Pickleball Magazine 3-4 Courtesy of Pickleball Guru | Page 32

Breaking Barriers, Building Bonds
A great gift for you or your
favorite pickleballer!
High quality fine jewelry designs handmade
in Sterling Silver and Gold. Necklaces,
earrings, bracelets, charms and key fobs.
PICKLEBALL AND JEWELRY
pickleballandjewelry.com
419-699-0921
30
TO SUBSCRIBE CALL 888.308.3720 OR GO TO THEPICKLEBALLMAG.COM
such as Derrick Rose, Isiah Thomas and Mark
Aguirre helps attract new players more easily.
“If all basketball players knew about pickleball,
they’d flock to it just like tennis players do,” he says.
“But the most important thing is to build the sport
here—we need to open the doors to everybody.” That
includes one of his star players, 90-year-old Odessa
Dommond (Mama) he calls his “super senior.”
Prewitt extended his success with the Ellis Park
program to the rest of the Chicago Parks system.
He presented his model to parks officials in October.
Through networking, paddles and equipment were
donated and pickleball has been added to the
official roster of summer camp sports in Chicago,
introducing the sport to hundreds of kids ages 6
to 18.
“These kids are part of the parks summer
program, which aims to provide a positive summer
camp experience,” explains Prewitt. “The pickleball
portion is mandatory, but we expect to see some
young blood come out of the program. At first, the
kids are always kind of blase toward the sport, but
once they see someone pull off a couple moves
like a third-shot drop, they’re like, ‘Wow! How
can you do that?’ We just need continued support
and sponsorships to keep this growing. We have
a template in place. We’re spreading like wildfire
wherever we go. If anyone can help us push this,
we’ll keep pushing in any direction we can.”
Prewitt and his group of pickleball supporters
have not only made a difference in Chicago, but in
the region. They’ve changed minds and attitudes
about the sport, revitalized programs and are
strengthening bonds in the community. His uphill
battle to learn a game he wasn’t familiar with has
turned into a post-retirement occupation that has
him wearing more hats than he ever imagined. And
he has no regrets about taking on something that’s
added countless hours of work and responsibility to
his life.
“Part of what I wanted to do was establish an
inner city program, but we’ve developed a circuit.
We’ve broken down some serious racial barriers
through networking, and have united people who
normally wouldn’t see each other. Now we have
tourists playing on our courts when they pass
through,” he notes. “I thought I wanted to be a
player, but I’ve discovered my passion is to share
my enthusiasm for pickleball. I never thought I’d
be doing this at this point in my life, and it’s been
phenomenal.” •