It’s not every day you come across someone who has accomplished an ambitious lifelong career goal they set for themselves as a teenager, but Barry Riddle is one such person. And because he chose to chase his dream all the way to fruition over many decades, Colorado is now home to four pristine outdoor padel courts at the Parker Racquet Club, just south of Denver.
While telling me about his time spent playing tennis for the University of Northern Colorado, Barry recalls, “I majored in commercial recreation, wanting to manage and run clubs. And, as I told my advisor when I was just a freshman, my eventual goal was to build and own a tennis club.”
Barry’s dream finally became a reality in 2019 with the opening of Parker Racquet Club, which he co-owns with partners Steve Prosowski and Craig Marshall. But, while he ultimately got to where he wanted to be, there were plenty of stops along the way.
Barry tells me he first started on the journey towards club ownership by managing a small racquetball and aerobics club in Greeley, CO, and things began slowly snowballing from there. He explains, “I started playing racquetball… and then became the racquetball pro at the club. I enjoyed that. Then, at 28, I started playing a lot of squash when I moved to Boulder and began working for Head Sports. I really loved squash.
Prior to going to Head, I managed a few different clubs around Colorado. I was up in Evergreen managing a club, and I was also their squash, tennis, and racquetball pro. So, I just had a pretty diverse background in those three sports and in club management. The whole time I had my eye on trying to find the perfect time, location, and situation to build a club — but it didn’t come up until I was quite a bit older and moved to Parker.”
(So Much) Better Late Than Never
Barry continues, “I was actually out of the tennis — and club — business for about eight years. But then my wife starting teaching tennis to kids in the neighborhood. Over time, that grew and grew and grew, and we turned that into sort of a summer business. Then we worked with the town of Parker to build six outdoor courts and moved our programming there.
We did that for about another eight years. And that’s when I started working with my two current partners, Steve and Craig. We were in communication with the town of Parker the whole time looking to find a spot to build an indoor club. And finally they had some land they were willing to work with us on, so we started on the venture of putting it all together about 10 years ago.”
When the Parker Racquet Club finally opened in March of 2019 it was home to six indoor tennis courts and a 2,000 sq. ft. “welcome center” with locker rooms and a lounge.
“The Most Interesting Part of the Story”
That’s how Barry describes his stumbling across padel and ultimately deciding to add it to the club.
He says, “The original ‘phase two’ expansion — for the outdoor portion of the club — was supposed to be three tennis courts and three pickleball courts. And the area where we now have the four padel courts was initially slated to be for platform tennis. We figured there was already some platform tennis in Colorado, which was relatively popular. And the climate for Colorado kind of lends itself to the game.
We already had our plans all drawn up. But then I was playing tennis with a Spanish friend of mine and I was telling him what we going to do and he mentioned padel — which I’d never heard of. And it just so happened I was getting ready to take my daughter on a college volleyball recruiting trip back East. So, I made a stop in Philadelphia because I heard they had padel courts up there and I wanted to try it.
I immediately loved it and knew it was the kind of sport where everyone else would, too. Easy to play, easy on your body, really fun — much more fun than pickle, much easier than tennis, much easier and more fun than platform. So, I started doing a lot of research on the direction of padel in the States and in Europe, and I saw it was growing like crazy. And we pretty much made the decision right there to switch from platform to padel.”
Love at First Sight
Another long-time racket-sports enthusiast who almost immediately understood the enormous potential of padel in the U.S. is Robert Gurolnick, Parker Racquet Club’s current Padel Coordinator and Head Pro.
Robert — who played college tennis for Illinois State — tells me, “I actually found the game randomly on YouTube like 18 months ago. I had no idea this game even existed. But being from a tennis, squash, and even beach tennis background in Chicago, even just seeing a game like this made me stop and think, ‘Oh my god!’ This looks… well you know what it’s like.”
(And yes, I certainly do.)
His excitement is palpable and he continues, “I was hellbent to get involved in this game. I didn’t even know the limitations in terms of its exposure, where it’s played, how it’s played. I had no idea Parker Racquet Club was even building courts at the time, but with my history of tennis I said, ‘I want to get certified in this sport no matter what right away.’ I did that sight unseen.”
So he traveled to Florida to do the PadelMBA program with U.S. padel pioneer and former president of the U.S. Padel Association, Marcos del Pillar. Of his experience there with Pillar, he says, “You couldn’t ask for a better person to bring you into the sport. The guy is on fire in every way, shape, and form. He’s so animated and well connected, and his passion is to bring the game to the masses.”
Robert explains he had an existing relationship with the Parker Racquet Club as he had used their courts to teach tennis lessons off-and-on over the years, before saying, “Somehow I caught wind that they were building padel courts. So, I reached out to them and told them I was getting my certification if they needed a pro.”
(And yes, they certainly did.)
Promising Early Days After a Disappointingly Late Start
Despite the fact that the courts only opened on October 2nd (after nearly six months of delays due to permitting issues) and that Colorado is already dealing with occasional bouts of winter weather, Robert reports that, “It’s going better than anyone could have imagined.”
He says that as long as the temperature is in the mid-40s or above, people are plenty warm on the court. And on sunny days, he notes you can play comfortably at temperatures well below that.
In terms of actual players, he says, “I’ve got people playing here now who are from Mexico… or Sweden… or we’ve even got this humongous Kuwaiti student group that comes and rents courts almost every night. Then we’ve got big groups of 20 to 30 squash players from the Denver Club and Denver Athletic Club coming down regularly to play. And I’ve also worked tirelessly for the past two-and-a-half months to reach out to tennis players to get them on the court ASAP.”
Robert notes he runs free bi-weekly “intro to padel” clinics for those who are curious about the game and want to try it out. Beyond that he’s seeing lots of interest in — and success with — what he calls “shuttles,” where you have people playing on all four courts and they move up or down depending on whether they win or lose, in a king- or queen-of-the-court type fashion. And he’s already got big plans for hosting tournaments and trips to play against other clubs in the new year.
Ultimately, he sums up his approach to attracting new players by saying, “We’re reaching out to as many people as possible to come out and try it for free to get them ‘hooked,’ so to speak. I don’t think it takes much to do that that once they play.”
(And no, it certainly does not.)
Phase Three Forthcoming?
When I ask Barry if he has plans to expand the padel footprint of the club he tells me they’ll wait and see how the first year goes before committing to anything, but given the hot start out of the gate, they’re already actively looking at adding indoor padel courts, in addition to more tennis and pickle.
He says, “I think padel has got a real high trajectory, and within five years there will be 10 more padel clubs in Colorado. And we actually want to help promote that. In fact, I’m actively consulting with multiple groups who are very interested in opening padel or padel and tennis clubs in Denver and around the state.”
I conclude our conversation by telling him I think he made the the right decision by foregoing platform tennis in favor of being the padel pioneer who finally brought the world’s fastest growing sport to Colorado. He chuckles and says, “You know, I think you’re definitely 100% correct there. It’s exceeded my expectations for sure.”
Weather permitting, you can visit Parker Racquet Club and their four new outdoor courts Monday through Friday between 7am and 10pm or on the weekend between 8am and 8pm at 18396 Plaza Dr, Parker, CO 80134. For further information, please call them at (720) 676-7560, visit the padel section of their site, or email their Head Pro, Robert Gurolnick.
