Pickleball has been at the forefront of county discussions over the past few weeks—and the sport with a funny name has people wondering: what is pickleball, and what’s the big deal?
Pickleball, according to the National Pickleball Association, was invented around 1965 by a group of dads on vacation who were facing every parent’s worst nightmare— bored kids. The game is a cross between ping-pong, tennis and badminton named after the inventor’s dog, Pickles.
It’s also the fastest-growing sport in the United States. According to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association’s (SFIA) 2022 Topline Participation Report, the sport grew 39.3 percent since 2019, logging a total of 4.8 million players in the US last year.
“It [pickleball] was more in retirement communities, more in sun-filled states, Arizona, Florida, et cetera,” says Habersham County Pickleball Club member Sara “Peck” Shearouse. “But as we can see here, we’re a small community, it’s just grown by leaps and bounds. The group in White County were really the impetus up here in this area.”
White County’s pickleball courts are popular, and so are the pickleball courts in Rabun County, Towns County, Hiawassee and Flowery Branch. And while Habersham County might not have designated pickleball courts, at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the tennis courts were full of pickleball players.
The players out on Tuesday ranged between the ages of 40 and 81, and on weekends, they say that age range is even larger. The group says they’re out at least 3 times a week and had a total of 365 players in February.
The game follows the principles of racquet sports like tennis and badminton, hit the ball, keep it inside the boundaries and try to keep your opponent from hitting it back. But unlike the aforementioned sports, the nets are shorter, the boundary lines are different and the racquets aren’t racquets at all. They’re like big ping-pong paddles.
While the concept might sound a little goofy, Habersham Pickleball Club Member Christine Tekippe, Shearouse and just about every other player will tell you the same thing: the game is addicting.
“It’s a great way to get back into sports,” says Tekippe. “If you were an ex-tennis player or badminton, or even for anybody who’s ever played a paddle sport, it’s so easy to pick up and learn that they just quickly become addicted and have so much fun. There’s as much laughter as there as playing.”
Tekippe says that other than being easy to learn, the sport is playable for all ages. She says a 7-year-old could play on the same court as an 80-year-old, regardless of ability. The women in the morning drill team say for them, though, pickleball is more than just a sport, a way to get exercise or an activity all ages can take part in. They say it’s a community that feels like family.
“I think it’s common for people to say that a sport or an activity has become like family, but this truly has become like a family for all of us,” Shearouse said. “This group of women here, this is a really good example. If something happens with any of us here, the support that you feel— we know each other, we know about each other, there’s a huge bit of support. Whether it’s [for] something bad, good, whatever.”
But even with a group of regular, dedicated players and the community that comes with it, Habersham Pickleball Club Ambassador Peggy Fortson says the team can’t help but feel like the “stepchild” of the county’s parks and recreation.
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The pickleball club doesn’t have courts of their own, rather, they use the tennis courts and have to set up and tear down their equipment each time they play. That process can take up to an hour with one to two people, Fortson says. She also says the constant assembling and disassembling results in expedited wear on the nets, which she says run between $250 and $300 each. The club purchases all its own equipment.
“We’re like a stepchild in the sports that are available to the county,” Fortson says. “The softball fields, the soccer fields, everything else is made available and provided by the county, except for pickleball. We provide our equipment, we have to do the work to get everything set up. People are making it sound like it’s just really very easy and it’s not.”
Even though there’s frustration, Fortson is holding out hope that the county will move forward with their hot-topic plan to resurface two of the tennis courts to become pickleball courts, despite the tennis player uproar that caused the county commissioners to pump the brakes on the project for another month.
“I’m trying to be optimistic as opposed to very disappointed,” Fortson said. “I’m hoping that the commissioners are just doing their due diligence.”
