Call it a senior moment — in the best possible way.
A 12th grader from Long Island has struck up an unlikely but close friendship with his grandfather’s pickleball crew, carving out time each week over the summer to hit the court with the older players and pick up lessons that go well beyond the game.
“What they taught me is that friendship shouldn’t be marked by an age,” 17-year-old Jackson Defendini told The Post.
“I learned a lot of lessons from these men, and it really turned into something. Now it’s just become a part of my life,” said the Farmingdale High School varsity football and lacrosse player, who plans to apply to the US Naval Academy.
Defendini has become a natural fit among the friends of his 82-year-old grandfather, Charles Lehecka. The weekly early-bird pickleball sessions also include 74-year-olds Frank Ferrara and Brian Abrams, along with 80-year-old Sal Augello.
“Sal is always teaching me little things on the court: ‘Do this, gotta do this,’ always giving me a heads up,” Defendini said.
“And Frank, we always keep in touch about movies all the time. He’s a big movie guy, and I love movies too. …Brian, he always has these cool stories and little just cool jokes in there.”
The more time Defendini spent with the group, the more he saw how much they shared despite the decades between them. He said the bond has made him eager to return to the court each week — helping keep his beloved older friends young at heart.
“He’s just part of the family,” Ferrara said of the elderly group’s whipper-snapper pal.
The touching tradition began in 2024 when Lehecka needed a last-minute fill-in on the court after one of his routine players became injured.
He texted his grandson, whom he has been close with since picking up from school as a little boy.
“I didn’t think much of it at first,” Defendini said. “But really what happened is I just met really amazing people.”
Defendini needs to keep on his toes the whole time.
“When we first played pickleball, he thought that he’d take it easy on us old guys,” Abrams said. “And then he found out the old guys are pretty competitive – which he liked.”
Defendini separately also joins a close-knit crew of condo neighbors and others for diner runs with 68-year-old Thomas Amendolara, a former special-needs student of Lehecka who struggled with reading and writing into adulthood.
“Just seeing how someone overcame all that adversity and still shines — it’s pretty awesome,” the do-gooder teen said.
Amendolara called the high-schooler “a good kid with a really good head on his shoulders.”
As the school year comes back around – and Defendini can’t always come out to play with his older friends – he said, “What I miss most is just hanging out with these guys.”
Defendini was inspired to write a recent essay on the wholesome experience, noting, “These men will help me as I go through life.”
It brought Augello to tears the first time he heard how the teen felt.
“He’s definitely an inspiration. He’s just a great kid. He’s lovable,” Augello said.
Lehecka gets an extra bonus from the interactions.
“I’m just very lucky — 82, and I can go out and do this and do it with my grandson,” he said.
“Words can’t explain how good it is.”
Poolside volleyball on Sundays is one of many more traditions the inseparable duo shares.
“We’ve been doing a fantasy football team, it’s our fourth year on it,” Defendini said.
“Doing all these things with him – it’s a lot of important things that other kids can’t get to do with their grandparents. … It’s just amazing.”
If Defendini goes far away for college, he’s “gonna figure it out” to keep hanging with his grandpa and the super seniors, he said.
“I’ve always got to make time for that,” he said.
“If it’s just one or 10 times, I’ve got to make it work. I have to see these guys.”
