Paddleball at 90? Levittown's Howard Zaitz still swinging away

Howard Zaitz has been playing paddleball for 65 years. He doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

The Levittown resident turned 90 on Sunday and spent the morning on the handball courts at nearby Sprucewood Park, showing off his impressive swing. Though he says he’s not quite the player he once was, he still packs plenty of power and creates an echo when his paddle makes contact with the ball.

“My arm is almost the same to hit the ball, but going after a ball is not what it used to be,” Zaitz said. “I’d love to break a ball, which I don’t anymore. I used to hit the ball harder than anyone.”

Zaitz plays paddleball every week. He used to play up to 10 games in a day, but now he plays two or three every Sunday.

“I look forward the whole week to play those two games,” Zaitz said. “Ninety years old, I can’t believe it. I was always a kid. I was always the youngest kid playing.”

Many of the people Zaitz used to play paddleball with are either no longer able to play or have moved off Long Island. Zaitz’s current partners vary each week and range in age from 30-60.

Zaitz is ultra-competitive and called the sport “cutthroat.” His competitive edge came out a few weeks ago when he played pickleball with his 58-year-old son, Steven, of Smithtown.

“He doesn’t play pickleball that much, but his competitiveness is off the charts and always has been,” Steven Zaitz said. “We’re just hitting it back-and-forth to see how it feels and he’s trying to hit winners past me.”

Howard Zaitz grew up in Brooklyn and was an avid stickball player. He wanted to play professional baseball and went to the University of Illinois, where he hoped to become the starting shortstop but was beat out for the job.

“As a kid, I thought I was gonna be on the Dodgers, when those guys were making $8,000 a year,” he said. “The one sport I was great at was stickball… The kids don’t play it anymore.”

Zaitz recently retired from his shipping business based in the West Village. He’s already looking for another job and has been working on his resume. Zaitz also wants to try his hand at stand-up comedy.

“He’s defying Father Time, somehow,” Steven Zaitz said. “I think other people could look at it and say, ‘I want to be like this guy.’ I’ve always wanted to be like this guy. How many 90-year-old people are working on their resume and playing paddleball?”

Zaitz has been happily married to his wife, Roberta, for 64 years. Roberta, 84, is also in excellent shape. She said she and her husband try to eat healthy and avoid staying sedentary.

“We do like a pizza now and then, but for the most part, when I cook at home, everything is simple,” Roberta Zaitz said. “Everything is baked, nothing fried. I wish I had a magic secret to tell, but we don’t.”

Roberta said Zaitz also plays the trumpet every day, to the point that she makes him practice in the basement with the door shut. While she loves her husband’s active lifestyle, she worries when he goes out to play paddleball in the summer heat.

With doctors’ approval, she has learned to accept his paddleball passion, even at 90.

“He plays hard and he plays mean, but that’s not his personality off the court,” Roberta Zaitz said. “He’s a great guy and I love him so much. I’m very fortunate.”

“She’s a rarity,” Howard Zaitz said. “She’s kind to everybody and always giving. I’m the luckiest man in the world to have a woman like her by my side.”