Terry TerHaar is the greatest badminton coach in Illinois high school history, winning six state titles and finishing in the top three seven times more before retiring from Andrew in Tinley Park in 2006.
Steve Soderborg was a member of Homewood-Flossmoor’s tennis team in 1974, when it won the fifth of what is now 42 straight sectional titles, and played in college at Augustana […]
CLEARWATER – The phrase “such-and-such saved my life” is so overused to the point of being a cliché today that it’s hard to separate fact from fiction when it comes to life-altering occurrences.
In the case of Clearwater resident Roger Bunting, there’s little doubt that while the sport of pickleball didn’t technically save his life, it helped him recover from a life-threatening illness and gave him a new sense of purpose.
Bunting, a 57-year-old New York native and lifelong tennis player, came down with a serious case of bacterial meningitis in April 2015, and the infection of the membrane surrounding his brain kept Bunting in the hospital for 25 days, many of them spent in the ICU.
After he was finally released from the hospital and beginning his road to recovery, Bunting found he didn’t have the strength or stamina to play tennis, a sport for which he received a scholarship to attend Florida Southern University and one he had been playing competitively on and off for much of his adult life. So he turned to a sport he had previously written off.
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In lieu of pickleball’s growing popularity, the University of Sanibel has released hats commemorating the sport.
The hats, which come in navy and white, feature Gherki the pickle and are a part of the newly released Gherki Gear line. Ann Runyon Will and Curt Will, the couple behind the brand, plan to launch cinch backpacks, perfect for holding pickleball gear, in the near future. […]