County-wide 'pickle-crack' outbreak

Known as the lovechild of badminton, tennis, and ping-pong, pickleball has been rapidly growing in the U.S. since the 1960s, and in the last two years, in Barnwell County.

Although there are not yet official places to play in the county, a lack of courts has not stopped those who caught the pickleball bug from enjoying the sport meant for all ages.

“Roger’s the one that first started getting people interested. We had people driving over from Barnwell to play because it was the first group of people that had ever tried to organize it,” said Greg Walkup, Williston resident and player of both tennis and pickleball.

Roger Stanten moved near Hickory, North Carolina in 2021 after living in Williston for 31 years. Before he left, Stanten built a strong foundation for pickleball and his mark on the sport still remains on the modified tennis courts pickleballers play on, both figuratively and literally.

“Roger got it started,” said Susan Birt, Williston resident and pickleball enthusiast. “He taped off the exact dimensions for pickleball and the tape has long since gone from the weather, however, we can still see the glue.”

The glue residue left on the tennis courts at the Williston Town Park is what Birt and other players use to note the boundaries of the court which differ from those of tennis.

“It's a smaller court than a tennis court and the net is actually shorter than a tennis net,” said Walkup.

Walkup and Birt both joined the pickleball circle when Stanten was aiming to grow the sport in the county.

Stanten’s initial interest in the sport began at a charity event held by the Savannah River Site a few years ago where he played for the first time.

“I was getting closer to retirement and I was looking for something to keep me a little bit more physically active,” said Stanten.

“It was probably April of 2020. I just put it on Facebook, said, ‘Anyone who wants to play, I'll be down at the courts in Williston.’ I went down there and I taped off one of the tennis courts and I think there were two or three people who showed up,” he said.

Many pickleball players take to the sport because it has no age or skill restrictions and is a low-impact way to maintain physical activity as Stanten said.

“Pickleball is a general uniter,” said Birt. “You don’t have to be physically fit to play, but it helps you get more physically fit. If you’re old, young, thin, fat, whatever, you can play pickleball and be good at it.”

Walkup, Birt, and Stanten all expressed they had not known of the sport long before it became a key part of their weekly routine to play alongside other pickleballers.

The group would play on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Williston tennis courts weather permitting, and all began developing a passion for the sport. Birt explains she began looking for pickleball paddles that would give her the satisfying ‘pop’ noise when making contact with the ball.

“I think what every player wants to hear is that pop of that ball hitting a paddle, it's a very distinctive sound,” said Birt. “When you hit a good shot, it makes a certain sound and every player craves that.”

“We call it pickle-crack because it's so addictive,” said Birt.

Birt and Walkup were a part of the initial pickleball push in Barnwell County alongside Stanten, and have similar hopes for the sport that he did.

“I would like to see a county-wide league. Williston has a team, Barnwell has a team, Blackville has a team, and maybe we play little tournaments amongst each other,” said Birt.

“My vision at the time was that each of the main communities, Barnwell, Williston, and Blackville, would develop their own play groups and then there'd be an interplay between the communities, then maybe a championship game,” said Stanten.

The first obstacle in this vision is a place to play, sanctioned or not. Walkup, Stanten, and Birt struck multiple conversations around pickleball with both town and county officials.

“I went to the Barnwell County Council a couple times and encouraged them to help spread it throughout the county so everyone kind of had an equal footing,” said Stanten.

Staten explained, “They're like any other government,” and took his pickleball advocacy into consideration.

Not only was the court conversation proposed to the county by Stanten, but the Town of Williston as well.

“We appeared late last year to the Town Council on Williston,” said Walkup. “We were asking for funding for say two or three pickleball courts in the town park here in Williston. And at the time funding was an issue.”

In a more recent conversation Walkup had with Town of Williston Administrator Mike Beasley, he was informed that the town is looking into the cost of constructing two pickleball courts in the town park.

“I used that old line out of the movie ‘Field of Dreams’, I said, ‘If you build it, they will come,’” said Walkup.

The court conversation was discussed by the Williston Town Council at their June 13 regular meeting.

Councilman Eric Moody explained he had looked into making the existing tennis courts at the town park multi-purpose by painting lines that served both tennis and pickleball.

However, the U.S. Tennis Association forbids extra lines on courts and would make the courts not fit for competition when used by the Williston-Elko tennis team.

To solve this problem, Moody proposed converting concrete slabs to pickleball courts at a total cost of $27,604.

At this meeting, Administrator Beasley said he would look into potential funding options for the courts.

At the September 12 Williston Town Council meeting, Walkup advocated for courts to come to Williston.

Administrator Beasley then informed the council that he has found two funding sources; a PAR Fund, or already secured American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money.

Administrator Beasley informed the council installing these courts in the town park would require a lot of prep work, including ground maintenance and finding a contractor.

The council agreed to carry on with placing bids to find a contractor to build pickleball courts.

In Blackville, Director of Recreation Tykesha Jenkins has been in conversations with Axis I Center about a grant to renovate one of the current tennis courts near Blackville-Hilda High School to a pickleball court.

Due to the location of the soon-to-be pickleball courts on the property of Blackville-Hilda High School, their construction is the responsibility of the school. Barnwell County Consolidated School District has agreed to handle this construction.

Jenkins detailed the school plans to continue with this project and the courts will be open for community use.

At the Barnwell County YMCA, four pickleball courts are being constructed with plans to be completed by spring 2023.

Barnwell County Administrator Tim Bennett explained no general contractors attended the required pre-bid meeting after the initial bid was placed, thus requiring the county to re-bid the court construction.

After the county’s second bid was placed, four general contractors attended the required pre-bid meetings on September 27 with their bids being due on October 11.

These courts will be managed by the YMCA, and similarly to the Aquatic Center, accessible only with either a YMCA membership or a daily fee.

“They'll be open to the public, but just like the pool, if you're not a member of the Y you'll have to pay a fee to play,” said Barnwell County Councilman and Recreation Committee Chairman Jerry Creech.

“The Y is trying to manage the pickleball courts, just like they do the pool,” said Councilman Creech.

The YMCA pickleball courts, along with the adjoining parking lots, will potentially be funded from the Barnwell County Economic Development Fund.

“The county must pay for the project, and then justify reimbursement. Reimbursement is not guaranteed. We will prepare a reimbursement request that hopefully meets the criteria for reimbursement,” said Administrator Bennett.

Walkup recounts a prior conversation with Barnwell County Councilman Don Harper about bringing courts to Williston as well after hearing of the courts coming to Barnwell’s YMCA, where Councilman Harper expressed to Walkup it was funding that was preventing court construction in Williston.

“I told him I was a little disappointed that all four courts were going to Barnwell. I said, ‘It seems like maybe you would've had one or two courts in Williston where there's some interest, or maybe Blackville,’ but he said something about it was going to be cheaper to do it all right there in Barnwell,” said Walkup.

The future of pickleball in Barnwell County is unclear; however, the sport continues to grow in neighboring Aiken County and even across the world with 4.8 million players in the U.S. alone.

For more information on the sport, visit https://usapickleball.org/.