One of the nation’s best pickleball players calls our area home.
Solivita’s Erica Gonzalez recently returned from the National Senior Games in Fort Lauderdale where she won two gold medals (women’s singles, and doubles with partner Jackie Ebner) and a bronze (mixed doubles with Eric Wilson). That makes eight medals in the last three national Games.
Add in the 17 medals Gonzalez, 56, has won at seven annual Florida State Senior Games since she became eligible at age 50, and it’s clear her mantle has extra-strong hooks to hang all those medals.
Pickleball is a hybrid tennis-like game that looks like others — the paddles are similar to ping pong, the net used is similar to tennis, the court is much like one for badminton and the molded plastic ball looks like a whiffle ball.
Her tournament schedule will slow down a bit over the summer, when she’ll spend more time teaching the game in the community to her Solivita neighbors. But she’ll get in about 20 tournaments competing on the Senior Pro Level throughout Florida, as the Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP) tour is finally gearing back up with $2 million in prize money up for grabs after a pandemic slowdown.
And some of her competition will be younger.
“We call them the ‘young pros,’” she said. “Of course they call us the ‘old pros.’”
Gonzalez found pickleball after over 40 years of competing in traditional tennis, first in her native Puerto Rico, then in college at Ohio Northern University. When she moved to Florida in 2012, she discovered pickleball and loved the smaller court dimensions (about 4 pickleball courts can fit on a traditional tennis court) and the social aspect of the game — which isn’t “just like tennis.”
“Tennis players want to hit this ball hard. I call pickleball a ‘soft game,’” she said.
Gonzalez said she hadn’t planned on playing competitively at first, but urge to do so came quickly — as did the success. She’s ranked 16th nationally in the APP Women’s Senior Rankings, and she got an added bonus at the National Senior Games, where she was selected as a Humana Game Changer – national recognition of an athlete who “exemplifies healthy aging and provides encouragement, motivation, and inspiration for all seniors to start living healthy lifestyles.” It was a surprise to Gonzalez.
“There was a questionare sent out about why I participate and compete, and Humana selected 12 of us out of thousands of questionnaires,” she said. “My story showed a commitment to healthy aging, and pickleball is a huge way to motivate and lead by example.”
