Montana Pickleball Club Doubles Its Courts After Two Years Of Fundraising And A Constant Waiting List
- The Polson Pickleball Club in Montana broke ground on three new courts at O’Malley Park on Sept. 9, doubling the site’s total from three to six.
- The nonprofit club has spent two years fundraising for the project through an annual gala, court-side banners sold to local businesses, and donations, including some from people who don’t even play there.
- The existing courts routinely fill with 12 players and another 12 to 18 waiting, and organizers expect the new courts to be ready for play by next spring.
A ceremonial dink over an improvised net after two years of fundraising
Sparkling cider and champagne were on hand last Wednesday, Sept. 9, as roughly 40 pickleball players gathered at O’Malley Park in Polson, Montana, to mark the start of construction on three new courts with a ceremonial “first dink” over an improvised net.
“This is a moment that we’ve been waiting a while for,” said Polson Pickleball Club president Randi Targerson. “Foremost, I want to thank all of our donors because this wouldn’t be happening if it weren’t for everybody that has donated funds toward this project over the last couple of years.”
The project will double the number of pickleball courts at O’Malley Park from three to six. It has been underway beginning in 2024, when local players established the nonprofit Polson Pickleball Club and started fundraising to expand the existing space, a two-year run of galas and banner sales that finally reached a shovel-in-the-ground moment this month.
Strangers who don’t even play there sent money anyway
Club secretary and treasurer Lauri Sutil said the group held an annual gala and sold advertising banners at the existing courts to local businesses to help fund the expansion. Donations also came in from the Greater Polson Community Foundation and individual supporters, some with no direct connection to the club.
Sutil said the club received gifts from “total strangers that don’t even come here and play and have heard about it and have sent us money.”
Local players did much of the rest themselves. Club member Ron Fricker volunteered his time as the project’s general contractor, and 406 Paving will prep and pave the three new courts, built just north of the existing three. Sutil said the new courts will be slightly wider than the current ones, with dividers in between for “a little more safety and less running around chasing the ball.”
Longtime Polson tennis coach Bob Hislop has offered to paint the asphalt and lines on the new courts once construction is finished. “He’s been a great champion for us,” Sutil said.
A waiting list every summer, and kids joining in too
The existing three courts at O’Malley Park routinely run at full capacity all summer, with 12 people playing across the courts, four per court, and another 12 to 18 waiting for a turn. Sutil said the club has “had a waiting list every year,” and she expects the new courts to ease that strain considerably.
“So next year will be amazing,” she said. “We’ll be able to have all of these courts filled.”
The club’s reach extends beyond its adult membership base. Sutil said the club’s annual pickleball camp in July drew 24 kids, and tourists visiting the Flathead Lake area flock to the courts each summer as well. A separate, fee-based option exists west of town at Eagle Nest RV Park, which has three outdoor courts of its own.
For Sutil, who has played for several years, the appeal goes beyond exercise. “It’s comfortably social,” she said. “Pretty much you can come here and people really want to make you feel welcome.” She added: “We’ll find people to play with you no matter what. That’s kind of been our whole mantra with our club.”
Part of a sport that traces back to a 1965 backyard game
Pickleball began in 1965 as a backyard game for kids, a mix of tennis and table tennis that has grown rapidly over the past three decades, with seniors leading much of the growth because the sport is easy to pick up. Polson’s expansion mirrors a pattern playing out in small towns across the country this year, where local pickleball clubs and park departments are adding courts to keep pace with demand that has outgrown existing facilities built just a few years earlier.
What sets the O’Malley Park project apart is who is paying for it. Rather than a city bond measure or a state grant, the expansion has been funded almost entirely by the players who use the courts and the businesses and neighbors around them, raised gradually over two years of galas, banner sales and individual gifts.
What it means for Polson’s players next spring
Sutil said the new courts should be ready for play by next spring, once temperatures warm enough for the asphalt to be painted. Until then, the existing three courts will keep filling up the way they always have in summer, waiting list and all.
For a club that started as a handful of enthusiasts fundraising with banner sales and a gala, doubling the number of courts at O’Malley Park is a direct answer to a problem plenty of small-town pickleball clubs are facing: more players showing up than there’s room to play. Fricker’s volunteer contracting work and Hislop’s offer to paint the new lines mean the expansion is also, in a literal sense, being built by the same community that will use it, court by court, favor by favor, until next spring’s opening.
—
Sources:
Image: Depositphotos
