BOYLE – Pickleball has arrived in Boyle and by all accounts, it's here to stay. The only question moving forward is where do they play?
Councillors were faced with a conundrum unique to small towns during their May 1 council meeting following a request to convert a tennis court into four pickleball courts during an upcoming resurfacing project.
“Council’s number one concern here is to make sure we’re adding to our recreation and not taking anything away,” said village Mayor Colin Derko. “We’re not going to pull tennis out just so we can have pickleball.”
The paddle-based sport has been on the rise in the village since the Christmas Holidays ended, and as the summer break looms, community members have said they’re looking for outdoor spaces to play once Boyle School closes in June.
“There’s a couple of tennis courts in the village, that are in a bit of a state of disrepair,” said Dave Fiddler, a community member who got the pickleball group started. “I did a little research and I found out that you can fit four pickleball courts on a tennis court if you go the long way.”
So far, Boyle’s pickleball group has been playing in the school gym twice a week — Fiddler said Aspen View has been amazing helping them get off the ground — but with summer approaching the 20-plus person group is looking for outdoor options.
The groups proposal to turn another tennis court into a pickleball court has hit one small snag — despite Fiddler’s assertion that the group can fit four pickleball courts onto one tennis court, the village's administration isn’t so sure.
“Based on the size and what we’ve found online, my suggestion was we get together with the actual group and get everyone to go look at this,” said Derko. “They were thinking they were going to put pickleball lines on both courts, and we said we don’t really want to do that.”
Derko said there weren’t many tennis players in the village, but it was important to him and his fellow councillors to keep as many recreation opportunities as possible. Another crunch for the village is the basketball nets in place alongside the racket sports.
“Right now you can play a full-court game of basketball, although I don’t think that happens too much, normally they’re playing HORSE or 21,” said Derko. “We’ve also talked about putting the basketball nets down near the skatepark."
The village has some decisions to make at future council meetings, which is when the topic will next appear. While he and his fellow enthusiasts wait, Fiddler said he’s been blown away by the community since they started playing in January.
“The best thing is just watching all these people have so much fun. Our average age is over 60 years old for sure,” said Fiddler. “They’re all just having so much fun.”
The group meets twice a week, on Tuesday and Thursday at 7 p.m., and Fiddler said anyone is welcome.
“We’ve spent a little bit of money to buy balls and extra paddles, so if someone is interested, they can check it out without having to spend any money,” said Fiddler. “There isn’t a lot of money, all you really need is paddles and court shoes, but for now you don’t even need to buy those because we have extras.
“Everyone that’s been there, I can’t think of one person who hasn’t come back,” concluded Fiddler. “It’s addictive, it’s addictive clean fun.”
