Picklers rejoice as city adds five new courts at Memorial Park

LACONIA — With surface improvements to the racquet courts at Memorial Park this summer, the city also gained five new places to play pickleball. The addition of venues for the sport at two city parks reflects its booming popularity — and players say they’ve been well received.

Memorial Park’s five tennis courts were repaired this summer to fill and smooth “major cracks” in their surfaces, according to city Parks and Recreation Director Amy Lovisek. In the process, the city also added lines for five pickleball courts, overlaid between the tennis nets and the surrounding fence. These lines join two similar setups to the courts at Leavitt Park and two indoor courts at the Laconia Community Center.

Memorial Park’s courts reopened Thursday, though tennis remains on hold until new posts for the net arrive. 

The near tripling of the city’s public pickle venues meets a growing demand for the sport that has swept the nation, and Laconia, in the last few years. Lovisek said the city has seen an influx of both new, first-time pickleballers and longtime players flock to its courts. 

Four of the five new courts at Memorial, Lovisek said, do not make use of the tennis nets and rather require users to either fetch a portable net from the city’s lockbox (contact Parks and Recreation for access at laconianh.gov/1003/Parks-Recreation) or bring their own portable net. This was a result of feedback from the city’s pickleball community, she said, because the two racquet sports do not use the same net height. 

By Friday morning regular city picklers had hit the new courts. 

Pete Bixby is a regular player and coordinator with New Hampshire Lakes Region Pickleball, a group that plays together each weekday morning. He said the new surface earned positive reviews and he complimented the city’s growing court availability.

With between 10 and 25 players gathering to play each morning, he said, Leavitt’s two courts were a tight fit.

A goal for the future, Lovisek said, would be to expand indoor, all-season pickleball opportunities. Currently, only the two courts at the community center are usable in the wintertime.

The sport, using paddled racquets and a plastic, wiffle-esque ball, has picked up scores of new players in recent years, but has not been met with harmonious welcome in every community it takes root. Some other racquet sport players have lamented ceding court space, and some neighbors have complained about the game’s loud popping noises.

In Laconia, both Bixby and Lovisek said, growing pickleball popularity has been received warmly so far. 

“We’ve been very lucky,” Bixby said. He noted their group is only loosely organized, welcoming anyone to join them. He also frequently meets drop-in players or tourists interested in a volley.

One morning, he continued, a neighbor came out to the courts and remarked that he was hearing a lot of noise and laughter coming from their group. Bixby braced for the grievances he thought he knew were coming. Instead:

“Then he said, ‘And I can’t wait 'til I retire so that I can come play with you guys.’”