With new courts being opened to the public in the spring, pickleball has sparked interest in students and the community.
The pickleball courts are located between the baseball field and the tennis courts. The original location was the old handball courts, but since they were rarely used Dr. Jordan Cox, superintendent of schools, decided to convert them into pickleball courts that are more suitable for use. Pickleball was first introduced to students a couple of years ago in their physical education classes. Since there were no courts during that time, students would play pickleball in the auxiliary gym using short nets or outside in the tennis courts, both of which were not ideal for the game.
“We […] gage the interest of the students […] depending on what the interest of our students [are] […] as long as we get good numbers [be]cause we want it to be productive […] we want kids to be engaged with their community, with their school [and] we try to have activities that the kids will love,” said Director of Health, Physical Education, and Athletics Patrick Friel.
Now since the new courts are in place, physical education classes can now play pickleball outside using proper courts. Additionally, when the school day is over, there are intramurals in which students can play pickleball with a health or physical education teacher present. These intramurals began this year in September for a couple of weeks, but will continue in the spring. When the school isn’t using them for physical education the community is allowed to use the courts until dusk.
“In the country itself, [pickleball] is becoming a huge thing, so I think coupled with everybody wanting to do it and the fact that we had already started, I think that [it just] […] piques everybody’s interest and [it’s] something new so it’s something that everybody looks forward to and right now it’s something that a lot of them haven’t done before so it’s nice […] to get them started with that,” said physical education teacher Lynn McConnell.
Not only do people enjoy playing it, but there are several health benefits behind it. It helps with the cardiovascular system because of the short bursts of energy which are good for people to get used to when becoming physically active again. Additionally, it can help with reflexes.
“I started playing pickleball over the summer […] with my friends and it was really fun cause we would get together […] once a week [and] we used [the courts] here,” said junior Kenzie A.
The interest in pickleball seems to be growing more and more. If there is more interest during the spring then it will continue to grow in the community.◼️
