SPEAKER_01 0:00

What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of ISM Radio. I have the pleasure of sitting here tonight with Jerry Ricca from The Pickler. Is that what we're going to call it? The Pickler in Center Each, currently, yes. That's it, The Pickler. And we are here at the beautiful Ohica Castle, sitting in the library doing a podcast live at ISM's executive networking event. This is going to be an awesome podcast because you know what? Pickleball is like uh it's not just a it's like a buzz right now. It's like taking off.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

It is the hottest and fastest growing sport in America, and that's not a joke.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Yeah, it's top-notch. It really is. Crazy. So you guys opened up a place in Santa Reach. You got one coming soon to us in Comac.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

We had a quick opening in December of 2025, and now, full steam ahead, Comac will be opening up in the early fall of 2026.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Okay. So give me an idea of the, you know, somebody wants to get involved. They go to the website, they join a league, they're new at this, they they're not too sure if they're gonna like it. Is there a sample? Go in and try it. Like a guy like me. I've never played pickleball.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

I think everybody started playing this around the COVID times when everybody was stuck indoors and you started playing outdoors in your local park or your local rec center. And now we've come across uh the franchise, and we are definitely premium indoor pickleball. So you don't have to worry about the weather. No matter what the conditions are, you can come inside and enjoy climate-controlled conditions. And uh it's just an awesome sport to play. You can play from anywhere from eight years old to eighty years old, or even that range as well, right? Oh, I see. You've got little kids playing with their parents, playing with their grandparents, and I think it's the only sport you can actually do that and compete. Like you have these young kids playing with grandpa, and grandpa's beating the kid, or the kids could beat the parents, and the parents can beat the kid. It's just an amazing social aspect, which is different than any other sport we've seen in America, which is why it's it's really taken off.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Now, I just told you recently backstage we were talking about uh I'm producing a pickleball podcast with these guys, and they have every aspect of this sport covered. I mean, people people get you know, people get injured just like golf or anything else, right? So people don't attest this to, you know, I'm going to play pickleball.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Like every sport, you have to stretch. Basketball, you stretch, you know, you go play volleyball, you stretch. Pickleball, you have to stretch.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Last night I played in an ice hockey game. I'm in the uh 40 and over league, obviously. And for an hour before the game, I mean, I'm watching professional hockey on TV with my kids, and all I am doing is stretching, getting ready to go play my game. Because as an athlete, I know how important stretching is to play in any sport. It's the most important thing you do before you play.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

It is, it gets it's addicting, it's it's competitive, but then there's a whole big social aspect of it because we have all these open plays. Right. Well, you can just show up by yourself not knowing anything about pickleball, by yourself, no friends, just come in. We put you on a court with four strangers, and by the end of the night, you're walking out with maybe meeting a new doctor, a new lawyer, a new landscaper, could be anybody. And you're all walking out heading to the restaurant together to go uh, you know, have a drink after the game.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

So it's funny you say that. These guys that are doing the podcast, they actually say the networking that goes on at pickleball is beyond anything at a golf at a golf course.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

And it happens fast. The golf course would take a little longer.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Yeah, it's a three-hour round. One hour. Right. In one hour time, you guys have become close friends and you're and you're moving on to play again, hopefully uh join a league together.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

People see each other in the parking lot with just a bag over their shoulder and they start talking.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

It's like, oh, you're going in? Oh, what do you got there? And they start talking about the paddles and the equipment. And before you know it, as they're walking in, we think that they're a couple coming in together. They just met in the parking lot.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

So let's talk about the equipment because I just told you that I've never played pickleball, but I am a pretty fierce ping pong player. At my old office that we were at, we had teams, and one of the guys that was on the opposing team on my uh ping pong played pickleball. And he would go out and buy $300 rockets, $350 rackets.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

They're out there.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

And he, you know, the he was telling me the spin that he puts on the ball and the different stuff. So it's the equipment really does matter. Yeah. Like any other pickleball.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Pickleball is more closer to ping pong than it is the tennis aspect, much less running, much more side-to-side aspect.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Right.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

And all you need is some court shoes and a paddle.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

That's it. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

We provide the ball unless you uh want to buy one of the uh the fancy balls.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

And obviously you provide the court. And the court. And the facility is top notch.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Top notch.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

Now I can get over there and use court one to do the podcast and be there and show the place off.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

We would love to have you.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

I can't wait to see the Santa Reach facility.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

And the lighting is amazing. Every facility you go to, there's different aspects, uh, the court size, the uh the width of the courts, the lighting. When you come to our facility, it's just top notch. It's it's premium pickable.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Yeah, absolutely. And it shows that on the website. The website is phenomenal. It does show off the facility. And are every is every pickleball court the same size?

SPEAKER_00 4:57

The actual court is the same size. Yeah. It's always this everywhere you go, there's spacing. So around where you can do fancy moves, trick shots, and that kind of thing. And we've got, I think, the the largest area courts around in town. Usually places have been converted, gyms or tennis courts. Right. That they turn into pickleball places. All our facilities that we've got currently and coming are uh our own brand built from the you know from a design.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

I'm excited because you come into my hometown. My kids are in the Comac School District, and you are bringing pickleball to Comac, which is very exciting.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

That facility we are so excited about. I really think it's gonna be the best facility in the entire state of New York.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Oh wow, you just went to the whole state. I did. I gave you Long Island, you took the whole state. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

That's gonna be cool. Center Each is is it is an awesome facility. You gotta go check it out. And uh that was our first step on in getting into Long Island, and then Comac is just gonna be amazing.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Right. So Pickler. It's Pickler.compickler.com forward slash or just go to Pickler.com. It takes a put in your location, it'll take you to Center Each.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

You pick on the state of New York and it takes you to all the locations, which is currently just Center Each.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Right. And it's the only one here right now that you have the only one, but they're coming. And Comac is next.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

We when we started, we were the 57th uh location in the United States. Already they're up to like 67 in 90 days. And there's 10 new stores in the country in 90 days.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

There's a potential of pickleball coming to the Olympics.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

It's on the docket. That's what we're hearing.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Because if I see one more curling match, we there's not one curling facility here in New York. And I was I walk every time I put on Peacock, there was nothing but curling being showed. I was like, Are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_00 6:36

They had uh plays this. They selected flag football for the 2028 Los Angeles. I saw that 2032. We're hearing pickleball is slated to uh make the cut. It's so huge in the United States and in Asia right now. So with those two forces and you know, countries aligning or continents aligning, um, it's just huge. It's it's growing.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

You guys are doing some very cool events over at this facility. Um, you have a star-studded event happening now.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

We do.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

That's going this weekend.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Well, this weekend we have a play with a pro. His name is Bruno. It's uh it's one of those events we put on that um our members can take advantage of and non-members as well. So you don't have to be a member of our club to come down and enjoy all the aspects of the club. So we we are club membership based, but you don't have to be a member to join and and play for an hour or two to come on down.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

Right, to come down and check out Center Reach. But I saw on the website, it's not, you know, to join, it's no big, it wasn't really it's just like joining a gym. It's a little, you know.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

If you're gonna commit and become addicted to this sport, you're gonna come play two, three times a week, and it pays for itself after a few visits.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

Or like we spoke about earlier, some people come and play two, three times a day. They'll be there in the morning. See you later.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

We've got sessions, we've got programming, unlike anybody else, and they'll come down eight to ten in the morning and they'll say, See you later. You think, all right, we'll see you tomorrow. Right. No, no. They come back in the afternoon and they come back in the evening sessions.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

So they weren't kidding. I don't think they work these people yet. No, it's an addiction. And you know, people do get addicted to these things. Like really, I could play hockey and I want to play two, three times a week. I have three games in the last seven days, so I'm kind of happy that we're getting all that ice time and out there, you know.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

You meant you mentioned the the equipment. It's the uh the the shoes and the paddles, really all you need in a ball. But uh some people they buy a they buy a paddle, then they buy another one. Before you know what they have though, they have one in their car, one in their house, one in their friend's house. It's it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Now, do the paddles do different things? Uh are there paddles that are lighter and heavier? Correct.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Yeah, the paddles have different handle sizes, different widths, different shapes, and it's just custom. Once you start playing, you get to know which one you like the best, and everybody likes to pick out their own paddles, so it's hard to buy a paddle for your son, your daughter, your husband, your wife. You want them to play with it, and we have a program where you can actually test the paddle out.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

Try the paddle out and see, okay, so that's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

If you like it, the the the charge gets to the uh the cost of the paddle, which is nice.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Now I saw also the setup there. There's paddle holders there where you're sitting with the benches on the court.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

I mean, it's really a cool facility. It really is, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

We have everything you need to come play pickleball, and it's it's you just gotta come. You gotta go come check it out.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Yeah, you definitely gotta go by. I'm gonna be there. We're gonna actually be podcasting live from the location in Center Reach. I'm super excited about that. We're gonna podcast live from the one at Comac too. Can't when does that open? Do we have a date?

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Early fall with September, October. All right, so we're looking this year, 2026.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Oh, nice. Definitely all right, just in time for my son to go to high school. Um I'm not gonna be able to get him out of playing ice hockey, but I think I can add this to the repertoire.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

We we just had our big announcement uh last week it went out as far as uh the the children and the junior clinics. Okay. So we are putting together a huge summer program for the children. Starts as soon as school gets out, the final week of June, a couple weeks in July, and the week in August, where children can come down three hours a day for the week, and you can do a whole week session, or you can just come one of the weeks or all four weeks, and it gives the kids something to do for the summertime.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

You know, that's and in time for them to learn the sport so they can maybe join the Olympics in 2032.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Yeah, they got a few years to train, no doubt about that. And then you got, you know, how are these pros become pros in pickleball?

SPEAKER_00 10:12

A lot of it has been foreign in international pros, and it uh pretty much it picked up in the state of Florida because it's all outdoors there. So they can't.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Right, so they have a longer season than we do here.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

If you if anybody's been in Florida lately, I'm sure you've seen the the establish establishments of the outdoor facilities. They have places that have 30 and 50 courts. It's crazy. Sure. Nothing like that on Long Island. We have no space for outdoor courts of that size. Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

So give me an example, Center. I've never been there. How many courts? What am I looking at? I walked in.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

11 courts, which is a large facility in the state. Yeah. Comac is scheduled to have 15 courts.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Wow. Yes. All right.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

So it's there's no just no issue of can I get a court today? What time can I get a court? We'll have your availability. And our programming is different than the other facilities that have been around for a while. We almost change our programming daily. You know, if we see a uh an open play for beginners, it's not filling up, we'll take it down and we'll put in an advanced class, and all of a sudden it fills up and that'll fill up faster because the advanced guys are lunatics. Correct. They'll see it. Everything's on our app. It's the Pickler app uh right on your right on your phone, Android or iPhones, and everything is there. So it's easy peasy right there on your phone. And you can sign up, you can call us, you can sign up right on your phone, you come down and play.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

You're in.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

And they can go to the website pickler.com.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Pickler.com, that's where you sign up to see all the membership aspects, all the different locations.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

And they can download the app and all that stuff from there. Sure. So it's the Pickler, P-I-C-K-L-R. Pickler dot com. Correct. Pickler, just so I spell it for the people out there. For all the loyal listeners of ISM radio, you know, we got some loyal listeners out there that love pickleball. I know that for sure.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

Because this is this sport started as like 65 and older. It slowly became 55 and older, 40 and over. I think some people say the median age right now is like 36 and over. But the kids are now starting to play because the kids didn't want to play because their grandparents were playing. Everyone is playing now.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

I'm gonna tell you.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

And if you haven't played yet, where have you been?

SPEAKER_01 12:10

I could pull it up on my phone right now because I had to look it up for the podcasters because I'm I'm the producer of a pickleball podcast that I have to direct these guys and produce. And I looked up the statistics in the United States for the amount of people that are playing pickleball, and then I looked up, it showed me the how many females, how many males, and it gave me all the demographics on the ages, and it was absolutely astounding.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

I I'm there every day, and I can't I can't tell you if we have more men or women. It's it's it's 50-50, really. We have women's groups of all different ages, men's groups. I I think it's 50-50 really is an art in our facility anyway.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

And I meant to say it was an astounding number. It was absolutely unbelievable. I couldn't believe it.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

And uh, you know, and if you if you haven't played a sport in a while and you want to get active, I'm living proof. I've lost a couple of pounds. We were talking about behind the scenes. It just comes off. You start playing it, an hour goes by, you're like, that was an hour? Right. It's not like going to the gym and and lifting weights. You're actually competing more like a ping pong store.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

You're doing cardio. You're doing cardio and it's hard to paddle, and if you're playing against a pro, you get hit in the chest with a ball. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Or in the eye.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

There is some protective gear. Would they wear protective gear? You recommend that?

SPEAKER_00 13:25

There's some goggles you could wear that just protects around your body.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

I'm going in with no protective gear, I'll tell you right now. I like bare bones, just hit me in the face, let's get it over. That's about it. I think see what it feels like.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Just the goggles. That's what you mean.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

And what's the ball like? What is the ball? Is it like a wiffle ball?

SPEAKER_00 13:37

The ball is like a wiffle ball. It really is. It's it's got a light bounce to it, but it really doesn't bounce up like a tennis ball. No.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Gotcha. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

So you do bounce the ball when you play, like in ping pong when you're bouncing it over the net.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Gotcha. But you're putting English on this thing because I'm gonna smoke people with my English, I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

A lot of strategy. It's not about strength.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

I'm coming to center reach to take you guys down, I'm telling you right now. It's on.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

That's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

So, is there anything else you want to close out for social media? Do you want people to go check it out on Facebook? Should they come to the facility? Should they call a phone number?

SPEAKER_00 14:07

You just gotta come. Uh, we're we're on Facebook and Instagram as our two main sites. Uh, we're looking forward to uh getting through the summer and having the Comac store open up.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

But uh for now we're in center each and we're open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

Early birds and night owls.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Wow, so you get the night owls.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

We get it all.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Which one's busier? Give me an idea. Seriously. Is the morning busier than the 11 o'clock?

SPEAKER_00 14:32

You know, it's about even right now. From five to nine is packed. You can't you can't get in unless you, you know, you're you have a friend that's has a court, and boom, he'll tell you, join my join my court for tonight.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Gotcha. Yeah. How many games could go on at a court in an hour?

SPEAKER_00 14:46

Some most games are about 12 minutes a game.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

On average, that's what we say. Some games you play someone not so good.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Four games over and five games in the hour.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Oh, yeah. Oh, more than that, even. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 14:56

Some go quick.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Some go quick, yep.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Is there shutouts? Is there like a is there like a mercy rule? There is. Can you get seven-nothing shutout?

SPEAKER_00 15:02

You get pickled if you get 11-0.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

11-0. Okay, so that was that was the same thing in uh ping pong. Correct. It was, you know, when they played to 21, if you got to 11 first. Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

You uh a lot of our competitions they play mainly to 11 is the score, but you some people play till nine, so they get more games in.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

It was pretty cool. It's very cool.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Very cool. Very social is the main thing. It's not, you can just come by yourself and we'll take care of you.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Well, we appreciate you guys being part of Comac Day. Yes. You jumped in last year, you were a sponsor of Comac Day, which we greatly appreciate. That was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

That was awesome.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

And uh that's why you're here tonight. What do you think of this place? This is amazing. Yeah. It's a cool event, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:37

Very cool, very historic.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Who gets to come to Ohika Castle, sit in a library, and podcast about pickleball? You got it. Jerry Ricca, guys. So I appreciate you coming down and being on ISM Radio. We great, great that you came by tonight. This was awesome. Uh, thanks so much. And we look forward to seeing you at the Pickler in Centeries. We look forward to having you. You guys can check him out at thepickler.com. Gage and Jerry signing off over and out. Thank you. Thanks for listening to ISM Radio. Join us for our invitation only executive networking event at the legendary Ohica Castle. For more information, visit IDXtreamarketing.com.