it's good activity.

You sweat really hard when you play. And why it became a phenomenon? I don't know. But man, it has flat blown up.

- Compiled by Matt Weiner, The Staff of The News