The Sun City Pickleball and Tennis clubs have been cordial friends and partners regarding the use of the seven courts at the Tall Oaks Tennis Center for about a decade.
The Tennis Club set up shop at the center in 2000, when Sun City was growing rapidly. Their membership grew to 250 members. Pickleball came along later, and grew more slowly, but its growth is picking up speed in recent years. Pickleball now has 140 members, and added 40 of them in the last year.
The area around the volleyball and horseshoe courts next to Eakin Field has been proposed as a possible location for pickleball courts. (Photo by Chris LaPelusa/Sun Day)
For the last five years, the two clubs have negotiated arrangements allowing pickleball players to use tennis courts at certain times. This requires careful scheduling of activities for each group every year and requires the use of different nets and equipment for pickleball, since it uses a court about a quarter of the size of a tennis court.
Both clubs use the Tall Oaks facilities from May to September. In the fall and winter months, tennis players play at the Centegra facilities on Algonquin Road in Huntley, and pickleball players play at the Huntley Park District’s Cosman Center in Diecke Park.
Now, the dynamics of their membership numbers and growth are changing, and figuring out which sport can use certain courts at designated times has emerged as a larger challenge. The Pickleball Club, responding to a sudden spurt of growth, is seeking permanent (not necessarily exclusive) use of courts 1 and 2 at Tall Oaks in the summer, at times agreeable to the tennis club. Courts 1 and 2 are located immediately north of the tennis center’s parking lot that can be entered from Sun City Boulevard.
The two clubs discussed the proposal starting early last fall, without reaching a final agreement. Later, the Activities/Fitness Committee discussed it.
The topic landed on the board of directors committee of the whole agenda on March 2. At that session, the board tentatively approved the Pickleball Club’s permanent-use request. But the board rescinded that action at its regular meeting on March 16, because the tennis club said it had not signed off on that request.
After an hour’s discussion on March 16, the board and clubs agreed to form an ad hoc committee of pickleball and tennis members, with two or three members from each club participating. They will try to work out an agreeable plan that would take effect in 2017. All activities this coming summer would remain in place. In response to questions from some potential participants, board member Ken Andersen said it will not be necessary for the ad hoc committee to report back to, or seek approval of, the Activities/Fitness Committee.
“They can bring their report directly to the board, and if it’s a joint report of both clubs, we can act on it,” he said.
Russ Howard, current president of the Pickleball Club, and Ken Kalscheur, past president of the Tennis Club, both told the Sun Day that the problem isn’t serious and they are confident that the matter will be resolved soon. Kalscheur also is a member of the Pickleball Club.
“I may have made a mistake in the process of discussing this,” Howard said. “We are just looking to get more playing time, it’s just taking us longer to work out all the details. Our recent growth spurt of 40 new members is driving our effort. I think the board’s ad hoc committee approach is good and we support it. We still have an excellent relationship with the tennis club.”
“We were surprised that the Pickleball Club went to the board because our conversations with them weren’t completed,” Kalscheur said. “We weren’t disagreeing about anything, we just hadn’t reached a point where a final plan was in place.” He served as a spokesman for the tennis group at the meeting because current President Reggie Kennedy is on an extended vacation.
“A lot of our conversation involves deciding who plays on mornings and afternoons on hot days in the summer,” Kalscheur went on. “We believe the Pickleball people may have a bit more flexibility because their sport is not as strenuous as is tennis, and they might be willing to accept afternoon playing times in the summer. We are looking for the pickleball group to demonstrate their numbers and programs to us. We also thought over the winter that the pickleball club might pursue the possibility of building some courts of their own at Eakin Field, which is still a pending possibility for the future.”
Board President Dennis O’Leary said the ad hoc committee approach will use the advisory committee process effectively and bring a proper joint proposal to the board for final action.
