Pickleball Archives | Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation

Help expand Founders Courts pickleball center

Help expand Founders Courts pickleball center

Join the Bainbridge Island pickleball community in supporting Founders Courts phase 2, bringing more courts and amenities to the Battle Point Park center.

The project will renovate and upgrade Battle Point’s existing tennis courts to create six new pickleball courts, with enhancements to the surrounding area that will unify the Founders Courts pickleball facility.

The tennis courts will be resurfaced and striped for pickleball play, with new heavy-duty portable nets added. Court access will be improved with two new arched entryways, an expanded west entrance with concrete, and a new kiosk alongside the walkway.

New amenities will include two “Shellscape” pads for picnic tables and logoed umbrellas. Court fencing will also be improved.

Give today! GIVE TODAY

Help expand Founders Courts pickleball centerDouglas2024-02-16T14:50:59-08:00

Pickleball may become WA state sport

Pickleball may become WA state sport

FROM THE ISLAND WANDERER BLOG: Most islanders are probably aware that Bainbridge is the home of Pickleball. Now Legislation is being proposed to make the game Washington State’s official sport.

“If we don’t claim it some other state will,” says Clay Roberts, a spokesman for the more than 400 Bainbridge Island Pickleball players. “This is very exciting (news). We have been urging the Governor to propose Pickleball as the state sport for some time.”

Two Washington State Senators -John Lovick of Mill Creek and Sam Hunt of Olympia – are behind the push to make the game, started by three island buddies back in the 1960s, the King of Sports in the Evergreen State. The Senate is expected to take up the matter sometime in February.

Roberts, who was a prime mover behind the creation of the Founders Court and its accompanying recognition kiosk at Battle Point Park, says state’s such as Florida, Arizona […]

Pickleball may become WA state sportDouglas2022-01-20T20:15:21-08:00

Support a memorial bench for pickleball legends

Support a memorial bench for pickleball legends

UPDATE: This campaign is now complete. Thank you for your generous support!

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Honor the memory of Bainbridge pickleball legends Anna Fields and Bill Glasser with plaques on the Founders Courts Legends Memorial Bench at Battle Point Park.

Your gift will help fund three brass memorial plaques for Fields, Glasser and other pickleball legends on a new bench at the Founders Courts plaza. More plaques will be added to the bench in the future as prominent Bainbridge pickleballers pass on.

For information on the memorial bench project, please email Clay Roberts, hclayboy@aol.com.

Support a memorial bench for pickleball legendsDouglas2021-07-21T13:17:22-07:00

Building a game, and building community

Building a game, and building community

Now that would be quite a yarn for a Women’s History Month feature: the untold story of how the game of pickleball was actually invented by the ladies of Pleasant Beach.

Alas, history is quite settled on the point, and credit will forever go to three men. So it goes.

But lo these many decades later, as the game devised on Bainbridge Island in the 1960s lays claim as the world’s fastest growing sport, you’d be hard pressed to find a more welcoming, gender-inclusive space than pickleball.

Men may have invented the game, but women are building it up, and building something more besides: community.

“Because so many of us are older, we’re not about competition,” says Mary Utley, part of a regular foursome at the Founders Courts at Battle Point Park. “We’re about having fun, collaboration and being kind to each other. It’s just part of who […]

Building a game, and building communityDouglas2021-04-22T09:25:54-07:00

A grand entranceway for new Founders Courts

A grand entranceway for new Founders Courts

Artist Michele Van Slyke creates an ornamental archway at the new pickleball center at Battle Point Park

Michele Van Slyke has been creating art on Bainbridge for decades, designing beautifully functional works for public spaces across the island.

Still, as her latest piece went up at the Founders Courts plaza at Battle Point Park, she mused that it might be her first work in a local park.

“It is nice to have a piece in one of the parks. It might be my last public piece,” said Van Slyke, who has stepped back a bit from large-scale installations.

In point of fact, it’s the second. Van Slyke also designed the stamped, fish-shaped placards honoring donors at the Hidden Cove Park pier.

It is, though, certainly the most prominent – 12 feet high, and wide enough for half a pickleball foursome to pass through abreast on their way to a […]

A grand entranceway for new Founders CourtsDouglas2021-04-22T09:28:00-07:00

Pickleball finds a home at the birthplace of the game

Pickleball finds a home at the birthplace of the game

Play wouldn’t officially start for another 40 minutes, but early-birds to opening day at the Founders Courts pickleball center were already greeted by the staccato sounds of lucent plastic balls being whacked back and forth across the taut black web of the net.

Tok. TOK. Tok …. TOK. Tok tok tok … TOK!

“I told them they could warm up early,” said Clay Roberts, Bainbridge Pickleball impresario and event emcee, as if – Tok Tok TOK! – he could have kept them off the courts anyway.

“I wake up a lot of days and think, this is a great day for pickleball on Bainbridge Island,” Roberts said, surveying the already humming play. “Today it takes on a whole new meaning. This is a really great day for pickleball on Bainbridge Island.”

The Founders Courts at Battle Point Park opened for play Aug. 19 with festivities marking a permanent home for […]

Pickleball finds a home at the birthplace of the gameDouglas2021-04-22T09:29:25-07:00

Founders Courts First Day of Play fundraiser

Founders Courts First Day of Play fundraiser

Celebrate the opening of the new pickleball center at Battle Point Park and be among the first to play at this amazing new facility at the Founders Courts Opening Day fundraiser.

Courts can be reserved by the hour for $200 for a foursome. Your court fee includes a special “I Played on Inaugural Day” T-shirt. It will be a festive atmosphere with music and fun, and we encourage you to bring a non-alcoholic beverage to toast the occasion with your group.

Reservations can be made in one-hour slots from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (play ends at 7 p.m.), with court rotations on the hour sharp. Court reservations are first come, first serve. Don’t wait — register your foursome today. (Reserve as many court slots as you like — let’s make this fundraiser a BIG success!)

***Please use the “Add Guests” field on the registration form to add include the names of the other players in your foursome***

Reservations will be […]

Founders Courts First Day of Play fundraiserDouglas2021-04-23T11:56:17-07:00

Pickleball Courts groundbreaking at Battle Point Park

Pickleball Courts groundbreaking at Battle Point Park

A little inclement weather couldn’t dampen spirits as the Park District hosted a ceremonial groundbreaking of the new pickleball courts and Founders Courts pavilion at Battle Point Park Sunday.

Guests of honor Gov. Jay Inslee, pickleball co-founder Barney McCallum (who invented the game with Joel Pritchard and Bill Bell), and more than 60 pickleball players feted the fast-growing game that was founded right here on Bainbridge in 1965.

The Park District is building six new dedicated pickleball courts next to the Battle Point tennis courts in 2020. Also planned: a new Founders Courts plaza, with walkways, surrounds and interpretive displays at the entrance to the new courts — a first-of-its-kind center to honor the game and its history, how it all started right here on Bainbridge Island.

Find out more about the Founders Court pavilion and support the project through the Parks Foundation at […]

Pickleball Courts groundbreaking at Battle Point ParkDouglas2021-04-22T09:31:09-07:00