Three temporary pickleball nets divide the fifth floor of Evanston’s McGaw YMCA where residents of all ages can be found playing night and day.
In one corner, an elementary school student plays with a retiree, and in another, pickleballers from Russia, Pakistan, Lithuania and Haiti prepare to start their next game.
Despite the sport’s growing popularity, Evanston still has no dedicated pickleball courts. Recreational facilities like the YMCA have extra lines on their courts to accommodate the sport, but players say they want a dedicated space of their own.
“If it is a dedicated court, you’re more likely to have people there and that you can join,” local pickleball player Lauren Penson said. “People want to go where they know something is going to be happening, where there are going to be other pickleball players.”
Pickleball’s popularity surged over the past couple of years with nearly 50 million Americans now participating in the sport, according to the Association of Pickleball Professionals.
Since February, lines for pickleball were added to tennis courts at James Park, Lovelace Park, Mason Park and Fitzsimmons Park, according to Evanston Pickleball Association President Danilo Naoe.
At outdoor tennis facilities — including the courts at James Park — yellow pickleball lines overlap with white tennis grids and nets set at different heights for each sport, which adds another layer of confusion, Penson said.
“There are a bunch of us that are regularly going to the (Evanston City Council) meetings that they are having, and we keep getting very little,” Penson said. “They’re just putting lines down — that’s it. They’re not thinking about dedicated courts.”
Still, Evanston residents say they anticipate implementing pickleball courts in the near future. A September Parks and Recreation Board meeting agenda listed pickleball courts as one of its top 10 capital improvement projects for the upcoming year.
Evanston Haitian Community Organization President Gerald Daye Sr. said he believes residents will have dedicated courts by 2024, and hopes this will lead to greater participation among the city’s Black residents.
“We’ve gone through a lot of meetings for pickleball and tennis, so they know it’s here,” Daye said. “I have been trying to get pickleball in the Black community, preferably in the 5th Ward.”
Daye plays pickleball with several Haitian immigrants new to Evanston. He said playing with them for the first time and seeing their love for the sport bolsters his desire to see dedicated pickleball courts.
“These kids or migrants travel a long way to get here, especially people with nothing who came here to try to make a better living,” Daye said. “They’re meeting a whole new group of people, people they probably would have never met.”
One of Daye’s protegees is 10-year-old Fitz Hannan, who started playing pickleball this year.
For Hannan, pickleball provides a way to meet a new community of players, people who he said he hopes to demolish in competitions on the court.
“It’s fun to play, especially with them,” Hannan said. “That’s because they don’t have mercy.”
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @claireconner_
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