Longtime Del Webb Southshore Falls Resident Keeps Neighbors Active with Pickleball Club

APOLLO BEACH – As a former coach, sporting official and physical education teacher in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Dick Dykeman was used to getting people motivated and into shape.

That’s why organizing and promoting the Pickleball Club at Del Webb’s Southshore Falls community in Apollo Beach is a natural fit for him.

“I like to stay active and I try to encourage other people to get healthy and stay fit,” says Dykeman, a 73-year-old divorcee with two daughters and a four-year-old granddaughter.

After 30 years of teaching and coaching at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, and 47 years of officiating basketball and soccer, he set his sights on sunny Florida, landing first in Bradenton in 1995 and then later in Sarasota.

“I saw a TV commercial for Del Webb Southshore Falls and thought it sounded too good to be true; but it actually was true,” he said. “I’m a country boy at heart and was attracted by the rural setting around the community, and I really liked the pools and the clubhouse area.”

So, he loaded up his truck and moved to Del Webb Southshore Falls that is…swimming pools... and eventually, Pickleball courts!

Del Webb Southshore Falls’ Pickleball Club didn’t happen overnight. The two courts – which are similar to tennis courts – were installed in September of last year. But, eager players had to wait another six weeks to begin playing because of possible interference with some hatchlings in a nearby eagle’s nest.

Since the games began, Dykeman, who first played Pickleball in New York, has enjoyed teaching his friends and neighbors about the sport that began as a backyard pastime. It’s part tennis, part badminton and part ping pong. Played with paddles and a whiffle-type ball, the 47-year-old sport uses only about one-third the space of a tennis court, making it easy for anyone from children to active adults to play.

According to the United States Pickleball Association, there are 100,000 active Pickleball players in the U.S. and more than 5,000 players in Canada.

The Del Webb Southshore Falls Pickleball club currently has 40 members with between 18-20 members playing three times a week, Dykeman said.

“My intent is to get them to expand the courts or put lines on the tennis courts so they can double as Pickleball courts,” he said. “We also want to challenge other communities to matches, so we really need more playing space.”

Dykeman says he’s always talking to friends and residents about a healthy lifestyle.

“There are more than 4,800 prescription drugs on market and I don’t take any of them; only supplements,” he said. “I try to encourage others to do the same. But, for some people, when they get to be 60, they just turn their lives over to doctors.”

Dykeman would rather be on the courts playing Pickleball.