The town of Kingsville’s pickleball players will hopefully be getting their paddles in full swing come spring, 2021. Pickleball has been around for at least 40 years and has been resurrected in the past 10 years, according to Irene Myers, chairperson of the Kingsville Pickleball Inc. fundraising committee.
Pickleball is a paddle sport combining elements of tennis and badminton.
The original six pickleball players of Kingsville have grown in number to 80 people. The players are only allotted 12 hours a week of court time sharing with the tennis players at the local recreation complex.
“The wait time for people when you only have that much time, we’ve had 40 or more people out at a time, you’re sometimes waiting 20 minutes between games,” said Myers. “It’s a game for all ages, we’ve had three generations of pickleball players there at one time, you know, grandparents with their children and grandchildren.”
She said that pickleball will only grow. With courts of their own, Kingsville Pickleball Inc. (KPI) will be able to host tournaments which will benefit the town and hopefully bring in players from around Ontario.
“It’s the fastest growing sport in North America right now, in the last two or three years the number of players in North America has grown 600 per cent or more, it’s enhancing the appeal of the town to the 50 plus demographic,” said Myers. “There’s nothing here for seniors as far as athletic sports and almost every community in the province has been getting courts for their people.”
Pickleball is being taught in schools now, she said, and is a good sport for seniors for a number of reasons. There’s less running than there is in tennis. It’s a social sport, and it helps cognitive functions such as reaction time.
“Seniors actually do research to see if pickleball is available here,” said Myers. “We’ve been trying for years to get this agreement and it’s finally happened in the past few weeks.”
Myers, who had not played a sport before in her life, said that the sport is fun and addictive.
“Once you get into it you want to play it constantly. That’s why it’s important to have our own courts. Eight dedicated courts which will accommodate 32 players at one time, so there won’t be any waiting. We have plans in the works to teach kids, have instruction classes,” she said.
Mayor Nelson Santos casually plays pickleball every now and then. He said that it is a nice paced game. Santos said he performs well due to his experience in badminton and tennis.
KPI is expected to raise $75,000. This figure was reached, Santos said, because the property the courts will be built on costs $150,000 and half seemed fair. According to the Kingsville Parks and Recreation department the preliminary tender offer is $275,000 on the construction of the courts.
“We have to raise $75,000. We’ve prepared a package we will try to pass out to businesses. We’re trying to think of different ways to acknowledge people’s contributions — signage, benches — we haven’t crossed all those bridges yet because we’re just getting underway this week.”
Myers said that the members of KPI understand about people’s financial situations due to COVID-19. But they also believe in the cause.
“This group of pickleball players are very good as volunteers, we’ve supported where volunteers are needed like the Folk Festival and the Highland Games. We do support everything in town.”
If you would like to learn more about the pickleball movement in Kingsville, visit their Facebook page, Kingsville Pickleball Incorporated.
Anyone interested in supporting the pickleball courts can make a contribution directly to the town and receive a receipt. You can go to www.Kingsville.ca/Pickleball
Photo by Joan Azeka on Unsplash