Local attorney becomes pickleball promoter

If the National Pickleball Association is looking for a spokesman to promote their game, they might want to contact Joe Legatz. He is hooked on pickleball, and is now one of biggest boosters of the game. Legatz, a Grand Haven attorney, said a group of area pickleball players now want to form a club in which more local residents can learn all about the game. "It is so much fun and its popularity is exploding throughout the country,' Legatz said of pickleball, a game that combines the elements of tennis, badminton and table tennis.

Len Painter

Grand Haven

Apr 18, 2011

Legatz, 67, was introduced to pickleball last summer when his wife, Barbara, told him about how the game was being offered at the North Ottawa County Council on Aging Senior Games.

“I bought a paddle and tried the game out,” he said. “I got hooked instantly.”

Legatz was so taken with pickleball that he joined the national association and participated in his first tournament in Traverse City.

In November, he took his game to Phoenix, Ariz., where the biggest national tournament of the year is held. He and Barb participated in mixed doubles. Joe played singles, but was hampered by a leg injury.

To read more of this story, see today's print edition of the Grand Haven Tribune.