Ellen Sharpe’s eyes light up when she talks about last month’s pinball tournament, where she beat two really good male players, both young enough to be her sons.
“Oh, it felt so good,” she said, smiling from ear to ear. “When I do well, I’m just thrilled.”
She does well pretty often. Sharpe, 75, of Arlington Heights, a 4-foot, 11½-inch grandmother of four, is ranked as one of the best female pinball players in Illinois.
In the 2016 International Flipper Pinball Association rankings, she ranked ninth among women in Illinois, and 126th out of 407 male and female players in the state.
Sharpe started to play competitively just last year as a way to spend more time with her two adult sons, Zach and Josh Sharpe, who are two of the best competitive pinball players in the world.
All their lives, Zach and Josh played pinball and traveled to tournaments with their dad, Roger, who is also an internationally ranked player.
Ellen always stayed behind to run her art school, Monart Drawing Studio in Arlington Heights.
Last year, her sons persuaded her to join them in a local competition.
“I just wanted to spend a little time in their world,” she said.
“I don’t consider myself to be that great. It’s just fun for me.”
Sharpe admits she doesn’t practice very much, even though there are 25 pinball machines in her house — the result of having a husband and son who work in the pinball industry.
But to compete in this league, she must play at least five games and take a selfie with her five best scores.
She can’t recall her longest or best game, but she says tips from her husband and sons have helped her get more multiballs, bonus rounds and points.
“I just try to keep the ball in play,” she said. “With pinball, you have to get in a Zen state of mind, so you’re one with the machine. It can be frustrating. It can be exhilarating.”
Sharpe loves to try new things (she took sign language last year because she thought it looked interesting and would be “good for my brain”) and said joining the world of competitive pinball has introduced her to a whole new group of friends.
“The pinball community is a great group of people,” she said.
While age can sometimes slow a person’s hand-eye coordination or cause arthritis to flare up from hours of playing, those aren’t problems for Sharpe.
“Not yet,” she said with a smile.
Sharpe said she hasn’t experienced any ageism or sexism in her monthly league (the first Tuesday night of each month) at Level 257 in Woodfield Mall.
There are two other women who regularly compete, and when they see her, they always do a fist bump and chant, “Chick, chick, chick … girl power!”
Only about 12 percent to 15 percent of competitive pinball players are women, says Ellen’s son Josh, a Palatine resident who runs the International Flipper Pinball Association and is the chief financial officer of the Skokie arcade game company Raw Thrills.
He understands that male-dominated pinball competitions can be uninviting or intimidating to women. But the league — which has been growing these past five years — is trying to encourage more women of all ages to compete, he said.
After all, it has welcomed a suburban grandma with open arms.
“People knew she was my mom. And at first, they’d say, ‘I can’t believe she’s playing!’ But now she’s settled into just being one of the girls who plays,” Josh said.
Ellen Sharpe didn’t qualify for state finals that were held Saturday, which is fine with her. But don’t rule her out for future tournaments. The league has brought out her competitive side, her son said.
“As she gets better, who knows?” Josh Sharpe said. “If she dares to step out and play outside of that Schaumburg (tournament) and test herself at bigger events in Illinois? She could move up quickly.”
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