Coshocton’s new pickleball courts draw crowds at Kids America

Six new pickleball courts outside Kids America are already drawing steady play, giving Coshocton players a bigger place to get on court and adding to the four existing courts at the recreation complex. The new surface is not sitting idle after the ribbon cutting on June 26, either, with the Coshocton Pickleball Club and other local players using the space right away.

The project came together over several years, beginning in 2023. The City of Coshocton contributed $15,000, the Coshocton Pickleball Club raised $62,000, and another $250,000 came through Community Development Block Grant Flex Funding via the Coshocton County Commissioners. Eric Exley, a retired engineer and club member, helped design the six-court addition, which was built to complement the four courts already on the Kids America campus.

That extra room matters because the demand is already there. Kathy Bryan, the club president, said the Coshocton Pickleball Club has 60 members and about 200 additional players who travel to Coshocton regularly. That traffic does more than fill the courts, she said in effect, because it also feeds local business activity around the facility. The club has become a landing spot for more than just a single group of regulars, and the new courts give that traffic a dedicated home.

Kids America already leans hard into pickleball. The center offers clinics, league play, open play and private lessons, and its outdoor courts are reserved for open play Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Mike Gottwalt, another club member, said the new courts play well and compared Coshocton favorably with places he has played around the country.

The project’s social side showed up in the stories around the club as well. Cathie Akins, one of the four founding members, said club members brought her meals after she broke her leg three months earlier, a reminder that the club has operated as a support network as much as a playing group. With six new courts now active at Kids America, Coshocton has turned a funding campaign that started in 2023 into a permanent-looking piece of local pickleball infrastructure.