NILES CHARTER TOWNSHIP — Niles Charter Township’s South Fireman’s Park held upwards of 70 people Saturday for a grand reopening of six pickleball courts. Many of those people tested the newly paved court surfaces with pickleball games.

The 4 p.m. event was hosted by the Michiana Pickleball Association as a celebration of a new area for outdoor pickleball leisure play and league matches.

Paddletek CEO Curtis Smith was happy to see the event and the repaving. The pickleball paddle company is located in the township.

“It was refreshing to see a community say, ‘Hey, yeah, we’re going to put this in place, and give the people of Niles a place to do something recreational,” he said. “There are other communities where it’s like pulling teeth to get them to do anything with pickleball.”

The two-year-old association is made up of 185 members at last count and offers ladder league play, mixers and lessons for beginning players. After the reopening, those offerings will take place at Niles’ courts again, too.

All six courts were open during Saturday’s event. Up to 24 people were on the courts at one time, some veteran players, some new. Other attendees brought chairs to watch the matches, while others represented vendors selling pickleball paraphernalia.

Fireman’s Park’s courts are not new but repaved, said Niles Township Parks Commission member Jill Delucia. The Michiana Pickleball Association appealed to have dedicated courts at the public space two years ago.

The commission voted to turn the park’s two little-used tennis courts into six pickleball courts, she said. But due to harsh weather, the courts developed numerous cracks, despite frequent play from association members and regular park attendees.

So, a new iteration of the parks commission decided to repave courts with asphalt in a way that Delucia said will allow them to last longer. The repaving took three days and cost about $6,000.

While indoor courts appear in Notre Dame University’s fitness facilities, Michiana YMCAs and in private sports clubs, there are not many outdoor gameplay opportunities, Delucia said. While she has only played pickleball a few times with a friend — she “loved” it — she has heard that the game feels different outdoors.

“It’s a little bit of a special niche,” she said, referring to Fireman’s Park’s courts.

Delucia was surprised to hear that two major pickleball paddle manufacturers, Paddletek and TMPR Sports, were in township limits.

“I said, ‘Really? I never heard of them,’” she said. “I really didn’t know we had such a presence right here in Niles, so I thought that was pretty cool.”

With a chuckle, Smith said he wished that a drive was paved between his pickleball paddle company headquarters and Fireman’s Park’s pickleball courts. The company and the courts sit hundreds of feet from one another.

Smith said pickleball has been around for 53 years, but the sport did not take off until the Baby Boomer generation discovered it. Now, he said, it is a rapidly growing sport in the U.S.

“Pickleball was a sport that you could play at any age, and you could still compete,” he said.

The small size of the courts and limited movement make it an accessible sport for elderly people, he said.

With more and more Baby Boomers retiring each year and finding ample time on their hands, he said, pickleball courts began to rapidly develop. The influx of courts caught the attention of younger generations, who began to play the sport in growing numbers, as well.

Smith said pickleball is appealing to so many because of three primary reasons.

“It’s a very social sport that crosses demographics,” he said. “It’s easy and fun to learn, and the availability of courts for people to go and play at has increased, so at just about any community, you can find a court and play on.”

Michiana Pickleball Association President Nick Falletta said that family members ages 11 to 73 will play together. Not one person has a distinct advantage because of their age, he said.

“You don’t have to be an athlete to play this game,” he said.

The small, badminton court-sized playing area and the need for little sharp movements makes the game what Smith calls a cross-generational “equalizer.” All that is needed is the ability to move a bit and to have hand-eye coordination.

Delucia was appreciative of the sport’s sociability. The parks commission member was formerly a frequent tennis player, but its competitive nature and distance between players made it difficult to build comradery. The close proximity and relaxed nature of the pickleball matches she has witnessed make it more social, she said.

Smith said that the affordability to the sport makes it appealing, too.

“The barrier is for people to go and play is smaller than other sports,” he said.

He recommends a beginner buy a beginner’s racket, which tend to cost $50 at most. Once a player gets experience and an understanding of one’s one style, he said a player can then look into higher quality rackets.

Falletta recommends attending the Michiana Pickleball Association’s bimonthly beginner’s lessons at Fireman’s Park.

The association is preparing for an Aug. 3 to Aug. 4 pickleball tournament at the Compton Ice Arena at Notre Dame. In 2018, its inaugural year, it brought in over 200 players from seven states and Canada. Nine courts were set up in the hockey area and audience members filled the stadium stands.