Call for courts rise as pickleball craze continues
Avid pickleball players in Creemore are anxiously awaiting word on possible development of new courts.
During recent budget deliberations, Clearview Township council voted to put a hold on a request for $120,000 in funding pending receipt of a report from Parks and Recreation Director Terry Vachon.
Vachon’s report, due by April, will analyze the need and preferred locations for new courts and explore existing facilities that might have suitable space.
“For example,” Vachon says, “the Creemore Curling Club is not using its ice pad during the summer, so maybe that could be used for pickleball courts.”
Other spaces to be examined include the Creemore arena and Gowan Park as well as an area adjacent to the municipal admin centre in Stayner.
A national survey in 2023 found more than 1.37 million Canadians play pickleball at least once a month, making it one of the fastest growing sports in the country.
The game is played with a hollow plastic ball. A wooden beginner paddle can be purchased for as low as $15. As players progress, they tend to switch to lighter paddles which are easier on the elbow. Those typically cost $70 to $100. For those who get serious, paddles can cost upwards of $300.
Mike Schmidt, a local pickleball enthusiast, says there is plenty of demand for more courts in the area.
“There is a learn-to-play group that meets at the public school and it is always full,” he says. “There are eight or nine groups with probably 90 people in total who play at the Creemore arena.”
There is one regulation size court at the arena where up to eight people can play at a time, which Schmidt says means lots of waiting. The school has two courts, both smaller than regulation. He says it’s a good place to learn the game but once he experienced playing on a full size court, it would be hard to go back. He now regularly travels to Angus and Wasaga Beach to indulge his pickleball habit. Currently, there are no dedicated outdoor courts in Clearview, other than the two at the Duntroon Highlands Golf Course.
Schmidt says pickleball first became popular with seniors in Florida. He describes it as being somewhat like badminton or ping-pong, with simpler rules than tennis, and says new players can learn the fundamentals in about half an hour.
“From there, it’s just practice,” he says.
According to Pickleball Canada, the fastest growing group of players is aged 18-34.
Jerry Skilton is the pickleball facilitator for the Township of Mulmur. He describes the game as easy to learn and hard to master.
Whereas in tennis, players focus on serving aces to score points, in pickleball the emphasis is on returning the ball. Skilton says tennis players tend to be good at ground strokes, but in pickleball there is a lot more action near the net requiring more soft shots. He started playing on a parquet floor at the Shelburne arena and was shown the ropes by three women who were close to 80.
Skilton coaches young people who wish to learn the sport.
He says pickleballers are a fun lot. “You can have three courts full of tennis players all quiet and civilized and then four people on a pickleball court who sound like a bunch of barbarians with lots of noise and laughing.”
The township of Mulmur currently has about 140 players registered in their booking system for the indoor courts at Primrose, and plans are in the works for a structured league starting next summer at the new outdoor courts at Thompson Trail Park in Mansfield. Those courts opened last August and were available through the fall on a first come, first served basis.
Pickleballer Sandra Gallager says most of the people using the Mansfield courts are intermediate level players in the 55-plus age range. The oldest regular player is about 75.
“It’s a great, fun way to be outside and get some exercise,” she says. “It can be as competitive as you want it to be.”
Bonnie MacPherson photo: Monica Branigan returns a serve while playing pickleball at NCPS.
