Two local Lexington pickleball players will have the opportunity to play the game surrounded by some of the nation’s most iconic monuments.

Edwin Gerace and Stan Rickert will travel to Washington D.C. to participate in the National Mall of Pickleball Ultimate Duo Challenge. Gerace and Rickert were one of six duos across the nation selected for the event. 

While the two are excited to compete against other duos, just the idea of playing on the National Mall was enough to draw them in.

“I think it’s more just for play. I don’t think it’s competitive,” Rickert said. “It’s more just getting out and being at the National Mall will be very interesting. I’m looking forward to it just to be able to say, ‘Hey, I played pickleball there. Kind of an unusual statement I think for most people to be able to say.”

The event at the National Mall runs from Sept. 27 through Sept. 29. There will be games going that are free to participate in and open to the public. The Ultimate Duo Challenge will be Sept. 28.

This is the second year that the National Mall Trust and the Humana Foundation are hosting the pickleball event at the National Mall. But it is the first year the program is hosting the duos' challenge.

The theme of this year’s event is “One for the Ages” and is meant to highlight the sport’s accessibility to multiple generations while providing those picklers an opportunity to share their experiences.

Gerace and Rickert both said in their experience, they have met people of all ages who are falling in love with the sport.

“We play with older people, and I’ve played with kids as young as 12 that are pretty good,” Rickert said. “It kind of crosses over all ages, and it’s just a great social event. I’ve got to know three or four hundred people just from playing pickleball.”

Gerace and Rickert have been playing pickleball for years. They both got into the sport as they got older other games became harder to play.

“I started here at the Lexington Tennis Center a couple of years ago, playing and just sort of fell in love with the game and the aspect of community it created,” Grace said. “The sport itself, the rules, tend to make it a little more level of a playing field.”

With the recent explosion of pickleball's popularity in recent years, Gerace and Rickert are looking to get people involved.

Gerace is a USA pickleball ambassador and helped create a local charity tournament that benefits the Special Olympics. He also helped secure a state grant that built 16 pickleball courts. Together the two host free pickleball clinics in the Lexington area.

The duo has seen the sport continue to grow in the area firsthand. They believe the reasoning is how accessible the game is.

“I think that the way it’s set up, the game, it’s a low-cost sport. People do it in their driveway,” Gerace said. “It lends itself to all economic kinds of people, as well as demographics and age. So it just appeals to a lot more people.”

While the game can be difficult to learn at first, Gerace and Rickert said it can be easily mastered with a small amount of effort and the patience to let the play develop.

“Of course, you want to hit the ball and make a winner or whatever, but the game itself the pace calls you to wait for the right opportunity," Gerace said. “Let’s find the opportunity to strike."

Rickert has heard people compare the game to chess. Each move sets up the next until the moment to score presents itself.

“It kind of can be very thought-provoking of where you’re going to hit the ball and how it’s going to come back and what your next steps are,” Rickert said. “Once you get to be a better degree of player, you get into those kinds of steps that it’s really more chess-like. It’s interesting as you progress through playing.”

One challenging aspect of the game that even the pair struggles with sometimes is just keeping score.

“One of the things that always gets everybody in the beginning is they say, ‘Hey, I can hit the ball, I can do all this, I just can’t keep score.’” Rickert said. “There’s three numbers you have to remember. And I mean, during the games, it’ll be a hard-fought battle, and all of a sudden, you’re like, ‘Who just served that? What’s the score?’ So it’s always kind of a joke among the pickleball players is just the score and who’s remembering.”

Those interested in learning more about pickleball in the Lexington community have plenty of ways to do so. There are courts around the county that have minimal fees to play and rent gear. There is also a group Facebook page that has seen substantial growth in recent years.

“It’s just a very welcoming group of people that all just like to play pickleball and like to have an activity and sportsmanship,” Rickert said.