If you’re a frequent flyer at the Y, you’ve probably been fortunate enough to meet Andy Hollon, or at least been the beneficiary of his lovely Texas twang and affable energy on and around the pickleball courts. Andy is a consummate volunteer at the Y, serving on the Board of Trustees and helping to officiate swim meets for the Dolphins. Ask him about pickleball, though, and you’ll see where Andy’s commitment to the Y really shines.

By training, Andy is a civil engineer. He likes things planned. Neat. Orderly. So, it’s no surprise he volunteered to organize an expansion of the Y’s pickleball offerings. “My enthusiasm for all things pickleball led me to become an ambassador for USA Pickleball, which is the organization whose mission it is to grow and expand the sport,” said Hollon. “Over the past year or so, the Y has allowed me to introduce some of the ideas I’ve gleaned from other ambassadors around the country,” he added. Andy’s being humble, of course. A trait you’ll recognize as soon as you meet him.

Andy volunteers off the court to keep the Places2Play website updated and notifies local pickleball players of upcoming opportunities. Like league play. Hollon, along with Susan Kirby, the Y’s tennis and pickleball pro, partnered to create new pickleball leagues at the Y. “Our pickleball community was somewhat segmented by skill level, and there weren’t a lot of opportunities for those different groups to interact,” Andy noted. “We had the idea of creating a league that would bring all these disparate groups together at one time. The Y was very supportive of our efforts, setting aside court times for us, promoting the league, and handling registrations,” Hollon said. That was last fall. Now he’s in the midst of working with Kirby to promote the Y’s fourth consecutive league, which will run for five weeks and end just prior to Memorial Day.

“Andy’s commitment to pickleball has been instrumental in helping create winter leagues and bringing people together through the common love of the sport,” said Lisa McIntosh, Boothbay Region Y’s Director of Operations. “He’s put in countless hours helping people learn and perfect their game,” McIntosh added. And Andy does so with a smile. You can hear the joy in his voice when he speaks of the sport, particularly the way the local community has embraced their unique sensibilities to come up with team names like Salty Sea Dogs, The Court-eshons, Volley Llamas, and The LobStars. As Andy describes it, the nature of the sport makes it uniquely suited to being a community builder: “The sport is easy to learn and very accessible for people with mobility issues, but it can challenge seasoned athletes as well.” While Andy is very grateful for the Y’s eight-court pickleball facility and the organization’s overall investment in the sport, he’ll happily speak at length about how pickleball’s real impact is in its ability to bring community together. 

For Andy, joy lives in the spaces of unplanned conversations and pleasant interactions that happen around town in small communities like ours. Pickleball, he maintains, is not only about time on the court, but about the connection it fosters. Andy’s volunteer efforts on and off the court are inextricably linked. “It’s all about bringing people together,” he said. The Y couldn’t agree more.