Matt
GoebelSOCAL SUMMER
For Spokane’ s Matt Goebel, pickleball wasn’ t always a sport. In fact, despite being a part of his life since his earliest memories, Goebel didn’ t pick up a paddle to play seriously until he graduated college.
“ When I was 4 or 5, we put a pickleball court in our backyard. That was 20 years ago, and we just hit the ball back then. We didn’ t know what we were doing,” Goebel said.“ Then I moved to Bellingham. I had stopped playing until about four years ago. I was at college, playing tennis, and my parents got invited to a rec center where they had pickleball, so I started playing when I went home for Thanksgiving or Christmas breaks. But I didn’ t take it seriously until after I graduated and only started playing in tournaments about two years ago.”
During all that time, Goebel had no idea the sport was exploding around the country. Sure, there were pickleball offerings in his high school athletics programs, but that was to be expected in the Seattle area.
“ I had absolutely no idea that pickleball was bigger than what we did in Seattle, or at a class,” he said.“ I didn’ t know about the USAPA or anything like that.”
Ever since he picked the sport back up, however, Goebel has made up for lost time.
He recently took silver with partner Tyson McGuffin at the Brigham City Memorial Day Tournament; bronze with Rob Davidson at the Grand Canyon State Games; fourth at Palm Desert; and second in international indoor tournaments in Centralia, Washington.
Goebel said that, while he’ s aggressive on the court, his goal as a player is to work out a patient, but strong game.
“ My philosophy of play is that you have to play soft and patient to set up the aggressive shots,” he said.“ I’ m looking to pull the trigger as soon as I can, to be deceptive, find
CLASSIC
Waiting on Patience
holes and use my forehand to create opportunities to put the ball away. Playing with Ty works very well. He’ s quick on his feet and with his hands. If I can get an opportunity to pop it up, we’ re both looking to put it down. He’ s more patient than I am, has better touch, but still likes to play aggressive. I’ m slowly morphing to a more patient game, but our bread and butter is go for the throat as soon as there’ s an opportunity.”
With time on his side, Goebel said he’ s always looking at other players in the game to learn from, citing Wes Gabrielson as a player whose attributes he’ d like to emulate.
“ I’ m a big fan of the way Wes plays the patient game. He has a nice backhand slice, cross-court dink and he’ s left handed. People don’ t like to hit it. It isn’ t a very passive dink,” Goebel said.“ I’ d like to be as aggressive in the passive dink game as I can. Wes is more of a counter puncher. He makes it tough on people, moves that dink around with that slice. Plus, he’ s a little bit more consistent than I am.”
Goebel will have plenty of time to play and study other players, as his summer and fall are packed with tournaments. He’ s playing in the Western Canadian Nationals, Bend in August, the Coeur d’ Alene Classic, and then the Tournament of Champions. In between, he plans on meeting new and interesting players, and maybe learning how to slow down a little as well.
“ The coolest thing about this sport is everybody spends time together and really gets to know one another,” he said.“ With tennis, it’ s just your foursome or twosome playing a match and leaving. This is a crazy sport where everyone wants to hang out all day together. You get to meet a lot of great people.” •
JULY / AUGUST 2017 | MAGAZINE 25