Pam Kaylor, of Butler, returns the ball during a game of pickleball at Butler YMCA on Thursday morning. Shane Potter/Butler Eagle

Worn-out wooden paddles have given way to domed courts — and pickleball has become so much more than a game with a silly-sounding name. In Butler County, the sport’s roots can be traced back to Cranberry Township’s Rose E. Schneider Family YMCA.

“I moved here in December 2009, started playing then,” Cranberry Township resident Bill Billeter said. “In 2010, the Y was actually planning to eliminate pickleball and they asked if I wanted to volunteer to coordinate it. It was only played six months out of the year and we averaged 12 or 15 people.

“This was actually the starting place in the Greater Pittsburgh area.”

Billeter remembers using outdated equipment, but improving the quality of the paddles, namely, began drawing new players.