Pasadena’s Love of Pickleball Spikes, Interest Higher Than in Tennis at Some City Facilities

Pickleball, a relatively new racquet sport that a group of Bainbridge Island, Washington parents started in 1965, is gaining so much popularity in Pasadena that the City is now adding hours, and looking for new places to set up courts for the game.

The City also plans to hold a clinic and demo to get more Pasadena residents interested in the game.

Pickleball will be discussed Tuesday, February 7, when Pasadena’s Recreation and Parks Commission holds its regular meeting at the Pasadena City Yards.

At the meeting, Kenny James, Recreation Supervisor at the City’s Human Services and Recreation Department, will present a recommendation to reprogram the tennis court at Allendale Park at 1130 S. Marengo Avenue, and add hours during which the court turns into a joint use multi-function court for Pickleball players.

Since July last year, the Allendale Park court has been scheduled for Pickleball games four days a week as approved by the Recreation and Parks Commission – Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5 to 9 p.m., Fridays from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Even with this schedule, Pickleball is now being played more hours per week than tennis at the Allendale court. Now, Recreation is recommending to add two program days on the court for Pickleball: Mondays and Wednesdays, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon.

“After conferring with the Pasadena-based Pickleball group, it was determined that said hours can be added to the Pickleball schedule originally approved by the Commission,” James said in an Agenda Report for Tuesday’s meeting.

James said once approved by the Commission, the additional eight hours for Pickleball will be added to signages installed at the court.

James will also report on three other sites identified as potential Pickleball court locations in the City, plus one Pasadena Unified School District school that could also host indoor Pickleball games at certain hours. He indicated specific studies and community outreach may still need to be conducted about the potential locations – Jefferson Park, and Vina Vieja and Victory Park, both in east Pasadena – before precise plans can be recommended to the Commission.

Recreation staff have assessed PUSD’s McKinley School gymnasium and found it feasible for Pickleball on Sunday afternoons as long as there are no scheduled tournaments.

James said the Recreation Department is working to schedule a Pickleball Clinic and Demonstration that would engage the community to participate in the game.

A history of Pickleball says three Bainbridge residents – Barney McCallum, William Bell, and Joel Pritchard, who became U.S. congressman – came home from playing golf one day in 1965, and found their kids bored and restless. So the three set out to create a game that would engage the kids through the lazy days of summer.

They gave the kids table tennis paddles and a wiffle ball, and lowered the net on one of the neighbors’ badminton court. In the days that followed, both the kids and the adults came to enjoy the game, and from there Pickleball evolved into what it is now today.

The current sport shares features with other racquet sports, using the dimensions and layout of a badminton court and a net and rules similar to tennis with a few modifications.

Other new business that will be taken up in Tuesday’s Recreation and Parks Commission meeting include the Pasadena Roving Archers agreement and operation of the Lower Arroyo Archery Range, updates on the Cal State Northridge Exercise Program, a quarterly report from the Parks and Natural Resources Division of the Pasadena Public Works Department, and the Human Services and Recreation Department’s monthly update.

The Commission meets on the first Tuesday of every month starting at 6 p.m. at City Yards at 233 West Mountain Street in Pasadena.

[For information about Pasadena Pickleball group, see this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pasadenapickleball/ ]