Not Just A Hoops Town Anymore: Pickleball Is Taking Off In Chapel Hill, N.C.
The local scene has grown from a few dozen people playing on three courts at a local community center to where there’s now around 30 indoor and outdoor courts throughout the city.
By Alex Abrams
Red Line Editorial
Jen Johnson seems to receive a notification on WhatsApp any time former NBA forward Tyler Hansbrough shows up at a pickleball court in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, looking to play a match.
Other pickleball players can’t wait to tell Johnson about what it was like to hit shots against Hansbrough, who became a local legend after he led the University of North Carolina men’s basketball team to a national championship in 2009.
Chapel Hill is a college town known more for basketball than pickleball. It’s where Michael Jordan first made a name for himself as a star player for the Tar Heels, and the Dean E. Smith Center on UNC’s campus is considered one of college basketball’s most iconic arenas.
Over the past few years, though, Johnson has watched as pickleball has become increasingly popular in Chapel Hill. It has grown from a few dozen people playing on three courts at a local community center to where there’s now around 30 indoor and outdoor courts throughout the city to accommodate all the pickleball players.
“When we started that original menu in Chapel Hill at the community center, we had a core group of maybe 30 people, so when you would go and play, you might have four people waiting,” said Johnson, a product manager for a software company who has served as a USA Pickleball Ambassador for the past six years. “Then pickleball started to grow. And so, we had more people coming to those time slots, and we had to come up with a rotation system. … It was interesting to go from not a lot of players to having to figure out how to get people on and off the courts.”
In May, 140 players took part in a pickleball tournament at Chapel Hill’s Ephesus Park to help raise money for Planned Parenthood. Another 100 players are expected on Oct. 26 to participate in a Pickle4Paws Tournament as a fundraiser for a local animal shelter.
And Hansbrough isn’t the only local celebrity who has started playing pickleball in Chapel Hill. Johnson will hear on WhatsApp as soon as legendary UNC soccer coach Anson Dorrance or Collin Shick, a former collegiate tennis player turned professional pickleball player, arrive at a court to play.
“Anson has been a huge supporter with the town of Chapel Hill anytime we’re trying to line new courts or get new venues and fundraising,” Johnson said of Dorrance, who won 21 national championships with the UNC women’s team and led the U.S. women’s team to its first-ever World Cup title in 1991. “He plays a lot.”
The pickleball community in Chapel Hill is significantly larger than when Johnson was introduced to the sport around nine years ago. At the time, she would drive to Raleigh, North Carolina, to play pickleball with former USA Pickleball Ambassador Joe Borelli.
“Joe finally looked at me and said, ‘You do realize they play pickleball in Chapel Hill?’” Johnson said. “And I was like ‘No.’”
Johnson said several factors have contributed to pickleball’s growth in the area over the past few years. As with other places across the country, more people in Chapel Hill started playing the sport while socially distancing during the coronavirus pandemic.
In addition, Johnson said Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation officials recognized early on that pickleball was becoming more popular and made more courts available to local players.
“Chapel Hill was the first town in the area where we had six dedicated pickleball courts,” Johnson said. “Parks and Rec literally took two of the tennis courts and resurfaced them and turned them into six dedicated courts. So, we started to get most of the other people in Raleigh, then people from down in Pittsboro (North Carolina) who were only having indoor venues at the time. (They) knew that they could come to Chapel Hill, and you could start as early as 6:30 in the morning and you could play until the lights go off at 10:45.”
On a recent Saturday morning, a group of UNC soccer players arrived at pickleball courts in Chapel Hill to play a few matches and do some cross-training. Johnson said Ephesus Park, in particular, has become an inviting place for both newcomers to the sport and more seasoned players.
“You can go by yourself, and there is always somebody to play with. Always,” Johnson said. “The second thing is (it’s) the welcoming community. You can have 10 groups waiting (to play) because we’re really busy, but you’ll make new friends and anybody in any group is willing to play.”
Alex Abrams has written about Olympic and Paralympic sports for more than 15 years, including as a reporter for major newspapers in Florida, Arkansas and Oklahoma. He is a freelance contributor to USA Pickleball on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc. Red Line Editorial, Inc.
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