By GUY WINDHOLZ
For Hays Post
How awesome would it be to have had prominent sports announcers Howard Cosell, Pat Summerall or even Gerard Wellbrock covering the play by play of the second Hays Recreation Commission pickleball tournament?
Pickleball the fastest growing sport in America for players over the age of 60 and its popularity is rising in Hays, Kansas. The Hays City Commission recently gave its blessing for the addition of two nets at the tennis courts on South Main street under the direction of Jeff Boyle, director of the Parks Department.
That project will be undertaken this month. The addition to our quality of life in Hays is complemented by the Hays Recreation Commission having completed a refinish of the three gym floors at the complex on Canterbury Road with the addition of six pickleball sections. The process and wait time for proper drying of the floor took about a week where the local addicts of this sport overcame their withdrawal when 21 players showed up for the reopening of the gym.
What a nice showing of newly made friends from Great Bend who signed up to play. Nearly all victories to 15-point totals came down to break points in the quarter, semi-finals and finals of the matches among the 13 two-person teams that were entered to play. One-nail biting match pitted local rising star Devon Fuller, 28, a six-year Army veteran returning to further his education at FHSU, against Sheldon Hamilton, 72, from Great Bend. Despite a four-decade spread in age, the elder Hamilton moved forward to the semi-finals.
The finals took on an interesting twist of fate finding Justin McClung facing off against his son Bryce McClung in what took several playoffs to give the father, in this match-up, the victory. Justin’s teammate, Shawn Clark, was playing opposite side to Soumya Bhoumik, an associate professor at FHSU.
Keeping this short, fans or interested persons will want to view these 35 minutes of segments of some great action videos that had family and spectators glued to their seats into the finals of a great day.
