From the time Noi Sourinthone unpacked his bags in Wichita, he was on a mission: Making friends and teaching pickleball.
"When I moved here, I just fell in love with the city," Sourinthone said. "The people were amazing; [the] pickleball community here accepted me, and really helped me thrive."
Thrive for sure, Sourinthone said, with people, willing to help.
"They were willing to go out and get donations and all these things to help me build what we have now. So, there's a lot of people that went out and recruited for me — for league, for programs like this — and they were just saying, 'Hey, we need to go and support this guy. We need to support this guy. We need to support this guy.' And so the numbers just expanded and blew up pretty quick."
Sourinthone's had a significant hand in the growth of the sport in Wichita; teaching professional players and those new to the game. Pickleball is similar to tennis but with different rules and different gear. Sourinthone is now looking to sell that type of gear with pickleball paddles that he helped create as part owner of his company.
"The company brand is called 'Flight.' Obviously, Wichita is known for aerospace and so we wanted to keep everything 'Wichita.'"
What makes these paddles different from other pickleball paddles?
"I wanted to have different models so there [are] so many different types of players," Sourinthone said. "There [are] people that like to hit really hard, there [are] people that love [a] soft game. So to be able to develop multiple models to make sure that we [can] accommodate all of the players was ultimately what we were striving for."
"He's so good at finding what makes people tick," said 24-year-old pickleball player Fin Tatum. He assists Noi in teaching others the sport.
"I like to hit with a lot of spin and a lot of pace. I think that ... [it's] really good at helping you find your strengths and make them even stronger. In my opinion, like my backhand is my big thing, and this paddle, there's no other paddle that lets me, like, whip through the ball like this paddle."
Sourinthone was also intentional about selecting the colors for the paddles.
"It's the Wichita State colors," Sourinthone said. "That's why it's the black and yellow."
Sourinthone said in every sport there's typically a decline in activity.
"In tennis, after a certain age, there's ... a big drop off. ...Pickleball is the opposite," he said. "I believe that our senior community [started off] so much bigger than our people under 50 [base]. And so now, with it growing, younger people are now starting to catch up with the seniors, and so the numbers are now beginning to be balanced."
"These people are just so nice," Tatum says. "I mean it's people you wouldn't ever expect that you're getting along great [with] but some of my best friends are triple may age now (laugh). You can hang out with anyone and have a good time in pickleball."
"I find it impossible to find someone as good as [Sourinthone] is. He's excellent," said 70-year-old Susie Beattie, one of the pickleball players at Riverside's Tennis Center
[Sourinthone] is very patient, particularly with beginners. But what he does ... he really forces you to your next level, to not be satisfied with where you're at today, but where you can be tomorrow and to get out of the bad habits. It's better to lose than to develop bad habits. So, I would never be the level I'm at without [Sourinthone's] help. He's been fantastic."
"There's definitely a lot more inclusion within the community," Sourinthone said. "Here in Wichita, we have developed a community now where some of your higher levels, borderline pros, are playing with 70-, 75-, 80-year-old males or females and it's been wonderful that they're willing to give back their time. It speaks a lot about the people here; the community here and just in general how we view people."
