By Geoff Heppes
Weatherford Democrat
WEATHERFORD, Texas — The firefighters of Station 4 work 24-hour shifts and then are off duty the following 48 hours. The vast majority of the time they are in the fire station, Lt. Lee Franklin, EMT Sean Beck and firefighter Nate Lee are focused on putting out fires, responding to emergency situations and doing what they can to preserve and protect the safety of our community.
However, the crew’s fire chief requires an hour of physical activity for each crew to maintain their fitness and benefit their overall health and well-being. Even though it is a very small window during their busy days, the crew has found joy in playing pickleball — they even have a court taped inside of the station. To say the least, this form of recreation has been a hit for Station 4 firefighters.
“I guess we’ve been playing for six months now maybe,” Beck said. “I saw it on TV one time and said that it looked fun. We talked about it and even went grocery shopping one day and bought some cheap paddles, and we brought them to the station. We piddled around with it, but once we actually got a game going — one of the newer guys who came from a California fire department had played before and taught us how to play — and we were bit after that by the bug.”
Recently, the crew received a generous donation from a local pickleball ambassador in the form of three new Paddletek pickleball paddles, which the company donated free of charge. The new hobby provided the crew with new, high-quality paddles — a gesture the three men were very grateful for.
“We were very appreciative. She went out of her way to do this for us, and you know, she didn’t have to,” Lee said. “When she showed up with the paddles, we were very grateful — we thanked her millions of times — and we were ready to go out there and hit some balls ... It was an awesome gesture.”
“We were surprised,” Franklin added. “For someone to see us playing out there, to enjoy seeing us play and for someone to think of us that way was pretty amazing just for her to go through all that trouble,” Franklin said.
Along with the kindness they benefited from, the Station 4 members also have seen camaraderie amongst local agencies, the community and other departments from surrounding areas through the sport of pickleball. The togetherness has been a rich experience, as has the friendly competition.
“Even just among the stations here, there’s other guys from other shifts that come by and even guys that are off duty that will come by to play when we’ve got some spare time,” Franklin said. “It’s very competitive around here, and none of us are very good, but it gets competitive very quickly. The Parker County Hospital district, you know the ambulance, has invited us to come play quite a few times. All the agencies in town have different crews on different shifts that play and, if we all get enough time where it lines up and we aren’t on calls, we like to get together and play a little bit — try to not let things get too out of hand.”
Passion for pickleball has been growing nationwide, and the traction for more public playing locations has intensified.
“There’s more people showing up to city council meetings for pickleball rather than a tax issue. People are having so much fun with this that they are going out of their way to support and push it to add more places to play,” Beck said.
“People are filling up the council chambers over something like this, and it’s really nice to see a good thing like this that provides cardio and exercise to take everyone’s minds off of whatever nonsense is going on,” Franklin added.
Finally, the firefighters expressed an appreciation for the way they have seen pickleball unify people around them of all ages. The crew said they have enjoyed playing the sport when they have time, but also the positive impact it has had both locally and nationally.
“There’s not a certain age for people to play pickleball,” Lee said. “We’ve played where there was a 6-year-old kid playing and then sometimes people in their 70’s and 80’s are playing — it’s for everybody. It’s a good way to bring people together, have a good time and get in some fitness work — it all goes hand in hand. We’ve seen up to 30 people at some courts, which shows that expansion is needed ... The sport is expanding, it’s taken off and everyone is enjoying it.”
(c)2023 Weatherford Democrat (Weatherford, Texas)
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