Pickleball complex now open in Scottsboro

The Pickleball Complex features six courts total, three on each side, with each court numbered and divided into two sections: courts one through three for more casual play and four through six for competitive play. Pictured are Scottsboro Mayor Jim McCamy (left) and Jim Olyniec (right) at the soft open of the Pickleball Complex on Saturday, Aug. 19.

Jim Olyniec serves to kick off the soft opening of the Scottsboro Pickleball Complex.

On Aug. 19, around 30 people anxiously waited for 7 a.m. to arrive at the new Pickleball complex beside Bynum Complex. At 7 a.m., project lead Jim Olyniec brought out his pickleball paddle, invited three others onto one of the courts and they decided that in lieu of some sort of ribbon cutting, they’d open play by having a first point. After the point concluded, the crowd quickly spread out onto each of the six open courts and the play on the complex officially began.

“The pickleball complex is going to be a great addition to our city. While there are some nice complexes throughout the state, most communities are still playing either on tennis courts or indoors on basketball courts. Scottsboro is ahead of the curve when it comes to a fully dedicated pickleball complex. While play is starting this Saturday, we still have a few projects forthcoming to wrap up the finishing touches on the complex,” Scottsboro City Parks and Recreation Director Donnie Wood said.“We have some amazing local ambassadors who helped expedite this project forward. The parks and recreation department has partnered with them to get paddles out into the community and to find adequate space indoors through the cold winter months and they have been more than willing to help introduce the sport to newcomers each and every week. We look forward to hosting events for our youth and elder community as well as hosting competitive tournaments that will bring players in from across several counties and the broader tri-state area.”

As the play continues, more people show up, all six courts are quickly occupied within the first hour with paddles placed on a rack outside the courts, signaling that players are waiting for a court to open up. Over time, more paddles sit on the rack, with more players waiting to play on the courts, some on the more casual side and others wanting to play on the competitive courts.

“(The court) is first rate. The boundaries are perfect, the fences are perfect, the lighting is perfect, the colors are perfect, that makes a difference. If the colors aren’t right, you can’t pick up the ball so they’re perfect. Everything is good,” Hoyt Harbin said.

Though the pavilion is still yet to be built, with construction expecting to begin in two weeks and completing in about two months, this is a good start for the new complex. At Monday’s city council meeting, Olyniec also reported that play continued throughout the day, with players occupying the courts under the lights on Saturday and Sunday night.

“Saturday night at 9 p.m., five of the courts were full. When I say full, doubles is the game so that’s at least 20 people. Included in that were 10 or 12 teenagers that had some courts just enjoying themselves. Sunday night at 8 p.m., four of the courts were full. Of course, it’s a bit cooler at evening time but the lighting is really helping. When the pavilion gets built, it’ll really help out,” Olyniec said.

Once the pavilion is finished, Olyniec hopes to assist in bringing Pickleball tournaments into Scottsboro and potentially bringing more visitors into the city. Though it’s too early to get any sort of tournaments organized now, when it’s ready, they’ll look for help in organizing it and ensuring that the tournament will be a first-class event. For the time being, the complex will stand as another feather in the cap of Scottsboro’s recreational activities, according to Scottsboro Mayor Jim McCamy.

“It’d be fantastic to have tournaments here. We have room to expand when we need to but it’d be great to have tournaments here,” Scottsboro Mayor Jim McCamy said. “Everybody has been driving a distance, 20, 30 mile and more to play Pickleball on a Pickleball court and we don’t have to do that anymore. We can play here and we can have tournaments here and that’s really exciting. Jim Olyniec has done an incredible job at putting this all together.”

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