2011 Senior Games bring out feisty friendships (VIDEO)
Minnesota Senior Games: Pickleball from Mankato Free Press on Vimeo.
Competitors say friendships often forged over games
By Robb Murray
MANKATO — By 8:30 a.m., Minnesota State University’s Myers Field House was
buzzing with the excitement of seasoned athletes at the top of their games.
But instead of collegiate co-eds sprinting a 100-meter race or sailing over
high-jump bars, the room was full of a different kind of athlete.
The 2011 Senior Games began Thursday morning, and the sport with some of the
largest participation numbers was the one with the funniest name: pickleball.
Across the field house floor on a dozen or so courts, the game that is a hybrid
of pingpong and tennis kept nearly 50 participants busy in the mixed doubles
division.
Among the feistiest was Rachael Kroog, whose smooth stroking of the ball and
fist pumping on hard-won points made it clear to anyone watching that she was
here to win.
“We’re all here to win,” Kroog said. “But the really nice thing about pickleball
is that it’s social.”