HATFIELD — When Hatfield Rally House, a family-owned indoor pickleball and tennis facility, opened on Jan. 10, hundreds showed up to christen the courts.
But Rocky Balboa didn’t get the memo.
The Hatfield Rally House, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. DANIEL JACOBI II / Staff Photo
The eponymous star of the beloved boxing movie franchise can be seen post-opening on the new club’s social media, doing pushups with his Everlast-gloved hands in a winter workout montage that concludes when he shouts for his muse, Adrian. Inside, she asks why he doesn’t “just Rally,” and, without ungloving, he manages to wield a pickleball paddle and take a triumphant swing, jumping up and down as though he’s just mounted the steps to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
“Rocky,” of course, is Rally co-owner Patrick Roche, and “Adrian” is co-owner Ashley Schaffer. The video captures an important aspect of the couple’s dynamic: Roche is the eager teacher, and Schaffer is the quiet mastermind. As for the business, it welcomes all enthusiasts, from tennis pros to eager picklers.
Schaffer likens Rally’s inclusivity to a vivid memory of being a kid at summer camp in Texas, where one day there was a capture-the-flag game for the entire community: campers, counselors, administrators and even “the first aid lady.”
“It blew my mind, because everyone was playing,” said Schaffer. “So this is just like that. We’re trying to get the word out to everyone: ‘You guys, we’re doing this thing and you can all come and play and it’s going to be great.’”
Tennis lessons continue at the Hatfield Rally House, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. DANIEL JACOBI II / Staff Photo
The club’s co-founders actually met on a squash court. After reading Roche’s online dating profile 15 years ago, Schaffer, who had moved to Northampton for graduate school at UMass Amherst, liked that he mentioned having played tennis. Even though she was taking a break from the sport at the time, she had been introduced to it as a kid, when her parents dragged her and her sister to outdoor courts. There, the adults rallied with each other and the kids sat on the sidelines, huddled over a deck of cards, trying to teach themselves how to appear more grown-up by learning Texas hold’em poker. Eventually, their mom started giving them lessons, and Schaffer fell in love with tennis. (Her sister, not so much.)
Roche, who grew up in New York, was also on a tennis hiatus when they met and primarily played squash, a racket sport played in an enclosed, significantly smaller space than a tennis court. He insisted they play on their first date. But under those confined conditions, Schaffer’s sizzling forehand was death-defying.
“We never played squash again,” Schaffer said with a laugh. They’ve been together ever since.
Al Nutile plays pickleball at the Hatfield Rally House, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. DANIEL JACOBI II / Staff Photo
Their coupling rekindled their mutual affinity for tennis. Roche had started coaching the sport in 1990 after graduating from Sienna College, where a friend got him a spot on the Division I tennis team. (Roche was already on the soccer team, and insists that the only reason he made the tennis team was because it was brand-new. But he picked up the sport as a kid and played through high school.)
Once in western Mass, he joined Moving on Up with Tennis & Education in Springfield, where he gave free tennis lessons to local youth in Forest Park. He also coached tennis at Western New England, and squash at the Smith College Squash Club.
Schaffer joined multiple teams through the Northampton Parks & Recreation Department, who connected her to the United States Tennis Association. Meanwhile, when she traveled back to the Lone Star State to visit family, she noticed that there were a lot of tennis clubs, and while she didn’t love the “fancypants” energy, she liked having a place to socialize with her friends. In Massachusetts, she and her tennis buddies had to catch up in the parking lot. What if she could create a space for scrappy New Englanders that was classy, but not elitest?
Enter pickleball. Both Roche and Schaffer wanted to open a tennis space that welcomed the community, but the numbers weren’t quite adding up. Then the pandemic hit and the popularity of pickleball surged. A racket sport played with a paddle and a wiffleball in a space the quarter of the size of a tennis court, pickleball is a social experience centered on connection, said Roche, who started playing in 2011. Players chat during the game, while tennis players, focused on competition, usually wait until after the match. And pickleball is beloved by everyone, including Gen Z.
After the couple found a space on nine acres of farmland off Interstate 91 in Hatfield, Schaffer connected with Bonham & Douglas Architects in Northampton and Five Star Building Corp in Easthampton. They decided that their nearly 65,000-square-foot space should be made of fabric rather than steel, which cut down about two-thirds of the cost.
Schaffer described the building as “barnesque,” with a pavilion on the outside that opens into a white fabric tent. Inside is the front desk, a grab-and-go café, and a long wooden bar and seating area. Then, just past the pro shop, the space opens into a lounge and mezzanine that overlooks four tennis courts and eight pickleball courts.
Members have access to lessons, clinics and competitions for all ages and levels of play in both sports. Packages start at $25 per month and are tailored to students, individuals, couples, families, seniors and “juniors” (kids under 17). There are currently 610 members, about half of which are “founding members” who invested in the business before it was brought to fruition.
Roche has recently added a hybrid of tennis and pickleball called spec tennis. “We’re trying to get people to cross over, so we’re offering an in-between sport,” he said, which he hopes will become a regular draw. “We want to unite the two sports and be a community resource.”
Judy Dixon, who coached tennis for 27 years at UMass Amherst and is their winningest coach of all time, said “it was clear from the beginning that there was nothing, and I mean nothing, like [Hatfield Rally House.]” Dixon was the first “founding member” to sign onto to the project.
“I called Ashley last week and said, ‘I’m just telling you that when I walk into the club, you’ve done it. Meaning that everybody is happy. Everybody’s in a good mood. Everybody’s giving you hugs.’ I really feel like I’m a part of something special,” she said.
Dixon, who was inducted into the United States Tennis Association’s Hall of Fame in 2008, has is now a fan of pickleball and spec tennis.
“They want to reach not just the people that have been playing, but the people that haven’t been,” said Dixon. “I think their big thing is inclusivity. They have programs for everybody from ages 5 to 95, and now, in fact, three sports — and it will grow from here.”
Learn more about Hatfield Rally House at hatfieldrallyhouse.com.
Melissa Karen Sances can be reached at melissaksances@gmail.com.
Amy Ramos, back, and Al Nutile, front, play pickleball at the Hatfield Rally House, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. DANIEL JACOBI II / Staff Photo
