Senior Pickleball Champ Inspires With Life of Faith, Fitness, and Disciplined Living

Not many 66-year-olds can walk on their hands, stand on their head, or do 40 pushups. Not many senior adults can say they weigh about the same now as they did when in college.

Owen Mitchell isn’t your typical 66-year-old retiree. His life-long commitment to faith, fitness, and self-discipline has paid off handsomely for him. He recently won first place in the 2023 National Senior Games for pickleball in Pittsburgh. He was named the national champion in the singles competition for ages 65-69 in the top competitive tier, 4.5 to 5.0. He has also won the Florida state championship for his age group in four of the past five years.

While we may not all become national champs, Owen said he believes goal setting and exercise are beneficial to all senior adults.

“As a senior, you’ve got to have a purpose, and a part of that can be that you’re going to get exercise which is going to improve your physical, mental, and spiritual well-being,” Owen said in a recent interview for This Retirement Life.

A resident of Eustis, Florida, Owen has long had a strong competitive spirit. In college, he played tennis for Freed-Hardeman University. He was the number one player on the team, which won its conference championship in Owen’s sophomore, junior, and senior years. He is one of only two male tennis players in the university’s Sports Hall of Fame.

After college, he put that same competitive spirit into his career, working for 25 years as a store manager for Scotty’s, a now-defunct Florida chain of big-box hardware stores similar to Lowe’s and Home Depot. He was Store Manager of the Year in 1997 at a time when the company had 175 stores.

Not Married to a Job

While a top performer at his job, Owen said he never let his career become all-consuming but kept his priorities straight. This is despite the fact he worked in retail store management, a position notorious for long hours and high stress.

“My philosophy from the git-go was that I wanted my job to be that I go to it, make money at it, but I want to leave and not think about it when I’m not there. My work ethic was going to be good, but I wasn’t going to be married to a job.”

Owen said he shared this attitude with his employees, whom he advised to “work smart, not long.” He encouraged his employees to maintain a healthy work/life balance and to take their days off.

“I told my employees that if it was their day off, I wasn’t going to call them, and when it’s my day off, don’t call me.”

Putting Family First

Owen and Lauren Mitchell pose with their children and grandchildren.

Family is also at the top of Owen’s priorities. A father of two and grandfather of two, he is purposeful about staying involved in their lives, from encouraging their faith to attending their sporting activities. Owen has passed on his love for pickleball. On most Saturdays, you will find him on the courts with Lauren and their grandsons.

Discipline and Goal Setting

Devout Christians, Owen and his wife, Lauren, are unusually well disciplined in all aspects of their lives. This includes goal-setting, nutrition, exercise, Bible study, and financial management.

“The things that we are now have everything to do with what we did when we were younger,” Owen said. “I was blessed to have good mentors who put me on a good path. I inherited some good traits from my mother and father.”

When it comes to his diet, Owen disciplines himself to drink at least a gallon of water every day. He drinks no soft drinks or tea. At mealtime, he favors a colorful plate of vegetables.

It’s hard to argue with the success of his healthy regimen. At 6 foot, 1 inch, Owen weighs only 170 pounds and has a 32-inch waist. He takes no medications.

“I weigh basically about the same as I weighed in college.”

Even so, Owen does admit to one vice regarding his diet.

“The one habit I haven’t given up on that maybe I could or should is coffee. I drink water and coffee.”

Living Like No One Else

Owen said he’s a big fan of Christian personal finance guru Dave Ramsey, who often encourages people to “live like no one else” (frugally) so that someday they can “live like no one else,” enjoying the fruits of a disciplined life. Owen and Lauren perfectly personify the success of that philosophy.

Married for 27 years, Owen and Lauren agreed early on they would manage their spending carefully, strictly following a budget, and avoiding debt. They lived solely on Owen’s income so Lauren could be a stay-at-home mom. They drive second-hand cars and don’t eat out often when at home.

Looking back, this frugal lifestyle has paid big dividends. They haven’t had a mortgage in more than 20 years; Owen paid off the home’s 15-year mortgage early at age 44. They also travel extensively, with multiple trips abroad, despite living on a modest income.

Travel Adventures

“We’ve now been to all 50 states and 30 other countries,” Owen said. Their travels include visits to all of the better-known national parks, some visited multiple times. He and Lauren especially enjoy hiking and snorkeling.

Given Owen’s strong competitive drive, it’s not surprising that his travels often involve “extreme” hikes and climbs that require excellent physical conditioning.

Some of his more challenging hikes have included:

• A 13-day, 220-mile hike on the John Muir Trail in California
• A 7-day, 8-night hike along 55 miles of the Inca Trail in Peru, including Choquequirao and Machu Picchu
• Twice hiking to the bottom and back of the Grand Canyon, 17 miles
• Mount Whitney, a 20-mile hike with a steep elevation climb to 14,505 feet
• The Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, 16 miles (twice)
• Buckskin Gulch, the longest slot canyon in the world, in Kanab, Utah, 21 miles
• Mount St. Helens, 9.6 miles, in Washington

Owen said his most-memorable hikes have been at The Wave, an other-worldly swirling terrain in Arizona, near the Utah border. Because only a limited number of people can be admitted per day, those wishing to hike there must enter a lottery. Owen has been fortunate enough to win three times.

Marriage Seminars

Not all of Owen and Lauren’s travels are for fun outdoor adventures. They also crisscross the country conducting weekend marriage seminars, most held at churches. They have led more than 90 “Reconnect Weekend” marriage seminars since beginning the series nine years ago. They have conducted seminars in 27 states.

“We’ve been privileged to invest in thousands of married couples over the years,” Owen said. “We encourage each couple to make their story the best it can be.”

Owen and Lauren were first inspired to start leading marriage classes after hearing a speech on that topic at a church conference in 1998 in Orlando. They spent most of the next two decades teaching marriage classes at their local Central Florida church, Orange Avenue Church of Christ. When they started getting requests from other churches to speak to their married couples, they developed the “Reconnect Weekend” program.

“God has really opened up and blessed that ministry,” Owen said.

Passionate about Pickleball

Relatively few people played pickleball a decade ago. Since then, it’s become an extremely popular sport, especially among seniors. Despite being a state and national pickleball champion, Owen only played his first game seven years ago. From the start, Owen said he immediately enjoyed playing pickleball and could see the game’s enormous potential.

“I remember in my first or second year when I told people I was going to play pickleball, nobody had ever heard of it,” Owen recalled. “I would look them in the eye and I would tell them this game is going to explode. Once you see the enjoyment of first-time players; they come out and they’re 68 or 72 years old. They may have played pingpong but they may not have been able to do much else. They come out and can already hit the ball on day one. They are laughing and now have a new purpose for getting out of bed. I’ve seen it go from 20 people playing in the country to now every court is full pretty much all day. You have to wait your turn to get on the courts.”

Owen said pickleball is especially suitable for senior adults.

“It doesn’t require a lot of movement. You can kinda stand in one place. Pickleball makes you use your brain. You’re going to sweat a little bit. It’s a social game. People are laughing and talking after every point. It’s a phenomenal game for seniors, without a doubt.”

Owen plays pickleball seven days a week and also teaches pickleball lessons. Lauren plays several times a week too. Owen also enjoys working out at the gym, which he does four to six times per week.

Faith Above All Else

While passionate about pickleball, Owen’s first priority is his Christian faith. The sport has provided Owen with another avenue for sharing that faith.

“I try to talk about Jesus anytime I’m giving a lesson,” Owen said. “I want to bring that into the conversation because God has given us these good abilities. I’m a follower of Jesus Christ so I’m going to really promote that heavily no matter what I do.”

Faith, fitness, and a disciplined lifestyle go together for Owen.

“God says to honor our bodies as the temple of his Holy Spirit. You see a lot of people who aren’t taking care of themselves. They’re really not honoring the temple of the Holy Spirit. To me, taking care of yourself, I look at it as part of doing right by God. He gave us the body; He wants us to take care of it. That doesn’t mean we’re all Olympic athletes. We all have different abilities. It gets back to doing the best we can.”