January 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 48

N R PA U P DAT E

Member Spotlight: Shane Wampler
By Lindsay Collins

hane Wampler began his park and recreation career as aquatics supervisor
for Faribault Parks and Recreation in Minnesota. Today, Wampler is the
recreation supervisor for City of Omaha (Nebraska) Parks and Recreation,
where he is responsible for one of the city's community centers and continues
his aquatics career by providing training for lifeguard instructors and, during the
summer season, as an outdoor-pool supervisor. Wampler also helps oversee the
agency's pickleball program, running " how-to " clinics for newbies and organizing quarterly tournaments for both new participants and experienced players
alike. He even has won a few pickleball tournament medals himself.

Recently, Parks & Recreation
spoke with Wampler to learn about
his experience with pickleball and
to get his thoughts on the sport.
Parks & Recreation: How did you
get into pickleball?
Shane Wampler: We had a unit on
pickleball in middle school, and
I learned about the game then. I
[also] took a lifetime sports class
in high school where there was
a unit on pickleball. I absolutely
loved it and continued playing even
after we had finished up that unit.
Then, I went off to college, and at
that point in time, I didn't really

do a whole lot with pickleball. It
wasn't as popular then as it is now,
and there wasn't nearly as many
opportunities just to go play. So, I
didn't really do a lot with it until
I got to Faribault, Minnesota, [in]
2012. I went to the Minnesota Recreation and Park Association state
conference and they had a " how to
play pickleball " session. I went to it
and was reminded how much I absolutely loved the game. I went to
my boss, the director, and told him
I wanted to do pickleball. He said,
" Sure, go ahead, " so I started a
pickleball club. I did that for about
four years before I moved, and then
I came to Omaha.
P&R: What does it take to
put together a pickleball
tournament?
Wampler: Here in Omaha, we have
an indoor tennis center. I take that
over and tape down temporary
courts for pickleball, using painter's tape or masking tape. There are
eight tennis courts, so I can fit up to
24 pickleball courts in that facility.
I typically need about a dozen, so I
only use about half the space. We
use temporary nets. We run roundrobin tournaments, so lots of people
[play] lots of games. I put out notice

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to a mailing list of people who have
participated in tournaments before.
We've had people from as far away as
South Dakota, Kansas, Iowa...come
to these tournaments over the years.
P&R: Do you see a lot of new
faces at the tournaments?
Wampler: It's a little bit of both! At
our last tournament, about 80 people total signed up, and I want to
say almost a quarter were people
I hadn't seen before. It's super fun
to see new folks come in and play
against people they've never played
before, and have a blast with it.
P&R: What benefits do you feel
pickleball programs bring to
communities?
Wampler: Pickleball is wildly popular with active older adults. I think
the big reason for that is it's not as
intensive as, say, tennis or racquetball. We find that some of the folks
who either age out or aren't able to
do some of the other sports the way
they want to can still participate at
a high level in pickleball.
P&R: Outside of work, what are
your favorite pastimes?
Wampler: I have four small children,
ages 7 and under, so that takes up
lots of my personal life. I'm originally from the great state of Nebraska and am blessed to be back in Nebraska, so I'm a big fan of all things
Cornhusker. And, I'm an inveterate
reader - I'm constantly reading
something or other.
- Lindsay Collins, Associate Editor for
Parks & Recreation magazine

January 2020 - Parks & Recreation

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