BROWNSTOWN — The first rule of pickleball?

“To have fun,” Angie Sibrel recently told a group of people from Special Olympics Indiana Jackson County before a free pickleball clinic started.

As the new pickleball courts at Brownstown Park come closer to opening, members of the Brownstown Pickleball Association wanted to find a way to pass on their knowledge of the fastest-growing sport in America.

Conducting free clinics was at the top of the list.

Members of the nonprofit organization then came up with a list of local groups to reach out to, and Special Olympics was the first one for Sibrel to contact.

Not only was it a great opportunity for the athletes and volunteers to learn a new sport, it also goes along with Special Olympics Indiana forming a committee to consider adding pickleball to its list of Olympic-type sports offered to individuals with intellectual disabilities ages 8 and up.

“We’re going to offer lots of clinics to people because the community donated money to build the courts,” said Sibrel, secretary of the 10-member association.

To build four courts, association President Nancy Sterling said they had to raise $108,000.

The group started in October 2023, and within a couple of months, they had the money they needed.

Grants came in from the Jackson County Visitor Center ($20,000), Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority ($15,000) and Owen-Carr Township Community Endowment ($5,000).

“Everything else, we raised from the businesses and individuals from our community,” Sterling said.

The association’s members are volunteers, so they did all of the fundraising on their own.

“We want everybody to be as excited as we are because (pickleball) is new and a lot of people don’t know what it is, so we want to spread it because it is really good to be out in the fresh air, be around people and not be cooped up in the houses,” Sterling said.

“Too many times, people just don’t get out, and it’s such a good social event,” she added. “You meet a lot of new people, make new friends. It’s good for mental as well as physical. It’s a great sport, and we’re a growing sport.”

Her husband, Dennis Sterling, a member of the association, said their goal is to get more people to play the sport.

Sibrel said free clinics are one way to do that.

“We had a lot of community members, businesses that donated money, and so we just want to give back by offering clinics to the community so people love the sport because it’s so much fun,” she said.

According to USA Pickleball, the sport is played either as doubles (two players per team) or singles on a 20-by-44-foot court with a net in the middle. Players use paddles to hit perforated, hollow plastic balls. It combines elements of tennis, badminton and table tennis.

Once Sibrel and the Sterlings handed the Special Olympics athletes and volunteers their paddles, they headed out to a couple of portable nets set up on the Brownstown Central High School tennis courts.

There, they explained the rules as they had the newcomers to the sport hit balls back and forth.

After they had that down, it was time to apply what they learned in games.

“I was really impressed with how quick you picked up scoring because I did not. I couldn’t do it,” Nancy told the athletes and volunteers.

“I still forget,” Sibrel added.

Knowing whose turn it is to serve, when a point is scored and who serves next are among the rules the group learned.

“No love in pickleball,” Dennis said, smiling, noting a difference in the sport vs. tennis.

Derrick Martin, an athlete and a coach with the local Special Olympics program, said he wasn’t sure about the sport when he first heard about it. That, however, changed after the free clinic.

“I heard that pickleball is fun, and I said, ‘Eh,’” he said. “When I tried, I said, ‘Wow! It’s fun.’”

Volunteer Samantha Sandlin said she had similar thoughts.

“I never thought I’d have the interest, never thought I’d play,” she said. “Now, I’m doing that here. ‘Yeah, that’s fun.’”

Sarah Freeman, mother of athlete Jenny Freeman, said when she initially asked her daughter about Special Olympics, she said, “I don’t do sports.”

Since getting involved, Jenny has participated in bowling, track and field, softball and cornhole. Now, she can add pickleball to her list.

“I was so impressed,” Sarah said of how her daughter picked up the game.

Nancy asked the group how many of them ever thought they would play pickleball. No hands went up. Then she asked, “Who wants to play again?” All hands went up.

“Look what you’ve done. You know how to play pickleball,” she said.

The Sterlings learned how to play the sport in Seymour about five years ago and brought that back to Brownstown.

“Then people in town, they just kind of spread the word and we started meeting to play, and it has just continued,” Sibrel said.

Locally, people can play at the Boys & Girls Club of Seymour or Girls Inc. of Jackson County in Seymour during the daytime. There also are two courts at Gaiser Park in Seymour, and two more are being added.

The plan is for the Brownstown courts to open sometime in August, and a grand opening will be in September. Stay tuned to the Brownstown Pickleball Association Facebook page for details.

Information about upcoming clinics will be posted there, too, and anyone interested in setting up a clinic may send a message via the page.

As part of the association’s five-year plan, Nancy said they want to add a building with restrooms and a shelter house at the pickleball complex.

“That’s our dream,” she said.

The group expects the sport to continue to grow locally.

“Once we get the courts, then we’ve got to see who’s coming in to play and who’s wanting to do what,” Dennis said.

“We’re just hoping people come and play and love the sport,” Sibrel said.

“And enjoy it as much as we do,” Nancy said. “You just fall in love with it.”