Ed Luther, freshly arrived in Patagonia in January, was out for a morning stroll when a fellow Patagonian pulled alongside him in a vehicle and posed an innocuous question.
Luther’s mornings have not been the same since.
“I was walking down the street and Dave drove by,” Luther said. “And they invited me down here.”
“Dave” is David Fain, de facto chef de mission and chief recruiter of the Patagonia pickleballers. “Down here” is what used to be the basketball courts behind the Patagonia Museum/1914 Schoolhouse. It’s where you’ll find Luther, and Fain, and a varied assortment of pickleball practitioners every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday morning from 7 to 9 a.m.
“I just rolled down the window and said ‘do you play pickleball,’” Fain recalled.
In fact, Luther did not. “I didn’t know what it was, really,” he said. But now he does.
Luther describes it as “sort of addicting” — both the low-key, enjoyable means of regular exercise and becoming part of a distinctly Patagonia “social circle.”
“It’s a social thing,” Fain said. “It’s friendly competitve, and the whole point of this is to have fun. So there’s a lot of laughing and a lot of challenging on occasion.”
Turnout fluctuates from day to day and week to week, but on a recent September morning, all three of the courts were in use, with eight men and four women whacking the plastic balls to and fro. The group’s social media app has 24 members and continues to grow.
The group’s evolution and development of its “home court” have followed a similarly organic path.
Fain caught the pickleball bug while playing with his brother on courts in Flagstaff and began reaching out about two and a half years ago to locals who might be interested in playing here. A core group of about five to seven formed, but they needed a place to play.
Fain and Gisa Krueger first set up a temporary net on the basketball court at the museum, and play began among the early adopters. But the courts were in poor shape, so they secured permission to use the high school tennis courts when they were available. It was another imperfect arrangement, so they shifted once again to the public courts in Nogales, but always with the intent of finding a solution closer to home.
“By then we all decided, hey, let’s see what we can do to improve these courts,” Fain said.
A generous donation from Rick Small got the financial ball rolling, and the hat was passed among 10 other group members to come up with about $2,500 needed for materials to transform the court from basketball to pickleball. Then it was a matter of doing the work: patching the cement, installing nets, mapping out and painting the courts. The initial goal was two courts, but they found they had room enough for three, so three it is. They’re a little closer together than originally planned, but more courts, more participation.
The transformation from basketball to pickleball courts started in February and was completed in August, once the monsoon let up enough to allow for the finishing painting touches, led by Gama Leyva, aka Painter Gamma Ray. (Photos courtesy of David Fain) 
The transformation from basketball to pickleball courts started in February and was completed in August, once the monsoon let up enough to allow for the finishing painting touches, led by Gama Leyva, aka Painter Gamma Ray. (Photos courtesy of David Fain) 
The transformation from basketball to pickleball courts started in February and was completed in August, once the monsoon let up enough to allow for the finishing painting touches, led by Gama Leyva, aka Painter Gamma Ray. (Photos courtesy of David Fain)
The transformation started in February and was completed in August, once the monsoon let up enough to allow for the finishing painting touches. It was a community effort in every sense of the word, but Fain credits Gama Leyva and Raub Owens for much of the heavy lifting.
“It’s been a shared expense, and people have all contributed to that,” Fain said. “What you see here is the end product of a lot of effort from a lot of people.”
Leyva, aka Painter Gamma Ray, was the driving force in getting the courts painted and is rightly proud of the finished product. “This is a great thing,” he said. “And it was abandoned, you know, unused, for how long?”
Fain said most of the players are relatively new to the pickleball experience. Ability levels vary, but there’s always someone willing to work with newcomers on still development.
“We’re all learning,” Fain said. “Our game has really improved.”
Owens takes on a lot of the instruction for new arrivals. “He’s very good at it,” Fain said. “We want it to be a positive experience so people want to come back.”
Dave Sosna was new to the sport when he joined up in March, not long after shoulder replacement surgery. That he was able to have fun playing left-handed until his shoulder healed says a lot to him about the appeal of pickleball.
“The point is that I could do it, I could play,” Sosna said. “You can’t do that in a sport like tennis. It’s very accessible for beginners.”
Fain said the group plans an “open house” sometime after Oct. 17, but in the meantime, new players are welcome to come out any Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday morning and join the group. The courts are open seven days a week, and paddles and balls are stored in boxes at the courts for “drop-ins” to use at any time.