Fun at The Pickle Shed
By Casev Krautkramer
Miltrim Farms co-owner Tom Mueller’s decision to turn a new building, which was supposed to provide storage for farm equipment, into The Pickle Shed has been a godsend for Athens-area pickleball players.
The building opened in October, and half of it consists of a museum with antique farm tractors and the other half has two pickleball courts.
Jeny Gesicki of Athens used to play tennis until he threw out his back. He can no longer serve a tennis ball overhand. Luckily for him, pickleball requires players to serve underhand, which he can easily do. The smaller pickleball court compared to tennis also drew Gesicki to pickleball — one of the fastest growing sports in the world.
“Playing pickleball is easier on my body, including my back and legs,” Gesicki said.
Gesicki began playing pickleball on the outdoor 3M courts in Wausau in 2015 after he retired. He then played on the outdoor pickleball courts at Marathon Park in Wausau. hi 2018, Gesicki got a group of Athens residents involved in playing pickleball on the gym floors of Athens Elementary and the Athens Community Hall. Gesicki and Glen Luetschwager of Athens would tape lines down on the Athens Community Hall gym floor for the pickleball court.
Glen’s wife, Lynn Luetschwager, said she and the other Athens pickleball players had trouble finding time to play in these gyms because of scheduling conflicts with school sports teams.
“Then a miracle came,” Lynn said in referring to Mueller’s idea to build two pickleball courts in his new storage shed at Miltrim Farnis. “The great thing about playing pickleball is it’s a social activity where you meet new people. It doesn’t feel like exercise. I am so thankful that we have The Pickle Shed for the Athens community.”
Mueller said his brother-in-law, Gary Albrecht, is an avid golfer who began playing pickleball.
“He liked pickleball better than golf,” he said.
Gesicki gave Mueller some ideas on how to build the pickleball courts in his shed. Mueller said the contractor who poured the cement floors had never designed pickleball courts, so he needed to do a lot of research. Gesicki is happy with how the final product turned out.
“This is probably the best pickleball court surface that I have played on,” Gesicki said.
Mueller said over 300 people have played pickleball at The Pickle Shed since it opened in October. He said there are 80 people who regularly play pickleball at the facility, which is open from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. seven days a week.
It costs $5 to play a session, which lasts two or three hours. The annual yearly cost is $200 for a single individual and $300 for a family to play pickleball at The Pickle Shed.
People who want to play pickleball at The Pickle Shed for the first time should call either Mueller at 715-581-6750 or his sister, Kathy Trimner Roth, at 715-965-7253, to schedule a time and day to play.
People who have been playing pickleball See PICKLEBALLV page 13
RELAXING IN THE SEATING AREA - A group of avid pickleball players at The Pickle Shed at Miltrim Farms in Athens take a break between games. Pictured from left to right are Kathy Trimner Roth, Mary Dlugopolski, Kevin Weise and Heinz Roth.
PHOTOBYCHRISKEPNER Pickleball
Continued from page 14
for a while at The Pickle Shed can download the Pickleheads app on their cell phones to schedule times to play with other people.
For people new to playing pickleball, it takes a few days or even weeks to learn the rules and scoring.
A doubles player is either the No. 1 or No. 2 server on their team. The person serving the ball needs to serve the ball underhand diagonally over the net to the opponent. The ball needs to bounce on the floor once before the opponent can hit it back. The ball also needs to bounce once on a player’s side before the player can hit it back over the net.
When the server earns a point, he or she switches positions with their teammate on the court. A team needs to score 11 points to win, but is required to win by a two-point margin.
Gesicki recommends people who want to learn about pickleball watch a YouTube video on the origins of the sport.
Pickleball was founded in the summer of 1965 by families with summer homes on Bainbridge Island, Wash.
Two friends wanted their children to stay busy on a gloomy day on the island, so they grabbed ping pong paddles and a plastic baseball and headed to the badminton court in one of their backyards.
They soon realized that ping pong paddles were not strong enough to use, so one of them created wooden paddles on his bandsaw.
One of their friends kept going right up to the net and hammering down the serve receive, so they created a rule where people can’t enter “the kitchen” during serves. The kitchen is an area on each side of the net where players are not allowed to access during serves.
The popularity of pickleball took off in the 1970s in physical education classes throughout the country, and the sport continues to grow today.
It’s clear while spending a session playing pickleball at Miltrim Farms in Athens that the sport is fun for all ages to play. Children playing pickleball do need to have adult supervision.
CAMARADERIE ON THE COURT - Michelle Gajewski and Jerry Gesicki of Athens play pickleball at The Pickle Shed at Miltrim Farms in Athens. Gesicki loves playing pickleball because it is easier on his body than playing tennis. He threw out his back and can no longer serve overhead in tennis but he can easily serve underhand which is required in pickleball. Gesicki also loves playing pickleball because it allows him to meet new people.
PHOTO BY CHRIS KEPNER
