An Amazing Athlete

By Matthew Schwartz

January 22, 2024

She was taught how to play pickleball by one of the sport’s inventors. She played it years before most people even heard of it. She’s been certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as “The oldest competitive pickleball player on Earth.”

At 94, Joyce Jones not only still plays pickleball, when she plays in tournaments, it’s often in singles. “I never get to practice singles at all. I've always loved singles, and tournaments are the only time I get to play it,” Joyce told me.

She’s as sharp as a tack and her voice sounds like that of a much younger woman during a lengthy phone interview. She plays recreational doubles two or three times a week for up to three hours. She’s had 23 surgeries, including knee replacements, and has many aches and pains, but no plans to put down her paddle anytime soon.

“I just love playing the game, and the notoriety that comes along with it at my age,” Joyce tells me.

Joyce is a lifelong Seattle resident and lives in an independent living facility there. She sure is independent. She travels to tournaments near and far.

“She’s always been the older woman walking around with a lot of medals around her neck,” says longtime friend and fellow player, Barbara Wintroub, 79. “She is a fabulous player. She has great court sense.”

 It would be impossible for Joyce to walk around with all her medals around her neck.

She started playing pickleball in 1980 and has won 59 medals, 52 of them gold. Before discovering pickleball she was an elite badminton and tennis player, winning an astonishing 275 badminton titles and 52 tennis trophies.

     She met Don at 15 and knew then she wanted to marry him

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Joyce met pickleball’s co-inventor Joel Pritchard through her husband, Don, who worked in sporting goods. Don was also an athlete and pickleball player. He defeated Pritchard in an early pickleball tournament. “He’s probably the only player who can claim to have beaten the inventor of pickleball in a tournament,” Joyce is proud to say.

She first saw Don at a roller-skating rink in 1945. “I met him when I was 15. He was a sweet, caring, considerate guy in a sailor’s uniform, and we got married as soon as I finished high school. I knew as soon as I met him that I wanted to marry him even though I was only 15, and people said it was just puppy love! The poor guy didn't have a chance! After 70 years of marriage my friends had to eat their words!” she says. They had two daughters and two sons. Don passed away in 2017 at the age of 90.

Joyce once had a DUPR (Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating) of 4.0 and is now a 3.0. She occasionally gets frustrated about having to make concessions on the court.

“Since I’ve not been able to move like I used to, I’ve had to change my play with more placement, more lobs, and hitting the ball where they aren’t. I don’t care about the medals anymore, although they are nice to get. I just love competing, and meeting so many new friends and seeing old friends at every tournament.”

Martha DuHamel, 78, met Joyce through tennis and says Joyce inspired her to play pickleball. They’ve played doubles together. “Joyce is feisty and determined,” Martha says. “She knows where the ball is going to go and lets me know where to go.”

Joyce started playing badminton at 14 when it was an intramural sport in her high school. She stopped playing it four years ago. “I didn’t like forcing other players to have to play with me when I couldn’t cover the court well enough anymore. It was my number one sport most of my life, so it was really difficult to give it up.”

She gave up tennis two years ago due to arthritis in her hands. “It made it too difficult to grip the handle well enough to make the shots that I was used to making. The racquet was too heavy, whereas the pickleball paddle is light enough that it doesn’t hurt my hand and wrist too much yet,” Joyce says.

She doesn’t like some of the changes she’s seen in pickleball. “It’s getting more commercialized and adheres to the top group of players in the country. It was bound to happen, and there was no way to avoid it, but I’m really rather sad to see it,” she says. Regarding pickleball’s infighting between several regulators, she says, “It’s getting to be very disheartening with all the different groups trying to gain control over pickleball.”

However, Joyce plays on. Despite being an admitted chocoholic, she’s always been a healthy eater. She rarely eats red meat and says, “I love fruits and veggies and could live on those if I didn't need other food to replenish certain parts of my body!”

Joyce is somehow not in the Pickleball Hall of Fame in either of its two categories, competitor or contributor. This is a woman who not only has won dozens of tournaments but has been a dedicated ambassador for the sport for 44 years. One of her daughters nominated Joyce for the PHOF last year in a poignant, five-page submission form, but she wasn’t selected. The Hall doesn’t comment on why an individual wasn’t voted in.

While Joyce would love to be in the PHOF, she’s thrilled that she inspires other players. When people see her play, she says, “They are quite amazed, and tell me constantly that I am a true legend, and an inspiration and encouraging for them. At any tournament I enter, there are probably around 50 people who come up to me and tell me how inspiring I am. I love it.”

Thoughts of the week, not all pickleball

· The college football playoffs that ended Monday night with Ohio State beating Notre Dame, 34-23, are here to stay. The long overdue 12-team tournament was a tremendous success.

· From the almost impossible to believe department: Legendary sportscaster Al Michaels, 80, recently repeated on-air something he’s said for years, that he has never intentionally eaten a vegetable. Not one. He eats a lot of steak, which makes one wonder how he’ reached 80 without any apparent health issues.

· Some podcasters and paddle reviewers use the term “OG,” which means original gangster, when describing paddles. I think they’re trying too hard to be hip. Saying “the original version” instead sounds more professional, at least to me. Then again, I’m old school about some stuff. And old.

· Next time you’re watching a pickleball game, notice how many players don’t keep their head down while hitting the ball. During my recent lessons with the legendary instructor Richard Movsessian, known better as “Coach Mo,” he emphasized watching the ball into the paddle and to even make a quiet grunt or other noise to help remind you to keep your head down. Think about how golfers and baseball players keep their head down on contact.

· For all you film buffs who enjoy movie trivia: I found it interesting to read the other day that three all-time classics were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in the same year, 1968. They were “The Graduate,” “Bonnie and Clyde,” and “In the Heat of the Night,” which won. Three classics were also nominated for Best Picture in 1995: “Forrest Gump,” “Pulp Fiction,” and “The Shawshank Redemption.” The winner was “Forrest Gump.” Great movie, but The Shawshank Redemption” is my favorite film ever.

Remember, if you buy any Hudef paddle that costs $169.99, use my discount code MS30 to knock down the price by 30%, to $119.99. Any less expensive paddle, the code is MS15, giving you 15% off.