Pickleball isn't just the fastest growing sport in the nation, it's also the fastest growing sport in the N. GA and Western NC region.

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1 Pickleball isn't just the fastest growing sport in the nation, it's also the fastest growing sport in the N. GA and Western NC region. This all began in the Spring of 2013 when two Hayesville, NC residents, Desna and Harry Jarrett, who wintered in Arizona and, while there, learned the sport of Pickleball. When they returned to their Hayesville home in the Spring of that year there was no Pickleball anywhere in the region and, in fact, no one had even heard of the sport. To make a long story short, they petitioned the Clay County, NC Recreation Center Director and received permission to put Gorilla tape on the existing tennis court which were the Pickleball court lines. They announced the new sport in the local newspaper and put up flyers at numerous locations. The first Pickleball game was on and 7 players showed up on that first day. They continued on, many new players were attracted, and they eventually got the Rec. Center to put permanent lines on the courts for Pickleball. During the Winter of Towns County, GA was building a new Recreation Center and they agreed to put permanent lines on the two basketball courts for 4 indoor Pickleball courts. That jump-started the Pickleball wave and many new players were introduced to the sport, myself included. In February, 2014 we had about players that were playing, some of them part-time, some who spent the Winters in warmer climates and some who were yearround residents in N. GA. At that time we had the 4

2 Pickleball courts reserved from 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This schedule was often interrupted by basketball camps, games, and other activities. The group of players didn't have cohesion or much communication and I saw a need to organize, not a formal organization, but a communication network of some kind. I began to send out the weekly schedules to all the players via and included any other pertinent Pickleballrelated news of interest. I further realized that the USAPA (USA Pickleball Association) had information available to their Ambassadors that the regular membership wasn't privy to. In order to avail this information to the benefit of our players I applied for an Ambassadorship and was accepted. During this period I was working with the County Commissioner on the combined tennis/pickleball complex that was planned for the new Rec. Center. I also petitioned the Georgia Mountain Fair for permission to repair their two tennis courts which were in an advanced state of disrepair and use them for Pickleball. They agreed to this and we formed a work crew and cleaned the surface, repaired the cracks, and re-painted the courts. We used Gorilla tape for the court lines. This gave us 4 outdoor Pickleball courts which was the only outdoor venue in the county for Pickleball. It was less than ideal, but, it was the only place we had.

3 Later in this same period we sought permission from the county to do the same repairs to an abandoned 4 tennis court complex on Lake Chatuge. They agreed and we formed another work detail and cleaned the courts, dug out all the grass and weeds from the numerous cracks and had them ready for the crack repairing process when the county, with good intentions, brought in their road crew and filled all the cracks with road tar, such as they do with actual road cracks/repairs. This, in effect, ruined the courts since the tar couldn't be removed or covered, nor could it be used as is, if you can imagine what the condition of the tar would be like on a hot Summer day. In early Summer of 2015, one of our members contacted Signature Tennis, a professional tennis court contractor, and they told us they could remove the tar, fill the cracks and repaint the surface, but, they wouldn't guarantee the results and even told us the cracks would probably reappear in a short period of time. They gave the county a proposal to do this, we convened a meeting with our Commissioner and brought in the Georgia District USAPA Ambassador to help us "pitch" this project. The Commissioner agreed and signed the proposal. When the tennis contractor came out and tried to remove the tar from all these cracks, they quickly discovered that it wasn't going to be as easy as they had envisioned. They,

4 then, backed off and told us we would have to wait until the weather was cool enough to more easily remove the tar. We had a major Pickleball tournament planned for September 18th and 19th, 2015 and the delay was going to all but doom those plans. Our Commissioner, in his infinite wisdom, was negotiating a deal with Signature Tennis to do a complete makeover which entailed applying a new 6" compacted rock base, 3" of asphalt with 2 sealer coats, 2 coats of paint and lines for 14 Pickleball courts. The deal was accepted by both parties and put on the calendar to be completed by tournament time. The Commissioner tasked us to re-paint the chain link fence around the complex, which was 216' X 120' and 10' high. We researched the fence project, came up with a suitable product to do this, and formed a work crew and, in three days had put two coats of high quality paint on both sides of the fence. All the posts and cross members were sprayed while the links were rolled with paint rollers. To better gauge the scope of this project, if you strung out this fence in a single line twice (for the two coats on both sides) it would be the equivalent of a fence 1/2 mile in length. The contractors got to work in early September and had the project completed the day before the tournament was to begin. We held the tournament as planned and it was highly successful.

5 This Pickleball complex is now a real showpiece with all brand new courts with permanent nets and Chamber of Commerce views of the lake and mountains in the area. There isn't anything that can compare with this anywhere in the Southeastern United States. We are the envy of the Pickleball world with this amazing new Pickleball venue. We have a significant Facebook presence with hundreds of contacts (Pickleball clubs, players, tournament organizers, etc.) around the country and we're getting comments and inquiries from as far away as California. In fact, The Pickleball Channel (which is to Pickleball as the Food Network is to cooking) called me and want to come here with their producer and film crew and do a story on our active Pickleball community and our new complex. They heard about us through the social media network and told me everywhere they go people are talking about this amazing complex of ours, and, they're based in Southern California! It has been my dream and desire to make our county a real Pickleball destination from the very beginning. We've had a lot of ups and downs (this is very understated!) in this journey, but, it was all worth it and we now have a world class complex that people can come and visit and play to their heart's content. There are a lot of other major attractions in the area such as boating and water sports,

6 hiking (the AT goes right through our county), numerous sight-seeing opportunities, cabins to rent, B & B's, etc. Since my appointment as USAPA Ambassador, we have grown from players to 317 as of this writing. We have a very vibrant Pickleball community with a lot of determined and dedicated individuals who were instrumental in making all this happen. We also have a number of very good players who have brought back many medals from various tournaments in the Southeast. Two of our players are the reigning men's double state champions in the Open division. We also have the reigning mixed doubles state champions. We've already had numbers of players come and see and play on these courts from the surrounding area and adjoining states. This is just the beginning for Pickleball in Hiawassee, GA. We have two major tournaments on the calendar for next year and will have several other smaller ones for the benefit of various charities. We also conduct free classes for beginners and intermediate players and welcome people in the community to come out and learn about this amazing sport. Pickleball is alive and well in Hiawassee!