Where can you play pickleball on the MS Coast? New courts are coming in these two cities

The pickleball players kept asking. So Pass Christian and Bay St. Louis decided this year to build new courts for the sport that is growing fast around the country.

“It’s getting huge,” said Pass Christian recreation director Bret Bentz, whose phone has been ringing more and more in recent years as the pickleball craze grows in South Mississippi. “So many people wanted it,” he said. “They’re pumped up.”

The cities are each building two courts and expect to open them this fall. The courts will be the newest of many already in recreation centers across the Coast and will follow more that are coming soon to Biloxi .

Pickleball — a mix of tennis, ping-pong and badminton — is not without problems. In other states, it has also led to lawsuits and neighborhood clashes over the constant pop-pop-pop sound that comes from its courts.

But city leaders say there is no sign of such drama on the Coast.

“The citizens started asking for them,” said Bay St. Louis city councilman Gene Hoffman, whose ward includes the new courts. He has heard no worries from neighbors, he said.

Bay St. Louis

Two public courts will open by the end of October at McDonald Park in Bay St. Louis, Hoffman said. The city eventually wants to create six outdoor pickleball courts in the same area.

Construction started in June.

The city chose to build the courts because of citizens’ requests and a desire to expand recreation, Hoffman said. Bay St. Louis had already drawn pickleball court lines on a local tennis court, Hoffman said, but the plans for McDonald Park will be the first official pickleball courts in the city.

Pass Christian

Pass Christian’s two courts are being built on Second Street across from War Memorial Park. Construction began recently and will take two to three months, Bentz said. The city will also install lights at the courts and hopes to open them this fall.

Over the last three years, many pickleball players started using the neighboring tennis courts, Bentz said.

“It just started catching on,” said Pass Christian senior citizens director Marie Lamb. The city earned a $20,000 AARP grant that went to the pickleball court construction, she said.

Bentz said he hopes to organize pickleball tournaments in the city for all ages. The courts will be first come, first serve.