As the air started to bite and the winds started to freeze, I sat on my back patio the other afternoon thinking about the full slate of sports to be broadcasted later that evening.
Fall is the best time of year for avid sports fanatics of the collegiate and professional levels because as football gets into the most exciting parts of the season, other sports like basketball and hockey begin theirs.
Primetime rolled around that night, and I sat in the warm comfort of my living room when it dawned on me – what if there was a way to get other sports down to Lake Country?
The cold will continue until around mid-March, and then the warmth of spring will fill the area, so I thought of a couple of sports that could potentially be added during the winter and spring seasons.
First off, this one is for one of my editors, Ian Tocher, who is a native of the land of hockey: Canada.
I, myself, have fallen in love with the ice and the way players can glide so effortlessly yet skate through you like a running back.
How cool would it be to get some sort of ice forum down to the lake? The ice overlooking the water would even add to the environment, and I feel like there are multiple people in the community that would love to watch any level of hockey if it were 15 minutes away.
The next I thought I had was for my brother, who somehow found his hand-eye coordination playing lacrosse in high school.
Spring is right around the corner, and lacrosse is a sport that is growing rapidly across the country. Most schools in the surrounding metropolitan areas of the state have teams, and the travel ball scene is growing even more.
With sticks, goals, and pads needed for play, I believe there is definitely enough resources in Lake Country to develop the sport in the area in a handful of years.
There are plenty of other sports I can think of that could be added to the list, but the last one I want to touch on is pickleball.
Pickleball is probably one of the newest and most unrecognized sports that is rapidly growing across the country. It is a smaller version of tennis with slightly different caveats to determine to score, but a sport that anyone and all ages can play.
Lake Country already seems to have the perfect layout to add more courts than is already present in the area.
I personally just picked it up a month ago, but it has already piqued my interest and is my go-to hobby when it’s a nice day out.
I’m not sure how feasible it is to bring and expand all other sports that currently aren’t in the area, but potentially adding other ways for kids to explore what they enjoy doing and giving adults additional hobbies to focus on would benefit the community as a whole.