Cloquet's court tradition holds strong

Frigid weather looming, dark afternoons creeping in: it's the perfect time for racquetball, say the dwindling number of players in Cloquet.

What was once a bustling fraternity of players, filling spreadsheets of court times day after day, is now a dedicated cadre of survivors playing an endangered sport.

"We're down to less than 20 people that play probably," said Dennis Painter, 47, of Cloquet. "There's our group of five or six guys, and then another couple of small groups of five-six guys and that's about it. That's what we're down to."

"The tough thing is our young players are in their 40s," added Corey LeBrasseur, a 54-year-old ironworker from Cloquet. "Kids aren't growing up at a club with courts anymore."

Still, the Cloquet Racquetball Players Club members continue to evangelize for the sport - one described by 79-year-old Neil Nemmers as "a ferocious game."

"I started playing a couple years out of high school," Nemmers said. "When I looked for facilities locally, I couldn't find anything, so I built two courts."

No longer a player, Nemmers, a former city councilor, is among the godfathers of racquetball in Cloquet. He was referring to the twin courts at Park Avenue Manor, the old Leach School near the Cloquet water tower.

It was there, Sept. 30, where you could find LeBrasseur, Painter, Rob Nelson and Mike Balow - one of the remaining groups that's keeping the sport alive in the city. They meet Mondays throughout the winter, always building up a good sweat.

"If we play for an hour and a half, we'll go through five shirts," said Nelson, 68, owner of Nelson Funeral Care in Cloquet.

"You can burn 1,500 or 2,000 calories in an hour of racquetball if you play hard enough," Painter said. "It takes a long time on a treadmill to do that."

LeBrasseur credits the game with helping him maintain his eye-hand quickness.

"As you age, it definitely keeps that hand-eye coordination intact - the quick movements you lose as you get older - and the game is obviously huge for your cardio," he said.

A loud and fast game, featuring endless squeaks and swats, racquetball is played with a racket and small rubber ball. The goal is to keep the ball alive, using all four walls, in a 20-by-40-foot court until a player can make the decisive shot that's unretrievable before a second bounce along the floor. Games are played to 15, with a point on every serve. When players become accustomed to each others' games, the rallies can go on for several swings. Of course, a shotmaker or a power player can also devour an opponent, making for quick ends.

"I just love the competition," said Balow, 62, retired and former owner of the Third Base Bar in Carlton. "We've got guys who've been playing together for years."

"The thing I love about this game is it's fast, with short bursts of speed," Painter added. "You play it all out. You're in a box that's 20 by 40. Big guys, little guys, tall guys, short guys, anybody can play this game."

The Cloquet Racquetball Players Club gives its members a keycode to play when they want. The rivalries the game breeds are both friendly and intense. For instance, Nelson wore a T-shirt Sept. 30 that featured a screen printing of a scorecard illustrating a random victory he claimed over Painter.

"It was just a lunch match," Nelson said, a twinkle in his eye recalling the memory.

"This guy talks smack like nobody else," Painter retorted, kindheartedly.

Nemmers, retired from the real estate industry, and his family own Park Avenue Manor, which features apartments in the old school. The courts Nemmers added in the old gymnasium space in the early 1980s were later operated by Park Avenue Fitness, before it moved into its downtown location on Cloquet Avenue.

The courts and adjacent workout room are showing their age. On the day the players gathered, there was a giant fan trained on one of the courts, drying out water that seeps in from old concrete and through a roof that's overdue for repairs. The members of the racquetball club play $400 annually to pay a modest rent and keep the lights on. Capital repairs are not in the budget.

"It's falling apart," LeBrasseur said. "The biggest issue, which we'd never be able to afford, is the roof leaks. We barely have enough money to pay rent."

The dues folks are willing to pay are likely maxed out, LeBrasseur said. More players would allow dues to come down, but club members didn't sound confident of a full resurgence.

"I would say we're on a year-by-year basis right now," Balow said

"I could name 10 guys that if they would just come back ..." LeBrasseur added. "Times have just changed."

LeBrasseur followed his late father, Jerry, into the sport. Passing it down the generations is not really happening for the game any longer. Club members described a time, in the 1970s-80s, when the game flourished, with courts all over the Twin Ports. They even traveled to Virginia, Grand Rapids and the Twin Cities for tournaments.

At a time when another racket sport, pickleball, has exploded across the country and is seeing outdoor courts added in almost every community, racquetball is fading from the sporting consciousness.

"They're taking courts out," LeBrasseur said. "We're losing courts everywhere."

The best facility in the area, at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, is a good indicator of where the game is moving. The five courts there are now down to three - one court converted to golf simulation and another into a studio for spin-cycling.

Painter traced the decline of the game to corporate gyms taking over from family- and community-run health and fitness centers.

"The more family-run health and fitness facilities incorporated tennis and racquetball and other sports within their clubs," he said. "When the clubs went corporate - your Anytime and Planet fitnesses, 24-hour Snap Fitness - they moved towards equipment and weights and not your extras, your indoor courts. Now, it's just factories where you go in and get on a treadmill. Very few places even put in gyms anymore."

Still, the members of the Cloquet Racquetball Players Club won't let nostalgia go easily. They recall the days when the facility would be filled for doubles matches. As the players wore out and dropped off, they'd sauna then leave the club and congregate at the Lost Tavern for beer, pizza, cards and general revelry.

"The same core group that played hard for two, three hours, burning 2,000 calories, would go replenish them all in two hours at the bar," Painter said. "That was a good 15 years ago now."

Certainly, there's one former player still rooting for the club's sustained success - the man who happens to be responsible for it.

"I hope they keep it going forever," Nemmers said.