Staying fit just for the sake of staying fit was enough to keep Mike Barker heading to the gym, but he didn’t always get excited about it.
“I played semi-pro football for 20 years and when I quit I never really found anything to replace it,” said Barker, a Johnstown native who spent 1987 to 2007 as a member of the Glove Cities Colonials. “I stayed in shape and fooled around with a few other sports, like cycling, but it just wasn’t the same. And running on a treadmill or out on the road wasn’t for me. I wanted to find something that would make me move about like I used to.”
A few weeks away from turning 60, the once-fleet wide receiver is now a diehard pickleball player. And he not only plays the game just about every day, he is the owner of Xtreme Pickle, an indoor facility at the Riverfront Center in Amsterdam that has attracted a number of players from Montgomery County and beyond since it opened in October.
“We’re getting people from all over, and if you come down you’ll see people playing pickleball anytime between eight in the morning and 10 at night,” said Barker. “If you have a dedicated pickleball facility, it quickly can become the go-to place to go. We’re very happy with how things have been going since we opened.”
As enthusiastic as he is about the game now, it took a while before he really became passionate.
“I was down in Florida in 2005 at the complex where I was living, and people were asking me if I ever played pickleball,” remembered Barker. “I played five or 10 times, and it was OK. But then I stopped.”
What got Barker back into it was an idea he came up with three years ago to put in a few courts at Darling Park in Gloversville.
“I asked the mayor if we could put some pickleball lines on the tennis court,” said Barker, who has spent his life in construction as well as owning fitness centers in Gloversville and Clifton Park. “We ended up putting up lines for four courts, and within a month, we had more than 100 people coming from all over to play pickleball. I was hooked, and so were other members of my family.”
That worked well for the outdoor season, but with pickleball becoming popular throughout the country, Barker saw another opportunity.
“I wanted to give us another place to play during the indoor season,” he said. “I have owned gyms, so I knew some people and somebody told me to check out the mall in Amsterdam. I went down there and walked around and didn’t really see any place that would work. And then talked to Cathy Bonfrey of Cranesville Block and asked her if there was any space with high ceilings. We walked down this long hallway, she brought me to a place and it was an ah-ha moment. It was a hidden secret. It was perfect.”
What they came upon was a large open room, with high ceilings, that had once served as a restaurant within the Carl Company in what was the Amsterdam Mall.
“You wouldn’t even know it was there if you didn’t go down the hallway,” said Barker. “I ended up talking to the owners and they said, ‘OK.’ We took out a lease in July and built the courts and opened on Oct. 7. It has really caught on.”
Barker doesn’t have a large staff working for him at Xtreme Pickle. In fact, there are times when the facility runs itself.
“It’s a semi-autonomous place,” he said. “We do have people there for open play and lessons, but if someone wants to reserve a court for themselves and their friends, they can do it online, and if there is no one there, we give them a temporary pin code. They unlock the doors themselves, turn on the lights and play pickleball.”
Xtreme Pickle hasn’t hosted any tournaments yet, but they will soon, as well as various opportunities for players to compete in team play. Each team will be made up of two men and two women.
“We’re launching a five-week session of team play on Jan. 14, and eventually we plan on having matches against other facilities,” said Barker. “There are other places popping up around the Capital Region and people enjoy playing on a team.
“Pickleball is such a great sport. It’s competitive if you want it to be, but it’s also friendly. It’s a very social game. You can laugh and really enjoy yourself. That’s why people enjoy it so much.”
Barker likes the game so much, he even plays it with members of his own family.
“How often do you see kids, older kids, playing a sport with their family,” said Barker. “You try to get your kids to do something with you and they’re not interested. They might not play another sport with you, but they will play pickleball with you. It’s amazing.”
Another great aspect of the game is that while skill levels may vary, the game can remain competitive and fun.
“You might look at somebody and think to yourself, ‘Well, I could beat them pretty easily,’” said Barker, who has designed his own player rating system, called MyGOPR, to help people evaluate themselves and know where they stand against the competition. “Yet, I’m 60, and play pretty well, and I can step on a court with a 60- to 65-year-old husband and wife team and lose to them. Some people have this ability to put the ball exactly where they want to.”
For more information, visit www.xtremepickle.com or call 518-221-1195.
PICKLEBALL 518 POLL
Pickleball 518, a Facebook group and on-line newsletter about pickleball, recently announced the results of its Best of Pickleball in the Capital Region 2023 Poll. Here they are.
Best indoor pickleball venue: The True Pickleball Club in Latham. The facility has six “dedicated” courts, meaning pickleball only, and opened up early in 2023. Schenectady/Sportime and the Southern Saratoga YMCA finished second and third in the voting,
Best outdoor venue: Hillhurst Park in the Bellevue section of Schenectady.
Best pickleball instructor: Susan Comito of the Southern Saratoga YMCA.
Best local pickleball store: Pickleball Galaxy in Clifton Park.
Most friendly pickleball municipality: Town of Colonie.
Cathleen Crowley Denbeaux, who monitors the Pickleball 518 Facebook page, received more than 350 responses to her poll questions.