Text and Photos
By Shari Benyousky
Guest Columnist

Column Note: This is the 26th column in the Diners and Dives series in which a small group of Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club members and their guests road trip to explore the restaurants of Kosciusko and the surrounding area.

WINONA LAKE — The sky threatened rain, so a group of pickleball players and the Diners and Dives regulars started inside Light Rail at 1000 Park Ave., in Winona Lake. Wildcard Scott Wiley of the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce tried to hold down the one giant round table in the back corner for us, but being inside is loud and difficult to hear, so after standing in line inside and getting table numbers, we migrated out to the porch.

Jeff wiped the light rain from the outdoor tables, and we sat under the charming pink froth of a blooming Smoke Bush. Light Rail isn’t exactly a diner or a dive. It specializes in micro-roasted coffee, brick-oven pizzas, breakfast, lunch and brunch.

What Is Pickleball?

“What the h… is pickle-ball?” “Isn’t it just for old people?” Wildcard pickleball guy Bob Rich used his hands to describe the most common questions he heard. “That’s what I thought too. Then a couple years ago someone in the family rented out a pickleball court on a family vacation, and I was hooked.” The other pickleball wildcards shook their heads. Similar stories all around. “It’s addictive.”

“It’s a wonderful game because anyone can play,” Dave Thieme added. Dave is an official ambassador of Pickle ball Rocks in West Florida where he is a certified instructor. He and his wife Julie sell pickleball merchandise with their brand Focus UP pickleball here. “Last year in Florida I had a 92-year-old grandpa playing with his granddaughters and winning. It’s a small court and smart ball placement matters, so you can have three generations playing and competing together. It’s amazing.”

The Tournament

The local Pickleball Phanatics Club put on their first tournament at the new Winona Lake Park Courts this last weekend, and director Dave Thieme and his wife Julie had spent “countless, countless hours” preparing.

“We’ve been playing for eight or nine years now.” Julie showed off her pickleball shirt with the term “DINK” on it. A dink is a pickleball shot which barely goes over the net to make it unattackable by your opponent. Great players spend a lot of time dinking the ball back and forth over the net until one person makes a mistake and hits the ball too high. Once that error happens, the smart opponent bangs or slams the ball back quickly to score.

“At first, when we heard about the game of pickleball, Julie sent me down to the local Florida courts by myself to see if I liked it,” Dave laughed. “I did and soon after we both were hooked.” Nods all around.

“I’ve been playing six years,” Rick Swaim, Winona Lake Town Council member, agreed.

“Almost two years here,” REMAX Jeff Owens put in from the far end. “I started playing as a form of rehab from a basketball injury, and here I am.”

“Only 1 ½ years for me,” Deb Wiley smiled.

“Ooh!” several said. Deb has placed high in several nearby tournaments. So have most of the others at the table.

What On Earth Is Pickleball And Why Does It Have A funny Name?

Like many inventions, pickleball came to exist because of boredom. In 1965, two dads arrived home from playing golf to find restless kids. They improvised a game with ping-pong paddles, a wiffleball, and a badminton net. Believe it or not, more than 2.5 million people in the USA play the game regularly and that number increases daily.

Two stories exist about the ridiculous name for pickleball. The game might be named after Pickles the cockapoo puppy, or it might be named after a type of racing crew boat named a pickle boat. Either way, it got your attention.

The Food

A waitress brought a pizza over to our table. “Who has the gluten-free BBQ pizza?” None of us did, but Mattie agreed to pose and show us what the pizza looked like anyway. It did look delicious.

Another waitress brought over piping hot tomato soup and a farm sandwich. Rick Swaim claimed both. “Do you dip the sandwich?” I asked.

Rick, who is always a great sport, posed for a picture patiently. “I can be a dipper. Or a dip too.” He said he had checked out all the previous diners and dives articles. “Well, maybe I haven’t read them all. But I’ve seen all the pictures.” He smiled. Shout out to all of you who do read them though. Yes, that’s YOU.

TIP — Light Rail is open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. They often use locally sourced produce and meat including from the Hawkins Family farm.

Many of us ordered various brick-oven pizzas which arrived perfectly browned and layered with lots of cheese and ingredients. I shared a carbonara pizza, a margherita pizza, garlic cheese sticks and parmesan waffle fries with regular 1st Source Banker Paul Finley and REMAX Realtor Jeff Owens. We passed them back and forth around the table and had more than enough to eat.

Swaim said his farm sandwich was “Delicious, farmy, sandwichy, just right.” It had large chunks of bacon mixed with veggies. The pickleballers had played for several hours that morning and ate their food with gusto. Excellent food, they agreed. And a convenient location not far from the Winona Lake pickleball courts either.

Why Are We So Low On Pickleball Courts?

Locally we have pickleball courts at Center Lake, Kelly Park and Winona Lake Park. Whenever you go to any of the courts, be prepared to share the courts, and wait your turn as the game has exploded in popularity.

“So we need more courts?” I asked. I heard a unanimous chorus of loud yesses even through the cheesy pizza bites.

“This morning at the Winona courts we often had 19 or 20 people waiting their turns for a court,” REMAX Jeff Owens told us. The Pickleball Phanatics have advanced and recreational divisions. When the weather is nice, you can find the advanced players at the Winona courts most mornings during the week. If you show up, someone will show you how to put your paddle in the rotation to play.

The recreational division plays from 8:30-11:30ish Monday, Wednesday and Friday at Kelly Park. You’ll often find them at Kelly Park on Sunday mornings and Tuesday and Thursday evenings as well. Again, be prepared to do a fair share of waiting and getting to know others. Pickleball is an excellent way to meet people of all ages and professions.

Also be prepared to meet a fast-moving ball or two. I have been slow enough to accumulate a few bruises and finger jams. “Well,” Julie laughed. “Hard hits are part of the game.” The better you get, the faster the balls come flying over the net too.

“Nothing compared to what we did with wiffleballs as kids,” Rich remembered. “We used to take off our shirts and throw them at each other so hard until we had welts.”

Do We Need More Pickleball Courts?

“Where could we put in more courts?” I asked which began an animated discussion. Some places aren’t large enough or have drainage issues. Indoor spots have safety issues or not enough space. Making more pickleball courts is pricey. “It cost Winona Lake about $120k,” Swaim informed us.

“But we really need someplace with at least eight courts,” Thieme put in. “The most we have anywhere is four.” Pickleball tournaments bring in lots of economic benefits. Having better facilities could be a real boon for our economy.

“But will the sport plateau in popularity?” Scott Wiley from the chamber asked. The chamber had helped to sponsor the tournament which benefited Combined Community Services.

“No!” Thieme shook his head. “The biggest growing brackets seem to be the 19–49 year-olds. Growth will continue in leaps and bounds.”

“Let me put it this way,” Rich put down his pizza to interject. “When I joined the local pickleball Facebook Group two years ago, we had 250 members. Now we have 850 with new people every day. We need more courts and soon!”

Coming Up — The Taste of Kosciusko Downtown Warsaw

Scott Wiley tidied his dishes. “I’ve got to get back to work,” he announced. “This has been great. The food was amazing.”

“Where else would the chamber recommend finding good food around town,” REMAX Jeff threw Wiley a softball as he made sure every pizza crumb was gone.

“Next Friday!” Scott smiled. “All of you should come to Third Friday downtown at 5 p.m. It’s Taste of Kosciusko! We’ll have more than 20 vendors and a live music band too!”

Hope to see you there, or around the pickleball paddle holders waiting your turn to sweat with the rest of us addicts.

Do you know of an interesting place, restaurant, nonprofit, or person that you’d like to see featured in Dives and Diners or in Profiles behind the scenes someday? Send SB Communications LLC an email at [email protected].