INDIANAPOLIS — On any given morning, you'll find Rick Witsken and Matt Troyer playing their favorite sport.
The Carmel High School grads grew up playing tennis, but now, they've made history playing pickleball.
The Indy Drivers won the first — and so far only — National Pickleball League title for players 50 and over.
"We had a pretty good idea that it was gonna come down to the very last weekend, and we were going to be in the hunt," Troyer said. "And to kind of think through our approach to making sure that by the end of the season, we were prepared for whatever came, was a lot of fun, and then to go pull it off in that last weekend was outstanding. I probably haven't had that kind of a feeling since I was a high school athlete."
Witsken was the No. 1 player chosen in the league. His team won seven straight matches to bring home the big title.
"It was such a grind every single weekend, a grind meaning that the parity amongst the six teams was unbelievable," Witsken said. "There's nothing that said, 'Oh, Indy Drivers, they're by far the best team, there gonna go and they're gonna win the $100,000.' No, it really wasn't that. It was every team's got their strengths and weaknesses, and we felt like our depth was insane."
The Indy Drivers team is certainly loaded with talent. Owner Phil Cohn is enjoying the journey.
"I told my wife we were gonna buy a team," Cohn said. "She said, 'That's great.' Half an hour later, she came back to me, she said, 'Are your sure you know what the hell you're doing?' But we won. I guess that question was answered."
Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in America, and the Indy Drivers are leading the way.
"You know, this is a journey. I'm a co-founder, so I'm pretty aware of what the vision is of this league, and the vision is for very much long-term, well after when we're here," Witsken said. "We want 49-year-olds plus to really have a desire to reach their peak and ultimate performance at the professional level."