ASHLAND — A group of pickleball players from Loudonville who are raising money to build courts at the village’s public swimming pool have asked Ashland County commissioners for a financial boost.
Darla Stitzlein, of the Loudonville Pickleball Organization, said the group began raising funds in September after a season of playing the sport at Cahn Grove’s new courts in Ashland three times a week.
She said she and her friends would get food afterward in Ashland, and she was making new friends.
“And we thought, ‘why can’t we do this in Loudonville?’ ” Stitzlein said.
So they formed a group and partnered with the Mohican Area Growth Foundation, its fiscal agent. Since September, Stitzlein said the Loudonville Pickleball Organization has raised $95,000.
The goal is to build three courts on designated land at the Loudonville Public Swimming Pool and resurface the pool’s basketball court to use for another two pickleball courts. She said the project will cost $150,000.
If successful, Loudonville could have five pickleball courts by the end of this summer.
Stitzlein requested the Ashland County Board of Commissioners allocate its 2021 timber operation proceeds to the cause.
The county received $28,720 in October for such proceeds. That money was divvied among Ashland County and Hanover Township, who each received $7,180. The Loudonville-Perrysville Exempted Village School District received $14,360.
The group asked Ashland County commissioners if they would be willing to donate $7,180 to the pickleball cause.
Commissioners did not give an answer, saying they need to talk with Commissioner Jim Justice, who was absent from Thursday’s meeting.
Stitzlein said the sport has grown significantly in recent years. Since September, their group has experienced over 700 players wanting to play. The group currently meets at the Loudonville Village Youth Building to play indoors. In September, they played on the “unused” basketball court at the Loudonville Public Swimming Pool.
“I can’t tell you how it warms our hearts to see 75 year-old widows playing every Tuesday morning,” Stitzlein said. “They get out of their house, they beat their loneliness or isolation.
“They’re coming out for camaraderie, fellowship, health and wellness. They get lunch afterwards. It’s a wonderful activity for these seniors.”
She said though half of the pickleball players are age 65 or older, that the group sees a strong contingency of players aged 25 to 64, and even some players younger than 24.
They all belong to the community of 4.8 million pickleball players, or “picklers,” in the United States, according to a 2022 report from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. The sport grew nearly 40% between 2019 and 2021, making it America’s fastest-growing sport.
USA Pickleball, a website dedicated to tracking the sport, estimated in 2019 there were nearly 8,000 known pickleball sites and an average of 110 new locations added each month.
Locally, the sport has popped up in places like Cahn Grove Park, the YMCA in Ashland and Mansfield, Ashland University and a handful of parks in Mansfield and Lexington.
Darla Plice, of the Ashland Pickleball Association, said the first year of playing the sport at Cahn Grove Park went so well that it’s almost a problem.
“It’s been incredible … we’re anticipating this year, our second year, for it to be challenging to get a court because there are so many players,” Plice said.
Pleasant Hill Lake Park is currently building two courts that could be done as soon as Memorial Day, said Louis Andres, the park’s program specialist.
“(Pickleball) seems to be very, very popular — more so than tennis courts. We’ve had campers asking about that, so we’re doing it,” he said, adding the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District — the agency that operates the park — plans on building other courts at its nine parks in coming years.
