Paddle Ball Comes to Stone Harbor
Bobo Mangan DeLaney
If you’re going to be a paddle-ball star, you’ve got to have a name like Bobo Mangan DeLaney.
DeLaney, who owns a home in Avalon, was born to play paddle ball, or “paddle,” the colloquial name for platform tennis. In fact, she was inducted into the Platform Tennis Hall of Fame in 2016.
“We feel so fortunate to have Bobo DeLaney on the island, she’s the Tiger Woods of platform,” says Jennifer Gensemer, a Stone Harbor councilwoman who serves as chair of the borough’s recreation committee. “She’s been a great ambassador for us.”
Gensemer first heard about platform tennis from Marilyn O’Donoghue, a fellow realtor at Long & Foster in Avalon and Stone Harbor. In December 2019, before Gensemer took office as councilwoman, O’Donoghue facilitated a meeting with avid paddle enthusiast, Tom King, and Laura Owens, also an advocate of the game, who Gensemer has known for years.
The timing couldn’t be better. Although paddle was invented in 1928 in Scarsdale, N.Y., many believe the sport is now exploding.
“I was approached by a Stone Harbor resident, Laura Owens, and Tom King about diversifying our racket offerings. And they introduced me to platform tennis,” says Gensemer. “At the same time, we were facing a dilemma with offering racket sports for all ages, particularly our youth.
“Platform tennis gave us a great opportunity to not only diversify our program, but to offer a new racquet sport to our teens. Stone Harbor is about families, and paddle is about families. And this gives an opportunity for multi generations to play, and to play together.”
Tom King first pitched the idea of building paddle courts to another town. “They did not entertain it,” he says. Through Gensemer, he and Owens had an opportunity to present their ideas to Stone Harbor Council.
Early on, King says all agreed that Stone Harbor local Alicia Eger, owner of Coco Blu, and her husband, Greg, director of paddle and pickle at Merion (Pa.) Cricket Club would be a big part of pulling it all together, along with Keith Studnick and Julian Miraglia, father of Laura Owens.
Gensemer says Tina Prickett, director of recreation for the Borough of Stone Harbor, was also instrumental in bringing this new sport to town.
“Tennis is a sport that’s hit its peak and it’s not growing at the kind of rate as platform tennis and pickle[ball] are,” says King, who gives much credit of the new courts to Stone Harbor’s forward-thinking mayor, Judith Davies-Dunhour.
“Stone Harbor Council was very intrigued,” says King. “They listened to case studies and statistics about paddle. They were visionary even though they were not familiar with the sport. We kept talking about it and they asked me if there is a national organization that oversees and governs the sport and I told them yes, absolutely, the American Platform Tennis Association.
“What we did is we identified turf tennis courts that are on 96th Street as a potential area because they don’t get used nearly as much as the hard courts.”
After close to three years, having temporarily been put on hold during the pandemic, three paddle courts were erected on 96th Street in May of this year, with plans to build a fourth court. According to Gensemer, though the borough footed the bill, and there were grants, Tom King generously donated time and money.
Pros are traveling to the borough in the fall to offer camps, something Gensemer hopes will make Stone Harbor a destination for platform tennis. What’s more, paddle’s origins are as a winter sport, which should attract players during the shoulder seasons.
“A pro comes in and brings their players, or the players bring their pro,” says Gensemer. “They have lessons. And then they have fun in a resort community while they are here. They shop, dine, and recreate, doing other things, like fishing, all the fun things everyone likes to do.”
For those unfamiliar with the game, King explains: “The paddle court is like a miniature tennis court, and the scoring is the same as tennis. The two differences are, you only get one serve, not two. And if the ball lands in the court it can still be played off the wall, or the ‘wires,’ greatly extending the rallies.”
The action is constant. The ball, which is bouncy, hits off the walls of the cage, which is made of chicken wire and can stay in play for a long time. Eger says it’s all about finesse in hitting the ball, not crushing it with the racket. And the sport is played primarily doubles.
Eger says being toned is not a prerequisite for success. He’s seen guys with guts on them that are capable players.
“In the game of paddle, you are playing on such a small court,” he says. “It’s a game of errors. You want to outlast your opponents in rallies.”
There’s also a big social aspect to the sport, where after tournaments or playing mixed doubles, players often come off the courts and meet up to have drinks or appetizers.
Corey DeLaney, in her 20s, is Bobo’s daughter. She talks about how her mother is a great paddle teacher, and how she and her friends enjoy the sport. Corey is also a multiple junior national champion.
According to King, paddle is gaining popularity among youth. He references Conestoga High School, where he says a group of parents who play paddle and a local pro at a local club started the sport with roughly 20 students. In six years, it became the third-largest club sport at the high school, with currently 120 players, and in the tri-state area, 10 other schools have similar programs.
“People who play tennis transition very easily to paddle,” Bobo DeLaney says. “It’s like tennis, but you can play off the walls, they are called wires.”
DeLaney was inspired to play by her mother, Nancy Mangan, and her uncle John Mangan, who also are in the Hall of Fame. Her brother, Tim Mangan, is a pro at a club in Long Island, and his wife Tonia is her longtime paddle partner. In other words, it’s all in the family.
Family. That’s what this paddle community is all about.