What the heck is up with this pickleball craze in CNY?

Sandy Suppes and Diane Wilson wait for a return shot during a pickleball match.Photo by Alaina Potrikus Beckett

This story originally ran in the May/June 2023 issue of Central New York Magazine. The magazine is available by delivery to subscribers of syracuse.com or The Post-Standard for $25 a year. To find out more or to subscribe, visit readcnymagazine.com.

It's a gray, cold, dismal day, and yet, the people scattered on the tennis courts at Elevate Fitness in Liverpool are all so sunny. At the time of this writing, it's close to St. Patrick's Day. Almost everyone on the courts is wearing something green — from sequins to t-shirts bearing a pickle — as they lunge, leap and dash for a little plastic ball with holes in it. Linh Daino, of Fayetteville, is dressed in a green sequin tie, green tennis skirt and neon sneakers. She jabs her paddle at a fellow player. "See this guy? He says his underwear is green." The guy, John Spencer, of Liverpool, hits back, "Well, do you consider a thong underwear? I don't know."

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