Hilo pickleball games attract players from far and wide — Kona included

HILO — Hilo has a secret society few people know about.

Participants join in a weekly ritual involving masking tape, nets and plastic balls that have little air holes punched through them.

This underbelly of Hilo is hot, sweaty and full of agents of change plotting against one another. They are: senior citizens who play pickleball.

What the heck is pickleball?

That’s the question Jan Bumatay’s husband asked the day she told him she planned to install a pickleball court on their Hilo property.

Pickleball is a racket sport that’s more about tactical plotting than the power serves or muscle you’d see in tennis. It combines aspects of ping pong, tennis and racquetball.

It’s held on a condensed court similar to tennis (that’s where the masking tape comes in — when the court isn’t regulation pickleball, someone marks the lines with tape).

Because the court size is small, it doesn’t involve a lot of running. That makes it easier for first-time players who might not have been exercising a lot lately.

Pickleball requires a lot of movement back and forth from one leg to the other, which is good for building balance and strengthening muscles. Reach to hit a ball is good for flexibility and hand-eye coordination. The game also helps fire up brain cells, players say, because you’re constantly reacting to new input — a good way, studies show, to fight dementia.

New players can strategize where best to hit the whiffle ball (the lightweight plastic kind with holes in it) to make the game tougher for the opponent to return.

That’s where things start to get fun and, yes, addictive — because everyone in the game is strategizing at the same time.

“We use the badminton court at Hilo Armory,” said Connie Yoshiyama of Hilo. “At this point, we don’t have a court for people who work, because it’s only during the daytime.”

Pickleball courts, it turns out, are hard to find in Hilo for this entirely grass-roots sport.

Senior players meet Friday mornings from 8 a.m. until noon at the Kamana Center at the Panaewa Park gym, 100 Ohuohu St. in Hilo. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, people of all ages play from noon to 2 p.m. at the Hilo Armory, 28 Shipman Dr.

Don’t be surprised if keiki join in — it’s a fun game for them, too.

Apparently, pickleball has been all the rage on the mainland for a few years.

Bumatay, 67, said she visited a cousin in Washington state and played the game there in 2009. When she got back to the Big Island, she quickly had a court installed to keep playing. Pickleball had that much of an effect.

She didn’t need to go hunting for people to play against. They found her. Even visitors from off-island.

Tourists who play daily at home are so hungry that they go on seek-and-find missions for courts modified for pickleball by Hilo residents.

“Tourists show up,” said Gloria Wong of Hilo.

“New Jersey; Minnesota; Colorado; Bend, Oregon.; Kona,” said Yoshiyama. “It’s booming.”

Yoshiyama, who will be 77 soon, said she recently saw a report about a place on the mainland that has 140 courts, “and every morning there’s a lineup of people waiting to get on.”

The game is particularly attractive to senior citizens.

“Pickleball fits into the Blue Zone, because we need the social contact. I know people that are aging, but they stay home or they do things by themselves,” Yoshiyama said.

One Kona player still participates at 90-plus years old.

“I think it’s a fantastic way to keep your health, keep your strength,” said Anne Manuia of Hilo.

“I like to sweat,” said Lee Schroeder, 71, of Hilo. “I like to work off the calories I eat.”

Schroeder learned about the community’s pickleball when “a friend of a friend told me that she was told about pickleball at the Armory.”

Hilo doesn’t yet have a U.S.A. Pickleball Association (www.usapa.org) ambassador. And pickleball’s time at the Armory is limited because summer programs are about to start there.

Players are hoping Hawaii County Parks and Recreation staff recognize the untapped recreational opportunities to serve both residents and tourists by installing dedicated courts specifically for pickleball, which is played with shorter nets than tennis.

“That would be interesting if the county would do that for us,” Yoshiyama said.

Email Jeff Hansel at jhansel@hawaiitribune-herald.com.