As of Monday afternoon with the stroke of Gov. Jay Inslee’s pen, pickleball is officially Washington’s state sport.
Pickleball is played with a paddle and a plastic ball similar to a whiffle ball. It has elements of tennis, badminton and pingpong. The game is played on a court around the same size as a badminton court. Unlike tennis and badminton, players on each side must let the ball bounce once before volleys are allowed and a 7-foot-deep nonvolley zone called the “kitchen” stands in front of the players.
The game was invented on Bainbridge Island in 1965 when Barney McCallum, Bill Bell and Joel McFee Pritchard were looking to entertain their kids one summer afternoon.
Since then, pickleball has become one of America’s fastest-growing sports with over 4 million players globally, a bimonthly magazine, weekly tournaments and a national championship held twice a year.
Now pickleball, which was named after Pritchard’s cocker spaniel Pickles, boasts being Washington’s official state sport. Inslee signed SB 5615 into law on Monday afternoon on Bainbridge Island at the home-based court where the sport was conceived.
“The legislature intends to honor and recognize the Washingtonians who created, popularized and continue to enjoy this sport by designating pickleball the official sport of the state of Washington,” the bill states.
