{"id":74437,"date":"2019-09-22T23:32:54","date_gmt":"2019-09-22T23:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pickleball-tournament-in-durango-draws-devotees\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T15:57:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T15:57:45","slug":"pickleball-tournament-in-durango-draws-devotees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pickleball-tournament-in-durango-draws-devotees\/","title":{"rendered":"Pickleball tournament in Durango draws devotees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=9359da44-9a21-4fba-a9d0-5f2c531c8434&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" alt=\"Around 70 people participated in the 2019 Durango Pickleball Open, held Saturday and Sunday at the Durango High School tennis courts.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Around 70 people participated in the 2019 Durango Pickleball Open, held Saturday and Sunday at the Durango High School tennis courts.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Patrick Armijo\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Pickleball devotees like to point out it\u2019s one of the fastest growing sports in the country, something you could believe this weekend when some 70 players from the region descended on Durango to compete in the 2019 Durango Pickleball Open.<\/p>\n<p>The tournament, held at Durango High School, divided players by skill groups, with Saturday largely devoted to men and women\u2019s doubles and Sunday play largely comprised of mixed doubles.<\/p>\n<p>Max Paustian of the Southwest Colorado Pickleball Association said the sport is an amalgam of tennis, badminton and pingpong. \u201cIt appeals to all skill levels. It\u2019s easy to learn and fun to play,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The sport features a lot of volleying, similar to tennis, with a lot of fast-paced, back-and-forth ball movement.<\/p>\n<p>Courts are the same size as a badminton court and the rackets more resemble pingpong paddles.<\/p>\n<p>Linda Arnold played tennis for 40 years and converted to pickleball four years ago. \u201cPickleball is easier on your body, and it\u2019s addictive, like tennis,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The Southwest Colorado Pickleball Association has been working to get permanent pickleball courts built in the city. Currently, the association has painted lines on tennis courts at Needham Elementary \u2013 two pickleball courts can be accommodated on one tennis court.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a great sport, there\u2019s a lot touring, and it\u2019s popular with baby boomers. It will fill up the restaurants. It\u2019s good for the city,\u201d Arnold said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt promotes great mental and physical health for seniors,\u201d she added. \u201cIf we can help accomplish a higher quality of life for seniors, that\u2019s a great accomplishment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Alice Sowards never played ball sports when she was younger, but she ran, hiked and cycled, and she said pickleball is now the perfect complement for her. \u201cA friend got me into it. I love the competitive and social nature of it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Paustian said anyone interested in joining the Southwest Colorado Pickleball Association should call (505) 360-3110.<\/p>\n<p>Membership dues are $20 for a single member and $30 for a family.<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\"><a href=\"mailto:parmijo@durangoherald.com\">parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fast-growing sport looks for permanent outdoor courts in Durango<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5740,5736,5735,5751],"tags":[13,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-74437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-frontpage-lead","category-local-news","category-news","category-sports","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74437"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92449,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74437\/revisions\/92449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74437"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=74437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}