When Gainesville resident Billie Denunzio first tried her swing at pickleball over 10 years ago, she trotted out onto a tennis court at the Alachua County Senior Center with a wooden paddle in hand, trying to hit a wiffle ball over the net. Instead of making it over the net, the ball kept flying straight into it, but Denunzio didn’t give up on the sport.
“We went, ‘There's got to be more to this game than this,’” Denunzio said. “‘This is not fun.’"
Nobody told them what to do, “so that's when I went over to Jonesville and MLK, where they said, ‘Yes, you can use that paddle, but would you like to try mine,’” she said.
After trading in her wooden paddle for a proper one, Denunzio became a regular pickleball player at the 300 Club and is helping organize the Alachua County Ninth Annual Indoor Pickleball Showcase set for Aug. 8-9 at the Alachua County Sports and Event Complex.
Mary Rossow, a USA Pickleball ambassador, is also an organizer and expects over 200 participants. This year’s showcase will feature an added wheelchair division. Participants will compete in round-robin rounds based on age-group brackets to qualify for the playoff rounds and be able to play for a medal.
Pickleball participation in the United States increased by 20.1 million players from 2020 to 2025, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. Alachua County saw the addition of eight new pickleball courts to Tom Petty Park on Feb.19.
Rossow became a USA Pickleball ambassador about seven years ago and helped get the Tom Petty Park courts built. Given the sport’s sociability, she said the growth isn’t surprising.
“The sport is so easy to learn,” Rossow said. “It's somewhat inexpensive, although paddles have really gone up in cost, but it's just, you can go, you meet all of these people. It's like a big pickleball family.”
She also regularly participates in the Alachua County Sports and Events Center Open Pickleball Nights. Sports Tourism Director Stephen Rodriguez said on Wednesdays, players can pay $5 to play on one of the eight designated indoor courts from 5:30 to 8:30 P.M.
The program launched in April, hosting open pickleball nights every Tuesday and Wednesday, but shortened it to just Wednesdays over the summer. If players don’t have a paddle, Rodriguez said they can rent one for an additional $5.
While the center mainly focuses on bringing outside revenue into the county, Rodriguez said they still want to serve local community members.
“Our primary focus is to bring in events that bring out-of-area visitors that therefore spend money at hotels and restaurants and shops and so forth, and they contribute to our economy,” Rodriguez said. “But of course, we always have that community mission, and whenever we have an opportunity, we'd like to open up and present open play like this.”
Brian Gurges, a doctoral student at the University of Florida, started playing pickleball this summer with his girlfriend and her family. The four found out about the open pickleball nights online and decided to check it out to take a break from outdoor courts.
While the group doesn’t normally stick to all the rules, Burges said it’s helped them bond.
“I think it's definitely brought us closer together,” Burges said. “I feel like I'm part of the family in a sense, so it’s very exciting.”
Denunzio said the small size of the courts allows families across generations to play together.
“Any age group can play with any other age group,” Denunzio said. “You're not running like a race. It's short, it's fast, and a lot of it is technique or the way you hit, not necessarily your strength.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she said she and other families bought nets to put up in their driveways when places were shut down.
Gainesville resident Kevin Rainsberger, who also plays at the 300 Club, said he would chalk out court lines and put up his net in the street almost daily during the pandemic.
“You got so desperate to be out there and do something physical during those times that you became very creative, very inventive, and found any place that had a flat surface [where] you could chalk down lines,” Rainsberger said.
Rainsberger first got involved in the sport in 2015 after walking up to a group of players at Jonesville Park. He grew to love the sport, even building a pickleball court in his driveway.
Denunzio credits the sport's welcoming environment as part of the main reason its growth has taken off.
“We all have extra paddles,” Denunzio said. “If you walked up right now to any court, they would invite you in so you feel great, you feel involved. You can come up, and it doesn't matter what level you are.”
