Good evening/morning/afternoon pickleball players of Catawba County and surrounding areas.  I hope you are all doing well.


I just wanted to update you on a couple items pertaining to pickleball in our area.

- Four brand new pickleball only courts were opened last month at Mountain Creek Park in Sherrills Ford (6554 Little Mountain Road).  Fabulous courts and a beautiful park.  Please check them out when you have the opportunity to do so.

- The four Westside/Jaycee Park pickleball only courts in Newton (605 West J Street) now have permanent nets making them excellent courts (there are lights at this location).  I have been told by a couple people that if it has rained recently you may want to take a blower or a broom to clear the courts of debris.


- The Optimist Park courts are finished and are ready for play.  I know it's been a long time since that project was started, but I think they look fantastic and it will be a blessing to have them open again, now giving us three great places to play within the City of Hickory.  Hopefully this will alleviate some of the incredible overcrowding at Westmont.  40+ players at Westmont was obviously not ideal, but I think it helped show the City of Hickory how unbelievable the growth of pickleball has become in our area! 


- I believe we now have 23 outdoor public pickleball only courts in Catawba County!  That is truly remarkable considering that several years ago I think we only had 4 pickleball courts!!!

- In regards to the Westmont courts, as most of you know, there is a muddy area at the entrance to the Westmont courts after it rains.  I had a wonderful lady talk to me last week saying that she would gladly purchase some stepping stones for that area if someone would install them.  I reached out to Mark Seaman to see if it would be fine if we took care of this problem.  Because of liability concerns, the city preferred to handle the installation of the stones themselves.  After a couple conversations with Mark, he said that Public Works was concerned about some other 'problems' that stepping stones might create.  So Mark is going to go to Westmont and take a look at the area to see what options may be available to take care of the mud issue.  He mentioned the possibility of Public Works creating a new sidewalk from the sidewalk at the road down to the entrance to the courts.  I think that would be fantastic, but what they end up doing has not been decided yet and it will definitely not happen immediately (they have a large number of items on their plate).  But I have made the city aware of the problem and they are planning to fix it! 

- The City of Hickory is still aware that at some point we would really love to have wind screens and lights at the Westmont Pickleball Facility.  And obviously more courts! 😁


For some unknown reason, about three and a half weeks ago I was contacted by OS1st and asked to fill out an application to become a Brand Ambassador for their company. Last week I officially became a Brand Ambassador and Team OS1st Member for the OS1st company ( www.OS1st.com ).  

If you're not familiar with OS1st, and don't want to take the time to click on the link to check out their website, they are a company that specializes in Performance Socks as well as Compression Wear.  They are an Official Sponsor of the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA), the Official Sock and Compression Bracing Partner of USA Pickleball, have their headquarters in Hickory, and create products specifically for pickleball players...although athletes of all types use their products.  I invite you to click on the link above and check out their entire line of products which includes Socks (comfort, pickleball, wellness, plantar fasciitis, bunion relief, travel, etc) and Compression Sleeves (ankles, arms, calves, knee, elbow, patella, wrist).  

I've tried several of the items you will see on their website (performance knee sleeve, adjustable knee sleeve, calf sleeves, plantar fasciitis socks, wellness performance socks, travel socks, and pickleball socks) and in my opinion they are by far the best products on the market!  Once my "Welcome to Team OS1st" package arrives I'll be trying many more of their products as well. So if you have any questions on specific items please don't hesitate to message me!  A few of their products are available locally at Fleet Feet (although I talked to the owner a couple days ago and was told they are low on inventory right now but plan to order more soon), while Pickleball Central also carries a limited selection of their items online.  And obviously you can order any product from their entire line at their own website (given above)!  I love the fact that they are creating products specifically for pickleball players and I'm extremely excited to represent OS1st!


I think that is all for the updates this time around.  Thank you for all your work to help the pickleball community of our area grow so rapidly...I absolutely love seeing all the players who have become part of our pickleball family!!!  

I hope everyone is having an incredible Summer and you are getting to play a lot of pickleball!

I look forward to seeing you on the courts soon!