REDMOND —

The tick-tock of pickleballs being smacked across courts rang through Sam Johnson Park early Thursday. The Redmond Pickleball Club comes here most mornings to play at the eight courts specifically laid out for their sport.

That morning, while about 16 people waited on the sidelines for a turn to play, only one of the eight tennis courts nearby was being used.

The pickleball players said this is common, and the reason they want permanent pickleball lines painted onto two of the tennis courts, alongside the tennis lines. This way, there would be more pickleball courts.

“Very rarely, we see the tennis courts being used, especially the two courts we’re interested in sharing,” said Redmond resident and pickleballer Peggy Friesner.

Last week at a city parks committee meeting, Mel Hatton, leader of the Redmond Pickleball Club, brought a petition signed by 115 people who support the idea.

He said the tennis courts were often unused, and the growing popularity of pickleball caused the eight pickleball courts at Sam Johnson to be cramped.

“This thing is big; it’s growing,” he told the parks committee. “There’s nothing I can do about it; it’s a phenomena.”

Pickleball combines elements of tennis, badminton and table tennis. It’s played with rectangular paddles and balls with holes.

The pickleball club isn’t the only group that uses Sam Johnson Park’s courts. Redmond High School, a short walk away, uses the courts for its tennis teams and physical education classes. Redmond School District’s athletic director, Kevin Bryant, and Redmond High’s tennis coach and PE teacher, Nathan Saito, are against adding dual lines for pickleball and tennis.

“When you’re out on a court, and the ball is hit, if there’s competing lines, it’s very confusing,” Bryant said.

Bryant and Saito said they have nothing against pickleball, and they enjoy playing the sport. But they disputed the Redmond Pickleball Club’s claims that the tennis courts are empty.

According to Saito, the courts are packed during high school tennis season, from February through May, as well as during PE classes in the fall and during the summer tennis courses he leads, which draw 50 to 60 kids.

“They’re definitely used, and I don’t think the pickleballers see that,” Saito said.

“All they see is their 2-hour window in the morning. They’re making statements that I feel aren’t fully informed. It’s not really fair to the tennis community.”

According to Hatton, the city previously allowed the pickleball club to use tape on the Sam Johnson Park tennis courts to create temporary pickleball courts, but they are no longer allowed to do that because the tape left a sticky residue.

Saito said he preferred using tape, so both sports could use the two courts. Bryant disagreed with Saito, saying the residue made a court unusable during a district high school tennis tournament this spring.

According to Annie McVay, manager for Redmond’s parks division, it would cost the city a little over $5,000 to repair the tape residue, and staff is “undecided” whether they want to pay for that cost.

In an email sent to the parks committee and read aloud at the meeting, Bryant wrote that he didn’t want to be part of a “tennis versus pickleball argument,” but mentioned that pickleball is mainly popular among older baby boomers, and it was unfair for them to limit court space for high school tennis players.

“I’m not sure if it is a good idea for older people playing a sport to limit the next generation of athletes from participating,” he wrote.

This week, Bryant accused Hatton of using Bend residents to juice up the numbers of the petition.

“I have very little compassion for using Bend people to make a statement about courts being used in Redmond,” he said. “Why should a Bend person … be concerned about our pickleball courts in Redmond?”

Hatton said although there are a few people from Bend, Prineville and other areas that signed the petition, a majority were from Redmond or nearby Eagle Crest Resort.

It’s unlikely that Redmond will build new pickleball courts.

The eight courts at Sam Johnson Park were constructed in 2015, and parks director McVay told the pickleball club at last week’s meeting that the city had many other needs.

Hatton said later he never expected the city to build new courts in the near future, and that adding permanent lines to courts was just a “baby step” to eventual new courts.

At last week’s parks committee meeting, chair Bill Braly said he would consider a plan to paint dual lines on the tennis courts once the pickleball club and Redmond School District came up with a joint proposal.

On Thursday, Hatton said he planned to contact Saito and Bryant after a pickleball tournament in Bend this weekend.

Saito said they hadn’t met yet, but anticipated a meeting in the future. Bryant was skeptical that a meeting between the pickleball club and school district would solve the issue.

“I don’t know how much gets accomplished by sitting at the table like that,” he said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7854, 
jhogan@bendbulletin.com