FORT THOMAS, Ky. — What was once a lesser known game that’s been around for decades has become much more mainstream. Now, local communities are trying to account for the increasing demand for places to play pickleball.
The sport of pickleball, for those unaware, is somewhere in between badminton, ping pong and tennis. That’s at least how USA Pickleball Ambassador for Northern Kentucky Don Seibert describes it.
“It’s more like a chess game than it is a hitting-a-ball-hard kind of thing,” Seibert said.
Seibert, a resident of Fort Thomas, teaches the game to a wide range of demographics.
“For many years, it was presumed to be for retired people and older people. But lately there’s been a craze of younger people getting involved,” he said. “The youngest I’ve taught was 5 years old. The oldest is 93. And we play together all the time.”
The game has been around since 1965, but has only in recent years started exploding in popularity.
“Exploding is an understatement,” said Fort Thomas City Councilman Adam Blau.
The city of Fort Thomas had been planning to turn a piece of land near the Fort Thomas Swim Club in Highland Hills Park into a splash park. In a February city council meeting, the city announced it had met with the swim club regarding potential expansion of its facilities, and the swim club had decided not to expand.
After much discussion at the meeting, officials explored other options for the Highland Park fill area, and remove the splash park as an option. Blau moved to remove the splash pad from consideration as an option at Highland Park, which passed unanimously.
“I was never a huge fan of the splash pad in the area they were putting it,” Blau said, citing high maintenance costs.
Instead, Blau said he’d prefer to see a pickleball court. He thinks the court would appeal to more people, and be usable for longer during the year. He said people often ask for a pickleball court at city council meetings.
“it’s non-judge mental. It doesn’t discriminate. Any age, size, skill level can play it seven, eight months out of the year, so it’s a fantastic sport,” Blau said.
Currently, the Tower Park Armory gym is one of the few places people like Jeff Nehus can play pickleball in Fort Thomas.
“I play almost every day, sometimes twice a day. And I would love for the city of Fort Thomas to get somewhere so I don’t have to drive all around town looking for places to play,” Nehus said.
The man Nehus was playing against was one of the city’s newer players, who also happens to be one of the most prominent athletes to ever come out of northern Kentucky.
Bob Arnzen, 75, played professional basketball in the ABA and the NBA. He played minor league baseball as well. But now he’s got a new favorite game.
“I picked up pickleball about three or four months ago. So I’m not a very good player. But all I can say is I play with a lot of people of all ages, and everybody likes it. Everybody has fun. And I think once you try it, you fall in love with it,” Arnzen said.
Pickleball is just one option on the table for the space in Highland Park. Regardless of what happens there though, more and more communities are continuing to embrace the game. Blau said that will certainly be the case in Fort Thomas.
