Action Packed
by Kelly Petryszyn, Alexandra Sobczak and Wyatt Loy // photos by Tylar Sutton and Ryanne Locker
Get out and gear up to play sports at 330 parks. From adrenaline-pumping sand volleyball teams to strategic single-player archery, these sports add excitement, challenge and bonding to your summer.
To the Tee
While the pandemic has stalled some activities, locals are flocking to get back in the swing of golf. At Ellsworth Meadows Golf Club in Hudson, nearly 47,000 rounds of golf were played in 2020 — that’s a staggering 12,000 more than the average during PGA head pro Greg Andrego’s tenure at Ellsworth.
“People that had other things they used to do said, I’m going to try to get back in this game,” 49-year-old Andrego observes.
The city-owned 18-hole manicured public course is a good place to land, as its rolling treelined fairways and fast, undulating greens provide a fun, exciting test for skilled golfers and a manageable test for beginners.
Locals returning to Ellsworth after a while away will find the course, formerly named Big Springs, has been redesigned and expanded, and conditions have become pristine since drainage and continuous cart paths have been added. Plus, there are new sought-after Finn scooters, which can be rented for foursomes, accommodate your golf bag and allow you to zip along the course at 18 mph versus a cart’s pokey 12 mph.
Andrego recommends beginners start with the 7-iron, work on the mechanics of their swing and then hit shots at the practice facility that has a 300-yard driving range and target rolling fairways and greens, practice greens for chipping and putting and a sand bunker.
“Get used to the body moving the right way, making clean contact with the golf ball,” he says, “Then continue to progress to lengthen the shots.”
On the course, the eighth hole is considered one of the most difficult in Summit County for its left dogleg, fairway that tilts hard right and steeply sloped green, while the 17th hole has a memorable risk/reward challenge over a water hazard that forces players to implement their own strategies.
“Golf is exercise outside. It’s competition. It’s camaraderie,” Andrego says. “It’s all about your self-expectation.”
It’s also a sport you can play as you age. He recently saw a group with three generations — a grandpa, a father and a daughter competing. Hopefully, fresh golfers stick with it, and it becomes a pastime they can keep up through their silver years.
“You can get hooked on this thing pretty quick,” Andrego says.
Daily dawn to dusk, 1101 Barlow Road, Hudson, 330-655-2267, ellsworthmeadows.com
Speed Zone
Pickleball is one of the fastest-growing sports in the country, and if you haven’t tried it yet, it may seem familiar — it has similarities to tennis, Ping-Pong, badminton and racquetball.
“It’s like playing Ping-Pong,” says 65-year-old Joe Harold, a board member and the tournament and league director for the Hall of Fame City Pickleball Club in Canton. “It’s that confined, a lot of the same strokes and a lot of the same strategies.”
Each player uses a paddle, commonly made of wood or graphite, to hit a ball a little smaller than a whiffle ball across a 3-foot-tall net, either as a volley or after a bounce. Doubles play games to 11, but you must win by two points. “Action becomes very rapid,” he says.
Harold started playing eight years ago with one friend after his then-26-year-old son tipped him off about the sport. Harold used to coach basketball and turned a basketball court in his yard into a pickleball court.
“I said … Here’s the game for us,” Harold says. His friend played a lot of tennis growing up.
The two met more players at the Hall of Fame Fitness Center, where they played during the winter, and they joined the Hall of Fame City Pickleball Club in 2017. Since pickleball player Aaron Haney founded it that year, the club has grown to nearly 300 members. Some play competitively in leagues with tournaments, and some just play for fun.
On a typical morning at Stadium Park in Canton, 20 to 30 players rotate in and out of matches on the four courts, with six more courts set to open there this summer.
“It’s a tremendous social game,” he says. “Met so many wonderful people that I would not have met. … You can play a game in 10, 15 minutes and then on to another game or rotate your turn in.”
Although many older adults play, several young people play too. The club has taught the game to middle school students and invites anyone to join while they’re playing at Stadium Park.
“Amongst the trees, … a hillside which blocks a lot of the wind — these courts are situated in such a great place,” he says. “It’s just a real gem in the city of Canton.”
Tournaments through Nov. 7, hofcpickleball.com, Other courts at Boettler Park, Jackson Community Park, Waters Park and more spots.
Set for Joy
To play volleyball, Akronite Logan Jennings used to leave the city for leagues in Bath and Cuyahoga Falls. So when he discovered volleyball courts under the State Street Bridge in Akron, he decided to start a league. In 2016, eight teams began playing volleyball there, and Jennings launched Stay in Play Recreation adult sports leagues, with his friend, Andrew Novak.
“The whole idea was to get people out doing things,” says 33-year-old Jennings.
When construction made those courts unusable, the pair worked with the Knight Foundation and the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition to open the Canal Courts. Between the Towpath Trail and the smokestacks of Canal Place center in the former BFGoodrich factory, they installed four public sand volleyball courts, surrounded by picnic tables and bleachers, in 2018. It’s grown to 78 volleyball teams and 450 players competing in weeknight games. Now called Summit Sports & Social, it also offers kickball, but volleyball is its biggest sport.
“Volleyball is super popular because it’s a game that men and women can play on equal footing,” Jennings says. The all-levels leagues range from men’s, women’s and coed to recreational company faceoffs to intense matchups of ex-collegiate players.
“We have people that probably haven’t played organized sports since gym class in high school,” he says, “that now show up to leagues and absolutely love it.”
It’s easy to start playing volleyball again, especially with the help of Jennings, a men’s volleyball coach at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School who hosts volleyball skills clinics at Goodyear Hall and the Canal Courts. He advises newbies to focus on passing by bumping or setting and not rush to hitting a showstopping spike. “It doesn’t look as cool, but it is important,” he says. “Learn how to pass and you’ll always be on a team.”
While Jennings confesses to being super competitive, he says Summit Sports & Social is more about fun and making friends. They play music and dance. They go for beers after at R. Shea Brewing and Missing Falls Brewery. That laidback approach works, and now, Novak and Jennings are expanding locations — a kickball league starts in Cuyahoga Falls in June — so more adults can enjoy team sports. And they’re set on continuing to grow.
“If you give people the opportunity to do something fun, they’re going to come behind an old warehouse and play volleyball for 22 weeks — in droves,” Jennings says. “So what other opportunities are laying in the lurch?”
Volleyball runs May to September, Sign up at summitsports.social
Target Run
Summit Metro Parks interpretive naturalist Janean Kazimir likes to play tic-tac-toe — with a bow and arrow. While at the archery range at Hampton Hills Metro Park in Cuyahoga Falls, she and other naturalists teach archery programs that are about more than just target practice. During their games program, classic games like Battleship and Twister sharpen skills by shooting at a ship on the target or shooting from your knees, respectively.
“It really challenges you, because as you’re learning, you’re always focused just on the center of the target,” says the 28-year old instructor. “It really starts to hone [being] able to move around.”
Programs are open to anyone over 50 inches tall and are aimed at myriad skill levels, from a beginner Try It class focused on form, technique and safety to an open shoot program designed for people with some experience. Equipment is provided for programs, but people must bring gear to shoot on their own at the Metro Parks ranges. Choose from the range at Liberty Park, or the ranges at Silver Creek Metro Park and Hampton Hills that both have a raised platform from which you can shoot at targets 10 to 60 yards away.
Archery may seem daunting, but Kazimir has some tips to ease in. First, hold the bow with the hand that corresponds to your nondominant eye. Test which is dominant by making a small opening between your hands, gazing at a far object and figuring out which eye you unconsciously use to peer through the hole. Then, place the aluminum arrow on the synthetic string. Keeping the arm holding the bow straight without overextending it, pull the string back with your other hand, ensuring your elbow is parallel to the ground. “You want to make your body into a T,” she says. “Your hands are very, very close to your face. … But as long as you’re not touching your face when you let go, it’s gonna be fine.”
Kazimir loves that in archery you can compete against yourself at your own pace. At the range, how many shots you take is up to you.
“It can be a very personal sport,” she says. “It’s something you can get up and go do yourself. And it’s also something that you can self-challenge.”
Ranges open daily dawn to dusk, summitmetroparks.org
As you go to Summit Metro Parks, print a Centennial Tour form off the website, mark visits and read signs near parking lots to discover the history of each park in honor of the district’s centennial. Visit all 20 parks by Dec. 31 and turn in your completed form to earn a centennial leather tag.
On the Fly
To the passerby, the disc golf course at Portage Lakes State Park blends into the trees aside from a few wooden signs and metal poles with large circular chain baskets.
Ben Rahe, a 32-year-old Summit County Disc Golf Association board member, explains disc golf, or frisbee golf, as similar to normal golf, where you try to get your disc into the goal basket in the fewest number of throws. Players typically use at least one of each of the differently shaped and sized disc types: a driver, a midrange and a putter. On one hole, you might throw a driver from the tee to gain distance in the beginning, use a midrange on the fairway and use a putter when you get closer to the basket.
“Each one flies differently,” says Mike Knepp, a 39-year-old Summit DGA board member. “I would suggest a new player start off with throwing more putters or midrange discs to get the technique before moving on to high-speed drivers.”
Like golf, every disc golf course has nine or 18 holes. Each one, about 200 to 500 feet long, has a par value, a tee, a fairway and a green with the goal basket. Rahe and Knepp’s favorite is the 18-hole course at Portage Lakes.
Rahe’s favorite hole is the course’s most challenging: the crescent-shaped, par 4, 14th hole, which is densely wooded and requires carefully throwing through trees. “It starts on an elevated tee area overlooking the lake. For your first shot, you want to hit a tight gap off the tee going downhill,” Rahe says. “You want to hit a landing zone so that [for] your second shot you can throw over the lake to the basket.”
Knepp’s best advice for beginners is to take time perfecting their shot. “It’s a management matter of holding onto your disc, making sure you don’t lose them in the woods or in the water and keeping them on the fairway,” he says. “And just playing the course rather than playing your opponent.”
“It’s super accessible, you’re outside getting good exercise, good mental health,” Rahe says. “When you’re out in nature, it does something for you.”
Join Summit DGA events through October and find disc golf courses at discgolfscene.com/clubs/summit_dga