![]() Spokane County has two dedicated courts at Prairie View Community Park and plans to build eight permanent pickleball courts at Holmberg Park. The city plans to build two dedicated pickleball courts at Corbin Park in the fall, along with three at Underhill Park in 2024. There are plans to add more shared-use courts at Mission. Cannon, Comstock, Sky Prairie, Mission and Peaceful Valley. The city of Spokane has 17 pickleball courts – mostly shared-use with tennis across five parks at A.M. ![]() “The club will help pay for the new courts.” “By next year, we’ll have six permanent pickleball courts that the city is building at Cherry Hill Park,” he said. Also, members are raising funds toward building more courts. The Coeur d’Alene club has helped pay for the court upgrades at parks such as fencing, and members will do maintenance from weeding to cleaning, Woolf said. ![]() “We want to try to be proactive,” Woolf said. Post Falls has six dedicated courts and about 12 on tennis courts. Peak Fitness has indoor courts and Hayden Lake Country Club has outdoor ones. Today, the region has some pickleball-only courts, with others in the works.Ĭoeur d’Alene built 11 dedicated pickleball courts across four parks, and it has 20 shared-use courts with tennis, Woolf said. “Tennis players kind of feel like pickleball is invading their world,” she said. On shared-use courts, tennis players aren’t always fans of the extra lines, said Diane Maehl, administrator of the Spokane Pickleball Facebook group. Here and in other cities, one answer is to create “shared use” by painting new lines for pickleball on tennis courts. Selkirk Sport, a leading designer and manufacturer of pickleball paddles, is based in Hayden.ĭepending on location, it can be tough to find enough courts. A 16-year-old, Anna Leigh Waters, is among the top five pros. Tyson McGuffin, a 31-year-old Coeur d’Alene-area resident, is a top-ranked professional pickleball player. Many warm-climate retirement communities have pickleball courts, but pickleball doesn’t just appeal to seniors. People play as doubles or singles on a 44-by-20-foot court and use paddles, a plastic ball with holes and a modified net. Three men invented pickleball in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington, and today the sport is played indoors and outdoors. (Kathy Plonka/The Spokesman-Review) Buy a print of this photo Meg Morgan celebrates a good hit while playing pickleball at Cherry Hill Park in Coeur d’Alene on Tuesday, June 27, 2023. I know as soon as I put my paddle up at wherever I’m going to play, I have friends.” “When I started playing almost six years ago now, I would run into people all the time who had no clue what pickleball was,” he said. Woolf attributes part of the popularity to the social aspect. Of those, 3,200 are in greater Spokane, organizer Joe Perella said. The PNW Pickleball Association, based in Spokane, has nearly 8,000 players in the Northwest. It was already popular in Washington, which last year designated pickleball the official state sport.Īmong local groups, the Inland Northwest club has about 550 members, compared with 180 three years ago. “There are some people who travel in the summer and go from one tournament to the other.” “People like to compete against people in their age group and at their level,” Woolf said. An estimated 36.5 million Americans played pickleball at least once during the 12 months between August 20, based on a participation study by the Association of Pickleball Professionals and the YouGov analytics firm. Since 2019, pickleball has grown nationwide. “The tournaments have been part of the growth for pickleball,” said Craig Woolf, the local club’s president. Similar tournaments are happening nationwide – the latest showing of a surge in popularity for the game that combines elements of tennis, badminton and table tennis. The Inland Northwest Pickleball Club plans its July 13-16 CdA Classic Pickleball Tournament at Cherry Hill Park, drawing visitors from 20 states and a few countries. As pickleball’s fan base grows in Spokane, Coeur d’Alene can claim one home-court advantage: hosting a tournament soon with more than 430 players.
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