Anyone for Ten – er, Pickleball?

Four brightly colored new courts at Healdsburg High—two shades of blue with green between the game areas—are a highly visible sign that pickleball has reached a critical threshold in town, with a dedicated city-sponsored center for the ever-growing legion of players in Healdsburg.

If the name is funny, the sport is no joke. Pickleball, played on a downscaled tennis court, dates back to 1965 when by all accounts it was invented at a Bainbridge Island summer home in Washington State by cobbling together equipment, and rules, from tennis, badminton and ping pong.

Now the number of players in the country is easily in the millions—USA Pickleball estimated five million in 2020, while other organizations put the number even higher. Locally there are about 100 actively playing the sport in Healdsburg, and a lot of casual interest.

Don’t expect them all to converge on the new courts at the same time, however, said Anita Kratka, a Healdsburg pickleball advocate. “The core group was about 30 playing every day. And probably mostly on most days it was 15 to 20. Now with the new courts, I do see that population growing, which is great,” she said.

One will often find her at the high school courts, helping organize and coordinate and generally being a cheerleader for the sport. She herself first started playing about five years ago—the widely-accepted point of origin for the sport locally.

“My husband and I had been playing tennis, but we injured ourselves,” she said—toes, knees, rolled ankles, the usual ailments of active aging people (she is 67, her husband Ken 71).

“We were both like, what are we going to do? Then two of my sisters who had started playing down in Southern California said, ‘You gotta try this, Anita,’” said Kratka.

She went down to Finley Park in Santa Rosa to try it out. “I was hooked the moment I started playing. I just absolutely loved it. I came home and told Ken, ‘We’ve got to play pickleball,’” she recalled.

Mathieu Isaacs, who took over from Kratka as the USA Pickleball ambassador for Healdsburg about two years ago, assumed the challenge of promoting the sport locally. “We embarked on the campaign to persuade parks and rec and the city to develop pickleball courts in Healdsburg,” said Isaacs.

Unlike tennis, its primary antecedent, pickleball is less a game of endurance than reflex and hand-eye coordination. The rules are similar enough to tennis (and its other related precursors, badminton and ping pong) that it’s fairly easy enough to pick up. This explains its rapid growth not only locally, but nationally and even worldwide.

In September 2018, the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission voted unanimously to support pickleball facilities in town, citing the “growing interest in the sport, our aging community, and the need to provide opportunities for age-friendly activities.”

Shortly afterward, the City Council too saw the value in active sports for an aging local population and began to find dedicated courts where locals could play. During a resurfacing project, the tennis courts at Giorgi Park were given added blue striping to define the 44-by-20-foot pickleball playing areas. 

Then Mark Themig, the city’s community services director, offered to tape a pickleball court in the Community Center’s Multi-Purpose Room, which could be reserved for midday hours during the week.

“They brought it to us, and we said, of course we’d love to have the indoor court,” said Kratka. “We still get it every winter, which is fantastic.”

Restriped tennis courts are one thing, but dedicated pickleball courts are the goal. There are currently several private courts at personal residences, at The Ruse on Grove Street and at Fitch Mountain Villas. There are also two courts at Montage Healdsburg, though they are now closed to non-guests.

But the big win for local pickleballers was the recent conversion of the two tennis courts at the high school into the four pickleball courts that officially launched recently. Though they had been in use with temporary striping for a couple years before that, the sports courts often went unused by students.

“We were happy to partner with the city on the new courts,” said Healdsburg Unified School District Superintendent Chris Vanden Heuvel. “First, the tennis courts that were replaced were not regulation sized for competition and thus not usable beside for practice.” Assured that there were still enough tennis courts for student use, Vanden Heuvel was more than willing to support the repurpose of the courts.

“Our PE teachers were ecstatic when we discussed the possibility, as they have a pickleball unit every year,” said the superintendent. He also said, “There is a strong possibility that pickleball could become a CIF (California Interscholastic Federation)-sanctioned sport in the future, given its tremendous growth and popularity.”

“We’ve been hearing from the pickleball community for some time about their need for additional public courts,” said city manager Jeff Kay. “The partnership with the school district and the pickleball community gave us an opportunity to get it done at the high school relatively quickly and cost effectively.”

More Courts in the Works

With donations through the nonprofit Sonoma County Pickleball Club, local players raised $6,500 in a matter of weeks. The balance was funded by the city, said Kay, putting the total cost at $56,500. The work was performed by an outside contractor that specializes in court resurfacing.

The courts were inaugurated recently by a passel of city employees—including Mayor Airel Kelley, Kay, city attorney Samantha Zutler and several members of the community services department. Although some pickleball loyalists were disappointed they weren’t invited to the opening, Kay said, “We wanted to get out and take some pictures while the courts were pristine.”

With the rising number of pickleball players in town, there may be a need for more courts. “Courts at the school are sort of a band-aid until the two new parks are built, where there will be new, pickleball specific courts to answer the growing need,” said Chris Herrod, a former member of the Parks and Recreation Commission now sitting on the City Council.

Those two new parks—a greatly expanded Badger Park and the 36-acre Saggio Hills park in development—have yet to nail down their exact facilities, but the chances are high that pickleball courts will be included.

Though there are a growing number of pickleball tournaments, not only nationally but in other countries, for people like Isaacs and many of the senior-aged players in town, it’s not necessarily a game of champions.

“This keeps me healthy, and it’s fun,” said the 73-year-old Isaacs. “It’s just like being a kid again.”

Courts can be scheduled online at bit.ly/HealdsburgPickleball (requires registration) at the high school, Giorgi Park and the Community Center.